Status Report: Book Blogger Buddy System Matchmaking in Progress!

Sign-ups for the initial round of Book Blogger Buddy System matchmaking closed on October 12, and there was a terrific response--almost 50 people are willing to take the plunge! That may not sound huge, but considering that I'm doing all the matching by myself, it's a nice number--big enough to be gratified by the level of interest, but still at a level where just one person can manage it!

That said, I had no time to manage it for the first week after sign-ups closed! I'm at work on it now, though. Here's a little status report, with my apologies for the delay.

To me, the most interesting thing about the book bloggers who've signed up so far is that over half classified themselves as "elders" who have been blogging for at least four years, and almost half of that group expressed a preference for a buddy with a similar level of experience. Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised by that, though, because I'm pretty much in the same place--still liking it enough to want to keep going, but wanting to build up the sense of connection that keeps it worth doing. It will present a few interesting challenges, though...not the least of which is that I know of some of the existing blogger friendships among this particular subgroup, and I'll have to balance that with trying to make new connections between them.

The #BBBSys Connection Form asked participants about their matching preferences in three areas: level of blogging experience, book interests/blogging content, and tech/blogging platform used. Although I will make my best effort to sync up all three preferences, my plan is to apply those preferences in that order. If all goes well, I'll hit more marks than I miss--wish me luck!

It's my goal to have e-mails out to all participants by the end of October, giving them the names, e-mail addresses, and blogs of their new buddies (and that includes one poor unfortunate who'll end up being matched with me!). Once those go out, I'll ask participants to do these things:

• Contact your buddy via e-mail within 3-5 days to make introductions and start a discussion about what each of you want from this (chances are that it'll fall through the cracks if it's not done fairly soon). 
• Start reading one another's blogs, if you don't already, and follow each other on social media.
• Please remember that you've been asked to maintain this buddy match-up for six months.

There really aren't any other "rules" for this. Once the match-ups are made, I'll be stepping out of the equation (except with my own Buddy, of course), and each set of Buddies will determine for themselves how they want the arrangement to work.

If you signed up for the Book Blogger Buddy System, please watch your inbox during the next week for your match information! And if you missed the initial round, the plan is to open it up again next spring, so watch for that announcement in April...unless this whole thing goes down in flames, of course! (Fingers crossed that it won't.)

Thanks to The Estella Society for supporting this project!

Participants are under no obligation to blog about their membership or experiences in the Book Blogger Buddy System, but if you choose to do so, please feel free to use this photo emblem in your posts and/or add it to your blog's sidebar!