YA Book Blogs discussion

Here, post your magical secrets to getting more followers, a secret that I need to be let in because my blog following is practically non-existent and I don know why. Someone please help!!!

I only have about 250 followers total, so my following isn't crazy high either, but I started gaining more followers consistently when I started doing author interviews and giveaways! I don't know if you'd be interested in doing those types of things on your blog but let me know if you would like more information or help!

Yes, please! I'm mostly working all the time so tips and tricks would surely be welcomed!

...250 is a heck of a lot in my opinion. I’ve been running my blog for about a month and a half now and I have 18. I think part of the reason is that I don’t have social media and my parents won’t let me get any. But also my posts like the pictures weren’t very good. Hopefully my next few posts will look better as I’ve been able to get some websites for better visuals but I don’t know how much that will help. I am also doing author interviews but don’t have many yet—that is, exactly one and I’m getting a second probably sometime next week. How do you do book giveaways? And is there a way to do them without giving away your address or anything?

There are a lot of bloggers who will give you a look if you visit them. I found a great group of bloggers I love chatting with, and it all started by visiting their blogs many years ago.

Phoenix - I do my giveaways via Rafflecopter. For international giveaways, I do a book of choice from Book Depository, since it's free shipping.

Phoenix (she/her) wrote: "...250 is a heck of a lot in my opinion. I’ve been running my blog for about a month and a half now and I have 18. I think part of the reason is that I don’t have social media and my parents won’t ..."

Not having social media does make things a little bit harder, but don't lose hope! It took me a little while to get to where I am too. I spent a long time feeling like I was just sending out content into a giant abyss.

To get books to giveaway, I usually post a Goodreads thread about it, and authors will contact me if they are interested (and usually lots of authors are! It's a great way to get the word out about their books) I only giveaway electronic copies of books, and I am never in contact with the winner of the giveaway except to let them know that they've won.

To do all this, I use a website called Rafflecopter, which just needs your email. Setting up the giveaway is very simple and the process is explained pretty clearly on the website (but again I'll hep if you need it :))

You set a time for your giveaway to run, and at the end of the giveaway, Rafflecopter randomly chooses the winner for you.

Personally, what I do from here is email the winner to let them know that they've won, and then I email the author the email of the winner, so they can send the book/prize directly to them. When you are setting up a giveaway, I'm pretty certain there's a section for writing your own terms and conditions, in there, I always make sure to state that I do NOT claim any responsibility if the author does not send the prize, just to save my own butt. But it has never been a problem for me, just a lil warning for you.

This ended up really long-winded, I'm sorry about making you read so much, let me know if there's anything else you would like to know about and I'll try my best to help :)

Ooh that actually is really smart and makes a lot of sense. Wow thank you! I’ll have to check out rafflecopter, it seems really useful. I really appreciate you guys!!!

Phoenix (she/her) wrote: "Ooh that actually is really smart and makes a lot of sense. Wow thank you! I’ll have to check out rafflecopter, it seems really useful. I really appreciate you guys!!!"

You're welcome! I wasn't sure if I was being clear or just rambling but I'm glad you were able to get something from that haha

@samantha, just asking would you mind introducing yourself?

Nope you were clear!

Y’all use the follow train! It may not be useful for people with many followers but for people who don’t have many like en and I, it can be pretty useful I think.

Phoenix (she/her) wrote: "@samantha, just asking would you mind introducing yourself?"

I am Samantha. I blog at We Live and Breathe Books, which has been around since 2013.

Samantha (WLABB) wrote: "Phoenix (she/her) wrote: "@samantha, just asking would you mind introducing yourself?"

I am Samantha. I blog at We Live and Breathe Books, which has been around since 2013."

Thank you! Umm, not to bug but would you mind....putting it over on the intro topic?

For those who do book giveaways--where would you post the goodreads thread? And what sort of books do you usually do giveaways for? Like are they self-published books or do you get traditionally published books as well?

For anyone who doesn't have many followers--when I say 'doesn't have many' I mean like my level 'doesn't have many'. Like fifty or less followers--I'd be willing to put your blog in the 'blogs I suggest' category in my blog....I understand that I only have 18 followers and yeah it's probably not gonna do anything but who knows, maybe I'll get blog famous.
Ha ha ha ha I'm so good at telling jokes. Anyway I am offering this if you want but just warning you it's prob not gonna help.

