Join us in Discussing the Manifesto, comment and be entered to win a pass to the Authors and Book Bloggers Online Conference this October!

THE BOOK BLOGGER MANIFESTO

The purpose of the Blogger Manifesto is to help authors understand what bloggers need to help writers share information about their books with our readers.  We need to co-operate to be effective at what we do together online to bring great books to the attention of readers.

This document is broken down into three parts:

• Initial Review/Guest Post Requests
• Media Pages
• Author/Blogger Responsibilities

Initial Review and Guest Post Requests

Before sending any requests please do the following:

• Read the blogger’s guidelines – usually posted on the Blog under Review Policy, Review Guidelines or About Me
• Please be aware that bloggers have personal preferences – respect them – There is no benefit to being reviewed by someone who does not enjoy your genre. They are unlikely to have blog readers interested in that genre either.
• Please submit your request ahead of time – some bloggers are committed for months ahead.  Requests can reasonably be made 2 months before your preferred posting date or the book release.
  • If you are not able to provide the book this early that is not an issue. You are then reserving a spot in the authors reading queue.

Please include as many of the following as are relevant

• Salutation (hey is informal, Dear Sir or Madam is not personal enough – this letter should be fairly formal – Hello Name – Dear Mr/Ms – Dear Name )
• What you are requesting (Review, Guest Post, Interview)
• Details of the Book (Title – Author – Publisher – Genre – Release Date – Length)
• Length of Book – Can affect Reviewer’s decision
• Format Available (Print, PDF, Netgalley or other service)
• Is this Stand Alone or part of a Continuing Series – if the title is in a series the following information is important.
  • If you are requesting a review for a book in a series what is the title’s number, Book 3, 4, 12?
  • State whether the other books in the series are available for review – Note: many reviewers do not read books out of order
  • Are you requesting reviews on the whole series if the books are available.
  • Names and links to more information on all titles in the series
• The Blurb and Link to an Excerpt
• Minimum Two Links for further Information (Author Site, Publisher, if available to Amazon, B&N, etc) – These should be direct links to the title not Amazon.com
• Approximate Date Range when you would like to post. (If you have an opening in Dec. that would be ideal, but any time – if you do not give them that opening they may assume Dec. is the only month you want and say no if they are booked.)
• Closing – Name – Position (Author, Publicist, etc.) – Contact Information.

Might Consider

• Making blogger aware of other Pen Names
• Adding an excerpt into the body of the email under your name and contact info at the bottom to entice reviewers/bloggers

Please do Not

• Automatically Attach the Book – this is not a good practice
  • Bloggers may have email accounts shared with others like reviewers or blog partners. Having your book sit attached to an email is not secure.

Guest Blogging

• Do not wait till the day of the post to provide the material.
  • Anything less than 48hrs. unless otherwise discussed is rushed.
• Do not expect ALL Bloggers to operate their sites in the same way
  • There are new bloggers, bloggers that review, others do not.
  • We also have different approaches. Blogging is a personal experience – expression and there is no right or wrong way to blog.

Media Page

Bloggers have to respect the copyright rules regulating release of materials.
As an author if you want bloggers to use certain Materials and not others that needs to be made clear.

• Ex: Excerpts from your book.
• Author Bios
• Author Photos

The easiest way to keep this clear and understandable is to create a Media Page and state that all materials on that page can be used without worry of Copyright Infringement.  Find below a list of things to be contained on this Media Page.

• Author Bio  - Short (three to five sentences) and a longer option two paragraphs and up.
• Author Photo
• Book Covers – If possible linking to a High Resolution Image gives bloggers the ability to resize the cover to their preference. This can be a link to a Photobucket account so as not to interfere with the loading speed of your site
• Buy Links for each Title (Include every site you want used)
• A Link to an Excerpt for each Title – Bloggers and readers love reading excerpts and that link can be included in a post so offer it to us!
• Please consider posting several excerpts that can be chosen from with clear indications that they can be used if you are allowing us to repost.
• All Social Media links- allowing us to include these in posts and encourage the growth of an authors followers there.
• If you prefer to be contacted by another email or social media than the email listed on your contact page let us know.  For example, Twitter DMs.

Author Responsibilities

It is the author’s responsibility to make the best of a requested review post or other visit to a blog.  This can be done in many ways:

• Send everything the blogger could want for their post – especially if you do not have a media page.
  • This cuts down on the time spent emailing back and forth to organize.
• Consider sending guest posts in one file with everything laid out as you would like it to appear.
  • This helps the blogger give you everything precisely as you envisioned it.
• The blogger may or may not search out all your links pertaining to you and the title – if you want a link included please make sure to inform the blogger and provide the link.
• Please provide as much guidance as possible and if you would like some just ask we are happy to help

What Authors can do to Help?

• Promote this event on all your social media points – encourage your readers to visit blogs where you are being featured
• Visit the blog and comment – respond to any comments that appear – the people who comment are your future readers and they get excited to hear from the author!
• Thank you can go a long way towards building an ongoing relationship with a blogger.

Finally, please remember that Book Bloggers are, for the most part, unpaid.  They have a blog as a hobby.  They do this because they love reading, and want to share their love of reading and books with others.  We want to foster an environment of mutual respect for each other’s time.

We as bloggers ask for your patience as we will try to offer the same. We have all been new at one point. For authors this is your career – professional  presence online and we want you to get the most out of working with us.

Thank You for your time in going through this.
I hope you find it helpful and that this gives you further insight into the opportunity offered by bloggers and how to take full advantage.

Terry Kate
Book Bloggers and Publishers Online Conference 2011
Paco Media Group

Made with the input of the 2011 Conference Attendees  - All statements here are made on my own behalf and are not a reflection on the belief of all attendees.

***  We love books and authors in general or we would not do this. We also recognize that Bloggers and Authors are individuals and bad experiences can happen online. The goal here is to walk through the issues that have lead to misunderstanding in the past.

JOIN US: The Authors and Book Bloggers Online Conference – October 2011 and the Book Bloggers and Publishers Online Conference  March 2012.