At BEA Bloggers: The "Ad Networks" Panel, Storified

I moderated the "Technology 201: Ad Networks" Panel at last week's BEA Bloggers Conference, and while I've provided a fairly detailed recap of it at Armchair BEA, I wanted to share some of the highlights--and the responses--to it here, with a little help from Storify.

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Throwback Thursday: Beyond the (Armchair BEA Agenda) Borders

I'm going "beyond the borders" a bit and deviating from the 2014 Armchair BEA agenda by revisiting a post that was part of the very first Armchair BEA in 2010. I've edited and updated a little, but for the most part, I feel the same way now as I did then.

Writing what you want to read, in your own voice

The session titled "Engaging Your Readers: Take Your Writing to the Next Level" at this year's BEA Bloggers Conference particularly interests me. I've been at this for over three seven years, I want to keep stretching and developing my writing muscles, and I want this to be an interesting place to visit.

Along those lines, Jeanne of Necromancy Never Pays asked a pertinent question during my (third) Blogiversary in March (2010):

Here's my blogiversary question: what would you like to see more bloggers doing, and why? 

I'd really like to see bloggers express more of themselves on their blogs. Unless they stipulate that the only reason for their blog's existence is to review books or products, it's disappointing to me to see a post only when they're reviewing something they've received just for that purpose--especially when the review doesn't tell me much I couldn't read on the book jacket or in the ad copy. It's also disappointing to me to see content primarily driven by the Meme of the Day. I don't necessarily mean that the blogger needs to share a lot of personal information; I know that quite a few book bloggers, in particular, choose to be more reserved with that, and that's fine. But one of the most important reasons I'll decide to follow a blog is the voice of its writer (emphasis added); if I don't get a good feel that the writer has a voice of her or his own, I probably won't hang around for long.

To me, that's what content-building comes down to--developing a blog that sounds like you. It could come out in certain turns of phrase you particularly like to use. It might show in a unique recurring feature that you create, or in the way you tweak a meme into something more self-expressive. It may be apparent in the format you use for your reviews--or the fact that you don't follow a format at all. It may reveal itself in the little bits of your life and personality that slip into posts that you don't consider especially "personal," or it may speak up in the life experiences you choose to post about every now and then.

I am primarily a book blogger, but not exclusively a book blogger. I don't read fast enough to post reviews more often than once a week, and some weeks I can't even pull that off. I'm also a fairly wordy reviewer, and I like to discuss the books I read in some detail, but I don't always discuss the same details. Sometimes it's the writing itself that will get most of my attention. Sometimes it's one or two of the characters and my reaction to them. Sometimes it's the theme or setting or some element of the plot. I try to mix the objective--this is what happens--and subjective--this is how it affected me--in my comments about the book, and I'll try to explain why I responded to the book the way I did. I do rate books, but I give the rating at the end of each review; my goal is for the content of the review to be supported by the rating, and not the other way around.

I've been doing this long enough that most memes have just lost their appeal for me--and if I'm skipping others' meme posts, I probably don't need to be writing my own. Besides, I just don't have enough time to blog-hop and read other responses, and that's part of joining a meme, in my opinion.  I do think memes can be very good for newer bloggers, both as food for thought and posts and as a way to network with other blogs, but it is possible to over-rely on them; it's also possible to outgrow them.

It is possible to keep a focus on bookish content even without frequent reviews and meme posts, though. Do you find yourself reading two or three books in a row that share some themes or story elements? Compare-and-contrast posts can be a lot of fun. You can do features on books you loved in your pre-blog days, or books you're hoping to read soon, without linking them to an established meme on a specific day of the week. Posts about author events and book-related field trips are entertaining. 

Write what you'd like to read. Granted, you may really like reading daily memes and review after review, but if you don't get a sense of the person behind them, chances are your interest will wane before too long--I can tell you for certain that mine does, and that's one reason I vary my content. You don't have to share personal details if you're uncomfortable with that, but any blog that's not corporate in some respect is, by definition, "personal," and it's nice to get to know the person behind the writing.

Your blog is your place to speak your own words, in your own voice.

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More Than Words: Audiobooks for Armchair BEA

More Than Just Words ("Genre" Topic, ArmchairBEA Day 2)

"There are so many mediums that feature more than just words and enhance a story in a multitude of ways. Examples may include graphic novels and comics, audiobooks, or even multimedia novels. On this day, we will be talking about those books and formats that move beyond just the words and use other ways to experience a story. Which books stand out to you in these different formats?"