Phoenix (she/her) wrote: "For those who do book giveaways--where would you post the goodreads thread? And what sort of books do you usually do giveaways for? Like are they self-published books or do you get traditionally pu..."

I usually have to sift around Goodreads groups until I find one that's active. It's a little tedious to post threads everywhere but it's worth it in the long run. I've done traditionally published books as well as self published, and have had lots of people enter each :)

Sibella wrote: "Phoenix (she/her) wrote: "For those who do book giveaways--where would you post the goodreads thread? And what sort of books do you usually do giveaways for? Like are they self-published books or d..."

Okay, good to know! Ummm, do you have any suggestions for what to look for or any groups you sometimes use? I could also just...email authors ha ha I love to do that but it may be sorta difficult to find one that's perfect. Like, not too popular because then they prob won't respond/want to do it but maybe not too unpopular either because then people may not want to enter....

I know that this is, like, a tiny thing, but I've reached 20 followers...I think I'm weirdly happy about that. There's only 20 people. Anyways, I mean, two people followed because of my reading challenge. Not many but whatever. I got two more people to follow. Unfortunately it seems like right now only me and like two more people are actually doing the reading challenge, sadly enough.

Okay so I just PMed an author asking if they'd do a book giveaway with me....but like it's my first one so I was still kinda confused.
So basically. They'd offer to give away a book, I'd advertise it on my blog and then the winner gets in contact with the author? And the author sends them the book? Is it usually an e-copy or an actual one?
Sorry for so many questions....

You can try and get on some blog tours too. Those are great, because you only have to do the post and the organizers/publishers take care of notifying the winner and sending out the books.

Hmm interesting. I've heard of blog tours but never really looked into them. I may try that. However--do they require social media or anything? Because that's one thing that I don't, unfortunately, have.

PS Samantha did you see the two comments I put on your blog? The challenge page. Neither have been approved yet.

Phoenix - hmmm, I don't see any unapproved comments on my dashboard. I will go right to the post. I don't know if the tour companies require social media, since it is a blog tour.

Huh. Weird, I definitely wrote two comments, one two days ago and one this morning. Well anyways I was just asking if you and your fellow bloggers would like to participate in the first reading challenge that I've put up on my blog. I don't have many participants yet (by which I mean like two total) and I'm afraid it will be a dud so I was just wondering if you'd join. It's super low-key, you don't have to participate in all the weeks and stuff. Here's the link to more info on that: https://yabookswithwings.wordpress.co...

Okay maybe I will try to do a blog tour. Would you send me links to a few places where I could get started? Sorry to hassle.

@Phoenix, one great one is MTMC Tours, but I think they require social media (maybe double check it?). Another one would be the Favourite Pages Club, but they don't have any open tour sign-ups right now.

I have worked with Expresso https://xpressobooktours.com/. They do a mix of big press/indie, YA/MG/Adult books. I have also hosted for Rockstar book tours http://www.rockstarbooktours.com/

Aaah rafflecopter is confusing! For anyone who has done giveaways with it....what do you click for the, "people can enter by" section?

thank you for the tips, Sibella and Sam. I might try doing a giveaway sometime if I can find an author who will do it.

I have two followers now! 🎉

omg yay!! good job pheonix and sunny!! i joined wordpress around 3-4 months ago, and i'm at 130 followers!! i've found it super helpful to blog-hop a lot, and comment and like a ton of people's posts!! i've also just applied for a spot on a book tour at TBR and beyond tours, hopefully it'll get accepted!!

@Phoenix... i don't have social media accounts either, and honestly at times i really feel like i'm missing out (especially with everything happening on twitter), but i've also found that you don't really need social media, if you keep interacting with people on their blogs, and maybe even goodreads sometimes!!

for my blog design, my blog was a complete mess earlier, and all the graphics (including the header) were pictures from pinterest!! although the pictures were aesthetic, the blog really wasn't my own, and it didn't really encompass who i was as a person - also trust me there was room for improvement in the layout as well. i started using canva, and a lot of other great free resources (i'll link some) for icons, and making featured images!!

it also helps to have a fixed colour scheme, or an identity to your blog so that it's memorable and people want to visit again!! you should also make sure when you comment on people's post, the link to your blog is working, or they might not be able to visit it!!

