Grab the Logo!
Welcome to the Book Blogger Hop!
Are you a book blogger? Are you a reader? Then welcome to the place where all of us connect over the weekend and chat about books!
Background on the Hop
In March of 2010, in response to what I thought was a void in the book blogging community, I started the Book Blogger Hop. I loved all of the #FF (Friday Follow) tweets on Twitter, where everyone spreads love to their favorite people in order to help them gain new followers. So I thought to myself – “How cool would it be to have something like that where fellow book bloggers could come and find new book blogs to follow, find new books to read, and gain more exposure for our blogs?” This CRAZY idea became the Book Blogger Hop!
The Book Blogger Hop is much more than just a “follow for a follow”. It’s about making connections. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of book bloggers around the world. It can seem like we are blogging in a bubble, always checking out the same blogs over and over again. The Hop is about taking the time to make a quality visit to another blog, getting to know the person who is writing, and seeing if you really *want* to follow that person! I am not a big fan of blindly following other blogs just to increase your follower numbers, because who is to say that the people will come back? Just because they are “following” you doesn’t mean they’re reading your blog. How many times have you “dumped” the messages in your Google Reader account due to the daunting number of messages there are, many from blogs you “had” to follow (in order to participate in a hop, giveaway, etc). I’d much rather have a lower “follower” count and know that these people are following me because they WANT to follow me, not because they HAVE to. I like the knowledge that I’m connecting with people on more than just a “have to” level.
With that said, let’s get some of the nitty-gritty out of the way. You may be asking – what exactly IS a book blogger? Here’s MY take: Do you have a blog? Do you blog about books/authors? Do you write book reviews on your blog? Do you rave about books and authors on your blog? Is your blog content primarily about books? Then you are most likely considered a book blogger!
How it Works
As long as you meet the qualifications of a book blogger, you may add your book blog link into the linky list below. But before you do that, there are a few requirements. Read up, to save yourself a headache with the linky! 
1. Before you add your link, you must post about the Hop on your blog and link directly back to THIS POST (not just my domain, but the direct post for this Hop). The linky is going to review the link that you enter in your submission, looking for a link to this post on your blog. If it doesn’t find one, your link will not be approved. This is called back linking and I had to institute it because people were taking advantage of the Hop and getting some free advertising without promoting the Hop themselves. You can read more about this here.
2. While you are creating your post, answer the following question (there’s a new prompt each week)!
“As a book blogger, how do you introduce yourself in your profile?”
My Answer: Love this question! I think our profiles are one of the most important pieces of our blogs, so it’s vital to really look at how you are presenting yourself to authors, publishers, publicists, and other media interests who may want to pitch a book to you! We all love to read (or else we wouldn’t have book blogs), so I think that’s an obvious statement. My profile is a bit long, but I explain where my love for particular genres comes from and why I choose to read certain books over others. I don’t give my life story, but I give enough information for people to get a sense for who I am and if their book would be a good fit for me and my blog. What about you? What information do you include in your profile? What is necessary and what is just extraneous? Would love all of your opinions!!
3. Now it’s time to enter your blog link into the linky below (after the list of instructions!).
Instructions:
- Click on: You are next – Click here to enter
- A new page will open
- In the “Link Title/Blog Title” box, please enter the NAME OF YOUR BLOG and in parentheses after your blog name, please state the main genre that you review (i.e. Crazy-for-Books (contemp. fiction))
- In the “Link” box, please put a direct link to your blog hop post
(i.e. http://crazy-for-books.com/2011/09/book-blogger-hop-916-919.html) - There is a note about the Back Link requirement. Please make sure you have linked back to this blog hop post in the post on your blog or your link will not be accepted! Be sure to read this important note!
- Please enter your e-mail address in the box provided in case I need to contact you about your link submission.
- The list is randomized, so your link will not appear in a specified order. If you are looking for your link, I suggest you do a Ctrl-F on your PC keyboard and type a few letters of your blog name so you can find it easily.
That’s it! Now you can start hopping around, visiting other links in the list, meeting fellow bloggers and chatting about their blogs and books they are reading. If you aren’t a blogger, this is a great opportunity for readers to find new sites to follow and meet some new friends who enjoy reading the same things that they do! I strongly encourage you to take some time to visit these blogs and spend some time with your blog friends. We all work hard on our sites and we enjoy getting company, so let’s read more than just the blog hop post – let’s connect! That’s what the Hop was created for! Happy Hopping!
It would appear I have miss spelled my own blog name! how embarrasing, that should read Amy @ Following The Reader
My answer – First I like to explain to people who and where we are and explain about our bookstore, that nicely follows onto our passion for books and why we love them so much especially older books. x
I loved this question and loved answering it!!
My Friday Hops
Great question! When I go to someone’s blog, I almost always read their profile – I like to know what kind of books they enjoy, if they have any other interesting hobbies, and I love when they add little personal tidbits about their lives – after all, it’s nice to know the blogger behind the blog is a real person!
Have a great weekend!
My intro is very spare; I figure that many authors and publicists will go by the content of my actual blog rather than my profile. I probably need to add something about the genres I prefer, but I’m determined to revamp my blog, so that will be a part of it.
Very short bio explaining my love of books.
I’m so excited to be back doing the Hop!
I recently changed my profile to reflect the fact I’m almost done with library school. Please come and read my new introduction.
I had to look up my profile to see what I had posted. Apparently it`s a brief intro to me, a story about when I started reading, and a little bit about what I like to read. Good question!