Despite the fact that I’ve had an eighty-mile round-trip daily commute for over a decade—in Los Angeles, where it can sometimes take over two hours to cover that distance—I’ve come to believe that the main reason I didn’t embrace audiobooks until three years ago is that I didn’t want to carry around dozens of CDs just to read a book. I got my first iPhone in the spring of 2011, and not long after that, I downloaded the Audible app and signed up for a subscription.

I have not regretted it in the slightest. Adding audiobooks to my reading diet has been beneficial in so many ways:

• During weeks when I don’t have much time to sit and read print or e-books, I can still manage a few hours of reading by ear, and so…
• Audiobooks allow me to feel productive while I’m sitting in traffic.
• Also, long books feel much less intimidating on audio, since I’d be spending all those hours in the car anyway.
• Because absorbing audio reading requires more conscious effort for me than visual reading does, I find I read more attentively when I’m listening to a book, which often means I remember it better.
• Because of the need to pay more attention, I’ve found that narrative nonfiction works surprisingly well for me in audio format.
• Audiobooks have become my preferred way to indulge in my favorite guilty-pleasure reading, celebrity autobiography/memoir. And while not all authors are the best narrators of their own work, actors and other performing-arts types tend to be pretty effective at it.

#488326499 / gettyimages.com

I tend to rely on the opinions of fellow bloggers more when choosing audiobooks than for any other type of reading, for a few reasons:

• I’ve found I’m more open to exploring genres, particularly mystery and science fiction, in audio than I am in print, and I look to other bloggers for guidance to these less-familiar styles.
• On the other hand, I tend not to seek out literary fiction in audio unless it’s received good word-of-mouth from bloggers I trust—or I’m really in a hurry to read it, because I can get to, and through, an audiobook faster than a print copy. But when neither of those is a factor, I still prefer taking in non-genre fiction with my eyes rather than my ears.
• I’m still getting to know narrators, and am interested in learning which readers other bloggers like.

I label all of my audiobook reviews here on The 3 R’s Blog, and I’d like to highlight a few of my favorites here:

• Bossypants, by Tina Fey—My very first audiobook!
• Just Kids, by Patti Smith
• Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography, by Rob Lowe
• Rules of Civility: A Novel, by Amor Towles, read by Rebecca Lowman—My first experience with a narrator who has become one of my own favorites
• Where’s You Go, Bernadette? A Novel, by Maria Semple, read by Kathlee Wilhoite—This epistolary/multimedia novel shouldn’t even workas an audiobook, but it does, and remarkably well
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Original Trilogy), by Douglas Adams, read by Stephen Fry and Martin Freeman
• Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, by Sheri Fink, read by Kirsten Potter—Exhibit A of narrative nonfiction succeeding in audio
• Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, read by Rebecca Lowman–could be my favorite audio of 2014

Are you an audiobook reader? What works for you in reading by ear–and what doesn’t?

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Good Day, and Welcome to Armchair BEA!

It's Day One of the fifth annual observance of Armchair BEA! This virtual companion to Book Expo America is getting the jump on the real thing this year, but that gives us all a little more time to hang out and get to know each other. Here are my answers to five of this year's Introduction questions.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging? Where in the world are you blogging from?

My name is Florinda, and I’ve been blogging here at The 3 R’s: Reading, ’Riting and Randomness—-The 3 R’s Blog for short—-since March 2007. I’d never been diligent about keeping records of what I’d read, but having been a reader for nearly four decades at that point, I was starting to forget too much of what I read, and I felt a need to do something about that. I’d been reading blogs for a year or two at that point, and it seemed like a blog of my own might be a good solution. It seems to have worked out well.

In addition to being a blogger, I’m the second wife of my second husband, mother of one, and stepmother of two. After several cross-country moves, I’ve been in Southern California for over a decade; I blog from the Los Angeles area, where I live and work as an accountant (which is why I almost never blog about my work–who wants to blog about accounting?) However, this week I’ll be blogging from New York City, where I’m attending Book Expo America…but as a founding member of Armchair BEA, I’m joining the virtual fun as well!

Describe your blog in just one sentence. Then, list your social details – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. – so we can connect more online.

