Top Ten Tuesday: Top Tips for New Book Bloggers

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.

1. Don't start a book blog with visions of free copies falling into your outstretched arms. You may be lucky and get some - but to start off with, at least, you need to rein in your expectations.

2. Review honestly but be polite. Bear in mind the author is a real person who, even if you hated their book, is unlikely to have tried to write something bad. Similarly, don't get involved in public rows with authors. This is thankfully rare, but I have seen a couple. No one comes out of it looking good!

3. Proof-read your reviews, preferably at least twice. I'm learnt this the hard way after going back to see old reviews and realise people must have read them and wondered exactly how, for example, a cellar in the Great Gatsby could be 'well-anned'. (It was actually well-fanned, in case you were curious.)

4. Comment on lots of blogs and take part in memes! It's a fab way to meet other bloggers.

5. Try to find something that makes your blog stand out. I review books but I'm trying to focus on interviews more, both with authors and other bloggers.

6. Following on from that, don't be afraid to ask authors about doing features. I'm continually amazed by how many authors are happy to take time out of their busy day to do an e-mail interview or write a guest post. (I've got about a 90% success rate in asking for interviews, with just a few very polite rejections in there.)

7. Join Twitter and follow as many book bloggers and authors who you like as you can. It's a great way to keep track of news and blog updates, as well as being huge fun.

8. Schedule posts. When you get a chance, write a bunch of posts in advance and schedule them, spreading them out over a few weeks. It takes a lot of the pressure of when it comes to updating.

9. On that note, try and update reasonably regularly. It certainly doesn't have to be daily or anything, but if you just post once every 3 or 4 weeks (as I did during a spell last year when I wasn't reading much) people start to wonder whether your blog's still around.

10. Finally, the most important one - HAVE FUN! Being a book blogger is great, enjoy it!