ArmchairBEA DAY: 4 Fostering Relationships

  

Today's post is about strengthening our relationships with Publishers, Authors and other bloggers. I would say I cover all of these through one thing: TWITTER. I first discovered twitter through a mention of it by Joe Hill one of my favorite authors. After joining I found a multitude of Authors, Publishing Houses and fellow Bloggers.

There are so many great opportunities for connecting with Authors through Social Media:

In January while suggesting  author Lisa McMann to "drop" one  of her copies of Cryer's Cross in my tote bag at ALA midwinter, she sent me a DM and got me an invite to the Simon & Schuster lluncheon where  I got to hear her talk and get a tote filled with goodies and her book !

Author's Gwen Hayes and Anne Aguirre recently put the call out to Bloggers to contact them to review a short story and  the Novel of a colleague that they wanted to promote. I was able to snag copies of both.

Author T.C. McCarthy saw my review of his short story on Goodreads and emailed me to offer an ARC of his new novel Germline.

A bit of warning though about connecting on social media with authors. I had a book from a debut author who I immediately began to follow on twitter. I really liked her and we talked back and forth  for awhile and I mentioned I had her book. Unfortunately I didn't care for her book at all! It made it really awkward afterwards. I still gave the book my honest review and I still chat with her occasionally.

So now I form online relationships with authors whose work I know I love and with debut authors after I read the book :)

REVIEW COPIES

It's been a little over a year since Ive been blogging and I'm just now reaching out directly to publishers for ARC's. Events like ALA, San Diego Comic-Con and Netgalley have been wonderful resources for Arc's. Also getting a separate email for my blog and a professional makeover really upped my visibility. I get a steady amount of Review requests but just recently I've been stricter in the books I accept.

I'm also working on contacting publishers directly to positive response. Review books can be a double edged sword. Though I would love to get a lot of the books I see my fellow bloggers receive week after week I like the current number of books that are coming to me.I really do want to connect with more of my favorite publishers like Penguin and I'm very grateful to get the monthly Galley Grab from Simon & Schuster for books that are downloaded to my nook.

BLOGGERS

I really like connecting with my fellow bloggers I always am inspired by what they re reading and what  events they are hosting. I visit every commenter that replies on a post, except for contests with really high entries. I also visit bloggers through my weekly memes. I also join a lot of events and I'm a readathon addict!

Looking forward to see what tips everyone else has to say today. Happy Reading!