This blog has a tagline that follows the “Reading, ’Riting, and Randomness” subtitle: “It’s not just a title, it’s a mission statement.” I’m not sure I can sum this up any better than that, which works in tandem with my basic credo/philosophy of blogging: “There’s no one right way to do this.”

If you’d like to get a feel for what The 3 R’s are all about, I’d recommend a visit to my “Posts About Posts” page, where you’ll find my annual wrap-ups and other collections of links to what I’ve written here (and occasionally elsewhere). In addition, my Book Review Archive spreadsheet has been updated just in time for Armchair BEA!

My most-frequented other online haunts are Twitter (@florinda_3rs), Facebook (personal and blog), and Instagram (florinda3rs).

What was your favorite book read last year? What’s your favorite book so far this year?

I had four “Books of the Year” for 2013, but if I have to single out just one of them, it would be Sheri Fink’s remarkable account of post-Katrina New Orleans, Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital.

2014 is shaping up as a pretty good reading year, based on the ratings I’ve assigned on my BookLikes shelf, but when I’ve been able to read alot of books I’ve really liked, I have a lot of trouble choosing one I like best. At this point, I’d pick the most recent novel by one of my favorite people, Going Over by Beth Kephart.

What does your favorite/ideal reading space look like?

I’m lucky. I actually have my ideal reading space, which I showcased during the Spring Readathon last month.

What is your favorite blogging resource?

It may be because I was a reader of blogs before I became a blogger, but in all seriousness, my favorite blogging resource is—bloggers! I use my Feedly to find and follow them; I get ideas for content and design from the things I see them do; and I love to communicate and converse with them, which is why I’m doing both Book Expo and Armchair BEA this week.

Thanks for coming by, and I hope you’ll let me know you did!

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The Armchair BEA 2014 Recruitment Post

One of my proudest achievements as a book blogger is being part of the founding team of Armchair BEA, the virtual companion event to Book Expo America and the BEA Bloggers Conference, and seeing how it's grown and developed from its grassroots beginnings in a Twitter conversation in the weeks before BEA 2010.

But the bittersweet flip side to success is the amount of work required to sustain it. In order to sustain Armchair BEA into its fifth year and beyond, the team needs more hands and new ideas--we hope you'll consider giving us yours. 

The following is cross-posted with permission from Armchair BEA Central. There's a link to click at the end if you're interested in filling a role on the 2014 team. This year's event may have to be scaled back if we don't get as much help as we need.

Book Expo America 2014 is quickly approaching (May 29-31 to be exact), which means that Armchair BEA planning is currently underway. As our team has converged once again this year, we have come to discover that life is chaotic and sometimes takes precedence over our online lives. Many of our team members are stepping down this year or taking a step back from the event by serving in mentor roles*. If Armchair BEA 2014 is going to take place, we need new team members!

Five years ago, Armchair BEA started out as a small event thrown together by a team of bloggers that were not able to attend Book Expo America. Over the next four years, the event has grown to include hundreds of bloggers participating and hundreds of giveaways thanks to our amazing sponsors. It has been a very exciting four years, and we want to see the excitement continue.

This year will be the fifth annual Armchair BEA and we need your help to pull this event off. Here is a breakdown of what a full team would require, with job descriptions and the ideal number of people to fill each role:

• Sponsor Chair & Team (2-3): Solicit sponsors and coordinate list of prizes; works closely with Prize Team. 
• Participant Coordinator (1): Create and maintain registration document; post list of participants on the site. 
• Prize Team (2-3): Work with the Sponsor Team to assign and award daily prizes and special giveaways; draw winners and announce on site. 
• Agenda Coordinator (1): Daily Topics, Guest Articles, Special Announcements 
• Instagram Challenge Coordinator (1): Set daily themes, draw daily winners and send to Prize Team for announcement. 
• Social Media Coordinator (1-2): Maintain Twitter and Facebook accounts, answering questions and interacting with participants; organize Twitter parties; work with Prize Team for Twitter party giveaways. 
• Commenting Committee (2-3): Solicit commenting volunteers/cheerleaders; oversee commenting throughout the week of the event; draw commenting volunteers for daily giveaways (pass on to Prize Team). 
• International Committee (2-3): Must be outside of the US to bring in an international perspective - can include the assistance of finding international sponsors, writing guest articles to appear the week of the event, etc. 
• On-site Correspondents (2-3)--team members attending Book Expo America: Interact with sponsors and post special sponsors as needed; take pictures/video throughout the event and post on a daily basis; blogger interaction.