LINK TO TBR AND BEYOND TOURS: https://tbrandbeyondtours.com/

you can find some free resources i used in the "about the blog" section of my blog: https://windowstoworlds.wordpress.com...

oops, i feel like i was rambling ;-;
hope this was helpful x

thank you, ahaana! just a question--how did you add the copyright note at the footer of your blog?

i added a text widget and then wrote a copyright statement similar to one i've seen on other blogs :)

thank you so much! i was wondering how bloggers did that. i'm planning to completely rename and redesign my blog so this helps!

katie wrote: "thank you so much! i was wondering how bloggers did that. i'm planning to completely rename and redesign my blog so this helps!"

OMG!! SDFSKJDHSDH I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE GORGEOUSNESS THAT AWAITS ME ❤❤

katie wrote: "thank you so much! i was wondering how bloggers did that. i'm planning to completely rename and redesign my blog so this helps!"

AAAH NO I HAVE TO GO THROUGH SEEING A NEW BLOG FOR YOU AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

ahaana ☆ wrote: "omg yay!! good job pheonix and sunny!! i joined wordpress around 3-4 months ago, and i'm at 130 followers!! i've found it super helpful to blog-hop a lot, and comment and like a ton of people's pos..."

Thank you so much for this! Yeah, my blog is pretty much a mess right now because all the featured images look terrible but if you look at the featured image for my 2020 Book Tag I think I'm going to use that design for the rest of my featured images because I think it looks pretty cool?
Yeah, I've found that blog hopping helps a lot....

ahaana ☆ wrote: "katie wrote: "thank you so much! i was wondering how bloggers did that. i'm planning to completely rename and redesign my blog so this helps!"

OMG!! SDFSKJDHSDH I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE GORGEOUSNESS T..."

ahh ahaana 😭😭❤️

also ahaana, i'm so sorry, but how did you have the see 'older posts' button at the bottom of the page? did it just come with your theme? because mine is like an infinite scroll and it's so annoying.

I think that that one came with my theme (I'm pretty sure I at least used to have that button)

I'm at 12 followers!!! *Squeals*

One thing I've found useful is to stick around after blog hopping. Like maybe follow them back? I try and follow people who follow my blog, (for right now at least) as a sort of thank you? The more I interact, the more their followers are me, the more exposure. Plus, I could get tagged and then their readers will check me out of they want to see my answers. Or I could tag them and then they'll possibly mention me. I dunno. This is probably not helpful because I think I have the least amount of followers here so I don't know what I'm doing right now. XD

Yeah, I do that sometimes...well I don't follow everyone who I blog hop because I do like to have a reasonable amount of followers (though I followed like 4 or 5 people over break) but yeah if I really like their blog and what they post, I'll follow them.
Or if I'm friends with them.
BUT if I don't follow your blog it's probably because I just followed a bunch of other people and don't wanna add more (ahaana, I'm pretty sure I didn't follow you...and I love your blog...and I should follow you...and I'll do that once I get on my wordpress account. If I remember)

I do if I like their content, but then again I read super fast and like having new blog posts or webtoon episodes to read and get bored of I don't have any... So maybe my personality just liked doing that.
I dunno.
I'm weird. XD
But you followed my blog, you were actually the first one to!

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay I was your first!

Yeah, that's true I get bored sometimes and just wanna read people's blog posts.

Yesterday I managed to have two different convos on two different blogs with two different people about Six of Crows

:D

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! That's... Impressive... Your social skills... Eeep!

Ha ha ha I mean....I dunno, I just talk to people. It's crazy how hard some people find it. I enjoy talking to people.

Excuse me while I go find a asylum...
(This was meant as a joke, I am not actually insane.)

No no no I understand that some people just don't like speaking to people! I have a friend exactly like that. It's just weird for me, since I'm not like that at all. But everyone's different.

katie wrote: "ahaana ☆ wrote: "katie wrote: "thank you so much! i was wondering how bloggers did that. i'm planning to completely rename and redesign my blog so this helps!"

OMG!! SDFSKJDHSDH I CAN'T WAIT FOR T..."


i think it came with my theme, because i didn't add it...
maybe try visiting your site from another persons device, so instead of seeing something you can edit, you can see what other people can see