Adventures in blogging world! (For a new blogger)

It's been barely three months since I've started my small, homely blog. Since I've started, I've had the pleasure of interacting with many readers, bloggers and reviewers like me but just like every good blogger I'm always searching for more information. The how's and who's and why's...

Like how do we get in touch with authors and publishers for ARC's? And who's the best person to turn to for advice on blogging? And why do some bloggers choose to be mean or overly critiscizing? There are so many questions out there that many of us are still trying to find out for ourselves and being a new blogger there seems to be alot more questions then answers. At this time...

If you're new to this world like me you might have some questions too. The first thing i asked myself when i started my blog is "How and the hell do i do this??" I found this article very helpful. When i first started my blog i felt like a naked camper thrown into the wilderness with no sense of direction or purpose-all i knew is i wanted to share with people my love for books. I started off with a few reviews and little sections about authors, then i joined in on some weekly memes and commented other blogs. Once i got a bit of content to my blogs name, i sent out mass emails to fellow book reviewers telling them about my blog and asking them to put me on their blog roll just to get my name out. It all proceeded very slowly from there, working hard to get alot of reviews on my blog and entering contest and reading more then I've ever read before! Starting a blog is no walk in the park people and most of us bloggers already know that!

Another question is "ARC etiquette?". Books are expensive and really, I'm just a teenager doing what i love which is reading, so how do i turn something i love into a blog without breaking my or my parent's bank? I am VERY shy and i hate asking for help. I also hate asking my parents for money for books (since i don't have a job because school is my number one right now) so i decided to get a library card (which was not as easy as it sounds due to city buses and old fees!) I had a steady flow of books coming in every week but then i read about ARC's and i thought "hey this is a good way to interact with authors and get my hands on some new books! I'm very new too this whole asking thing so i needed some help on what to do and not do. This post at Presenting Lenore helped me alot in that area. ***But let me tell you right now!*** Do not get into the blogging biz or ask authors for books with the wrong intentions because then you are just abusing your rights as a reader and blogger and taking advantage of authors and publishers- come on guys! Always be respectful of the person you are getting the book from and do not ask for a book that you have no intention of reviewing!

Which takes me to the last topic today-Manners. Why is it that this generation lacks so much in this area? We already get a bad enough rep for texting to much and foul languge... so why give them a chance to criticize us so harshly!? The Story Siren recently posted a great article about "The Dark Side of Blogging." I, personally have not had any nasty experiences with readers of my blogs of this calliber and for that im gratefull but as a fellow blogger i am deeply disturbed by the things that some one like her had to take. As i stated before blogging is not an easy job alot of us work really hard to have the little amount of success that we have. For some of us blogging is like our little babies and who on earth would pratically spit on someone else's baby just because they're maybe jealous or plain ol' mean hearted? So i ask all bloggers out there- please have consideration for others' feelings and do not spit on our babies!

Well taking all of that and summarzing it into a little paragraph- blogging is hard and there are plenty of places where you can get help, ARC's are not "free books" but publicity for authors and your chance to give your honest and sincere opinion and mean bloggers are not good bloggers!

For now im OUT!

Love,
Christina