If you are interested in joining the team, please complete this form by February 15, 2014. We will be in contact with you shortly afterwards to discuss opportunities with you.

*Armchair BEA's founders, myself included, are all serving as "mentors" this year as we bring new members onto the event team.

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The Right Thing To Do: On Blogger Ethics

I want to revisit something from my “blogger development” Armchair BEA post:

THERE’S NO ONE RIGHT WAY TO DO THIS.

My best blogging advice is “Read a lot of other blogs.” You’ll see what you like and what you don’t, and as you learn what inspires you, you’ll figure out how those inspirations can shape your own blogging.

I really have come to believe, after more than six years and 1900 posts, that there isn’t one “right” way to blog. However, I also firmly believe that there are “right things TO DO” as a blogger. This blog has worn a Blog With Integrity badge for nearly four years, and shortly after I added it, I posted some of my thoughts about what that means to me:

“On a different scale and at a more specialized level, the book-blogging community has been debating some of (these) issues--disclosure, transparency, compensation, recognition, responsibility--for quite a while. (Edited to add: And we still are. Appropriately. It’s an evolving environment, and that requires this to be an ongoing conversation.) 

"...While we may not all blog about the same topics, we are facing some of the same issues and challenges no matter where we focus. Blog with Integrity is one response to that. It's a response to the marketers and PR people who ask us to post their press releases and plug their products (Edited to add: Books are products too!) as if they're doing us a favor. It's a response to those who send out one-size-fits-all pitches that don't reflect any acquaintance with the blog and its writer. It's a response to the bloggers who cheerily accept those pitches and products and do those favors, without necessarily acknowledging their source, because they want the products and the compensation and the attention--and who have complicated the game for bloggers who don't want to play it that way.”

I think that if you’re going to review books on your blog, having a posted, clearly expressed review policy is essential...even if your policy is that you don’t accept books from publishers or authors. and only review books you buy or borrow from the library. And if you do accept books for review, you need to be aware of the (also-evolving) FTC disclosure guidelines...and follow them. These practices address some of the more concrete concerns of book blogging, but things get fuzzier when it comes to the more creative side of things.

I believe what I said earlier about being inspired by what we see other bloggers are doing. That said, inspiration and plagiarism and very different things.

My general stance is that if you tweak an idea you’ve seen elsewhere and make it your own, it’s courteous to give credit--via a link, at the very least--to the blog and/or post that started you on that path. If you substantially quote or copy someone else’s work, setting off the quotes and attributing to the original in both link and text are critical. My own policy is to make every effort to link and credit when I post something inspired by, or expanding on, something I encountered on another blog. In some cases, the blog linked may not be the primary source of the material, but I do try to make sure I give credit to the place I found it. (If you ever find that I have quoted you without proper link or attribution, please e-mail me at 3.rsblog AT Gmail DOT com with your link and any necessary correction. I would appreciate not being called out publicly, in comments, for honest errors of that sort, but I will edit the post and acknowledge the revision.)

When it comes to most matters of ethics, I feel that even the most complex codes of policies and procedures are underpinned by a pretty fundamental idea: Do Unto Others As You Would Have Others Do Unto You. Be fair, be honest, be reliable...and hope that those you deal with do the same.

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Many Paths, But No One Right One: On Blogger Development

Because yesterday was my Wordless Wednesday Link-up, I didn’t talk about Armchair BEA’s Day 2 discussion topic, “Development,” then. But since I won’t be talking about the Day 3 topic, “Giveaways,” at all, I’m taking the opportunity to backtrack:

“Day 2 we talk about how we develop ourselves as bloggers.  Have you branched out into your community? Do you partner with other bloggers?  Have you gone "pro" or begun supplementing your income through your blog?  Are you a long-term blogger, and how has your online personality developed over the years?”

