Armchair Book Expo Day 1: Introductions & Best Practices in the Online Community

Posted May 31, 2017 by Melissa in Uncategorized / 7 Comments

Hi everyone! Today is day ONE in Armchair Book Expo! This fun event brings together all the amazingness that is Book Expo to the comfort of your home. It starts today and ends on Sunday, June 3rd,  and we have such a fun schedule full of great prompts, special guest posts on the site, Twitter parties, and lots of giveaways sponsored by amazing authors & publishers. Click HERE to see the full schedule and be sure not to miss this event! I will be hosting a Twitter party tomorrow @ 12 PM EST about Diversity and I would love to have you join. Join in using #ArmchairBookExpo 🙂

Anywhoo, today’s prompts are all about introductions and the best practices in the bookish community. Check it out 😀

Introductions (about me):
  1. I am a book blogger & bookstagrammer from Mexico! This is my blog, but I’m also the Instagram Manager for YA Books Central.
  2. Currently working on a novel with my friend Becky from The Life of a Book Nerd Addict. I’m also 
  3. I love reading about book princes and royalty in YA Fantasy.
  4. My favorite book is Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen.
  5. My least favorite book might be Allegiant by Veronica Roth for being so disappointing.
  6. My current read read is The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich. It’s a good read although it is taking me quite some time to finish it!
  7. My summer plans include reading, bookstagramning, binging series on Netflix, and possibly traveling.
  8. My best buddy is my sister, the chef of this site. Also Becky! ♥
  9. My blog was created 3.5 years ago! However, I’ve been part of the book blogging community for 5 years now. 
  10. The best fandom out there will always by Harry Potter. ♥
Best Practices in the Online Book Community:
Here’s what has made my life much easier as a book blogger & what I suggest you also do!
Keep a planner. Write in all the important blog posts such as tour stops, reviews, and blitzes in a planner, It is SO HELPFUL and it somehow makes you more organized. I used to not keep one and I would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, remembering I had to post something the next morning. Not fun.
Draft blog tour posts as soon as possible. If you are participating in a book tour, I highly suggest that when you get the material for you post, draft it and have it ready, even if you have yet to read the book and write your review (or write up something else). It’s much easier at the end of the day when you have everything good to go!

Set a day in the week for cross-posting your reviews. This is something I heard from a fellow book blogger and it is truly a great tip! Dedicate one day to specifically cross-post all of your reviews on Goodreads, Amazon, and any other site. Reviews are super important for authors and they will greatly appreciate it, but this will also help keep you up to date with your posts.

Have a list of ARCs/review books. I keep an Excel sheet of all the ARCs and review copies I own with all of their info, including release date. That way I know which books I need to give priority too, and also where I should post my review (I also review on YA Books Central). I just started writing them down in my planner to have the list on hand as well.
Schedule tweets: Use Tweetdeck or Buffer to schedule tweets about your blog posts! This comes in handy when I’m busy the following day and I don’t want to forget to promote on social media. You can also use these two sites to post on Facebook.
Create a template for your blog graphics. Blog graphics can take a lot of time to do from scratch, but if you design one that can be easily changed to fit your blog posts, then you’ll see how it’ll make your life a lot easier. I use Canva and I love how easy (and FREE) it is to use.
And that’s pretty much it. This is what I follow for my blog and I seem to have a much easier time now than how I used to do it a couple of years ago. Basically, organization is key and not that hard to do. 🙂

Related Posts

7 responses to “Armchair Book Expo Day 1: Introductions & Best Practices in the Online Community”

  1. Stacy Millican

    I love your tip about setting aside one day/week to cross-post reviews! I'm definitely incorporating that one this year – thanks so much! And you're absolutely right – organization is key! Happy Armchair Book Expo!

  3. pussreboots

    I use Pixelmator for my graphics, as well as my own photographs. I don't have to track ARCs any more because I gave up on accepting them in 2015. I have posts scheduled out for about six months but I still post them manually every day.

    Two posts: Introduction and Best Practices

  4. Jordan @ForeverLostinLiterature

    All of your tips are so spot-on! I actually do just about every one of these, though it took some time before I finally realized the need for more organization – I've definitely had some of those late-night 'oh crap, I have to post something!' moments myself. I've been looking around for a new way to do some blog graphics, so I will definitely be checking out Canva, thanks for recommending it! I look forward to seeing more for Armchair Book Expo 🙂

  5. Jenna @ Falling Letters

    Great tips! Some of these I do; some are new to me. I like the one about setting a day aside to cross-post reviews. I try to cross-post a day or two after I publish a review on my blog, but I think just doing a week's worth at once would simplify things and ensure I don't forget to do it ^^;