I’ve been doing this since 2007. If I never changed up the way I do it, I doubt I’d have stuck with it this long! Granted, some things have changed more than others. The basic format of my Book Talk review posts has stayed pretty constant for quite awhile, and I haven’t made any major changes in the look of the blog for nearly four years. (That said, I did make a change a week or two ago; after almost five years, I left the BlogHer Publishing Network to join the Riot Ad Network.)  However, my posting frequency has varied from daily to “almost daily” to “three times a week if I can manage it” and back again; I’ve introduced, and dropped, recurring features; and at times the content has skewed so much more toward the “randomness” than the “reading” and “‘riting” that I’ve had mixed feelings about even identifying as a book blogger.

The biggest thing that helps me keep hold of that identity is the community of book bloggers, and the opportunities I’ve had as part of that community. I’ve teamed up with other bloggers on several projects over the years (including organizing Armchair BEA), and I’ve had the great luck to meet quite a few bloggers in person, both locally in Southern California and in New York City at BEA 2011 and 2011. (And in some cases there’s been overlap.) Face-to-face connection has cemented some friendships born online, and helped to sustain a connection even when the common bond of blogging has faded. The composition of the community changes as bloggers come and go, but the concept of it endures.  

I’ve always hoped that blogging would help me grow in new directions--and I believe it has--but sometimes it seems that growth as a blogger and growth of the blog don’t line up perfectly. In my first few years, I tried to follow much of the popular advice for growing a blog--recommendations about content, posting, promotion, and all that. I think I learned a lot of value from that, but it took me much too long to understand that advice aimed mostly at “professional” bloggers might not always fit the approach of “hobbyist” bloggers--and I’ve had to accept that my life’s not in a place right now where this really can be anything other than a hobby (although it has led to a little side job). That understanding leads to another one, which may the most important lesson of all:

THERE’S NO ONE RIGHT WAY TO DO THIS.

My best blogging advice is “Read a lot of other blogs.” You’ll see what you like and what you don’t, and as you learn what inspires you, you’ll figure out how those inspirations can shape your own blogging. And sometimes, stepping back for a bit ends up being the best way to move forward.

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Armchair BEA Is Underway!

Armchair BEA 2013 is officially underway! It's the fourth time around for this popular annual event, and the first time I'll be able to go (mostly) all in on the festivities since 2010. We're starting off by going around the virtual table and introducing ourselves today, as we choose five of the official Introduction Questions to answer.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?

I answered some of these very same questions for a profile at Book Bloggers International last month. I've been blogging in this very space since March 2007, and I started because I'd never developed the habit of keeping a reading journal; doing so online seemed like it might be easier than writing things down by hand in notebooks. As it happens, I discovered pretty quickly that I wanted to "journal" about many other things besides books--but they're still the primary reason I keep doing this, and am closing in on 2000 posts here.

Have you previously participated in Armchair BEA? What brought you back for another year? If you have not previously participated, what drew you to the event?

I am pleased to have been present for the "birth" of Armchair BEA during a Twitter conversation in the early spring of 2010, and am part of the original founding team for this event. I was less of an active participant in 2011 and 2012 because I attended the real BEA, but I've continued to help with the preparations and behind-the-scenes coordination each year, and I'm glad I'll be able to join in this year's activities more fully!

What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2013?

I have about three or four books in various states of completion right now: one audio, one ARC, one paperback, and a couple of ebooks. The only good news is that none of them has a review deadline (the ARC did, but I got my dates mixed up and missed it, so now I'm just working on finishing it for myself). My reading year started out well, but the last couple of months have been...well, let's say challenging (and not in the "reading challenge" sense). I've dialed back my "required" reading--a freelance review gig, an online book club, and blog tours--till after vacation next month, and then I really hope I can get back on track!

What is your favorite part about the book blogging community?

I have gotten to know people whom I feel have become real friends. My only real regret about not being in New York City this week is that I'm missing the only opportunity I get to see some of them in the "real world." But online or off-, I love the support, the camaraderie, and the knowledge that you can almost always find someone to join you in a project, no matter how nutty it might be!

Is there anything that you would like to see change in the coming years?

I'm seeing an interesting change lately, particularly among bloggers who've been around for close to as long as I have; there seems to be much more selective, considered approach to being part of the publishing-industry marketing apparatus. Much of the "FREE BOOKS!" review-copy excitement appears to have faded, and some bloggers have taken--or taken back--an "I'm doing this for myself" attitude. Personally, I'm trying to find a mix that works for me; I suspect I'm not the only one who's working on that, and I'm curious to see where it all goes.

If you're stopping by today for Armchair BEA, I'm glad you did--please say hello!

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