Sharing the Love: Book Blogger Appreciation. #BookBloggers #BookBlogger #Bloggers #Blogger #BloggersMatter #WeLoveBloggers

Recently there was a general uproar on SM after a publisher (I’m not naming them but most of you will know who it was) bad-mouthed book bloggers and questioned the point of them unless they have influence and reach.

Silly and wrong! We have arms and legs so obviously, we have reach! Granted, not the same reach as Hulk Hogan and his 24-inch pythons brother (every post needs a WWE reference well, it was WWF when Hulkamania was running wild). But reach nonetheless and technically, even if only one person reads a blog post it has reached someone.

For influence. Well, we aren’t cult leaders (I doubt that The Cult of Drew would get many followers) so we don’t need to influence people! But again, even if only one person reads a review on a book blog and decides that they want to read the book then we have still influenced someone!

Really, the publisher might just as well straight out have said that small blogs and bloggers are insignificant and their views irrelevant as that seemed the implication!

The attack wasn’t personal against any singular blogger and it was instead, a general assumption/attack against all bloggers. Now, there are many blogs and bloggers out there, many, many, many, many. Most, like me only have a small reach and no influence and it’s only a few amongst the masses that could be classed as actually having any ‘significant‘ influence and reach.

Speaking (well, writing, it’s a blog after all) as one of those small bloggers this attack seemed unwarranted to me and totally unfair as our influence and reach shouldn’t really matter. Yes, a bigger reach and influence means that more people will be reached by the blogger, their blog and their blog posts and reviews but when we give up both our free and our spare time to have a book blog what does it matter if we are only small?!

Simply put, it doesn’t matter if we are big or small as we don’t see that in each other and our blogs. No, we just see fellow book lovers. We stand together as a community, united and we have each others back. Hate on one, hate on us all. The proof is in this post. Personally, I’m not really part of the blogging community. I’m on the outside, the outskirts, a wanderer and a lone wolf but I have taken it upon myself to come up with this post to show that bloggers are appreciated. That shows the spirit of the book blogger community.

For blog tours, the blogs taking part will either be big, small, old or new and some will also have a large reach, but! You don’t look at any single blog. No, you look at the tour as a whole. The various different blogs and bloggers each with their own distinct personality who all bring their own view and something different to the table and the various posts (guest post, book excerpt, author interview or review) that they host. It is a combined effort by all the bloggers included with the focus on what it can achieve for the author and their book. And, really, a blog tour isn’t about the bloggers anyway. It’s about promoting the author and their book.

Some bloggers aspire to greatness and want to be huge (and that’s fine) but for most of us, blogging is a hobby and we are quite happy to be small. A time-consuming hobby but a hobby nonetheless and something that we do because we enjoy it. Regardless of our blog size, we blog because we want to, because we love reading and because we want to share our love of books.

In a sentence:

“We don’t blog for free books, we blog because we love books”.

Mentioning free books. I mean, yawn and get some new arguments! We don’t blog for ‘free‘ books so let’s quit with that BS right now shall we, OK? Thanks. Books cost anywhere between £0.99 and £20 and sure, many of us do get books to review or for review consideration but to say that they are ‘free‘. No, blogging is a hobby but a blog takes time and effort! The hours spent reading the book, note taking (if you do it), writing the review, drafting up the review and posting, sharing on SM and cross-posting the review to Amazon and Goodreads, reading and sharing other bloggers blog posts and reviews too, replying to comments and maintaining your own blog. Yeah, free books, I think not and let’s not forget. Most of us don’t charge for reviews or make money from blogging so the only real ‘free‘ thing is our free time that we freely give up because we want to!

Luckily, the view of that particular publisher is in the minority and no-one (that I’ve seen) seems to agree with them. Honestly, blogger bashing itself often happens (the bloggers aren’t real readers nonsense BS that appears. Seriously, we blog because we are readers and because we love books) but the outpouring of support and love for book bloggers and what we do has been overwhelmingly positive. Which, let’s face it is no real surprise as we are awesome!

Saying that, however, I know that what the publisher wrote made a few people question their blogs and that being small if they should even have a blog. Which, even if we remove the nobody from the equation is something lots of us struggle with at one time or another anyway. Self-doubt is a burden many of us carry, I know I do. Questioning our blogs, the quality of our reviews, if anyone cares about our views and to feel that way sucks but people do care. And, this post will hopefully show any doubters of themselves and their blogs that they are appreciated and are part of a wonderful bookish community.

Due to this, I thought that I’d write a post. Usually, I’d spew forth a sarcastic and foul-mouthed rant that was laden with euphemisms whilst still making valid points. For once, though, I decided to go down a different route. Instead of my ranting, I thought it would be a cool idea to collate a post. Getting together a selection of authors, publishers and publicists to contribute to a blog post sharing their positive views on book bloggers.

Yes, this goes against my evil and bad influence blogging demeanour but hey, it’s good to be bad but every once in a while it’s good to be nice (cringing that I wrote that and I’m slightly scared) too.

Like The New Day (another WWE reference just for good measure) we are basking in the power of positivity. Turning something negative into a positive and shining a light on bloggers. Showing through a variety of unanimous views that we are valued and well-thought of!

I’ve rambled on enough (I guess that I did have a mini-rant after all too but hey, I had things that I wanted to write and it’s my blog, my rules. Though I have been good, kept the post clean and abstained from using any sentence enhancers) and this is a long post.

So, please, settle back with your favourite tipple and enjoy as I pass you over to all of those who were kind enough to contribute. Showing their love for and appreciation of book bloggers and proving that we do matter.

The Contributions.

Here’s my contribution: “You folks rock, and without you, we’d be screwed.” – Kealan Patrick Burke Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Turtle Boy, Kin and Sour Candy.

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As an independently published author, I am so appreciative of the book loving bloggers who review and share my book, Lady Beth. They really do make a difference, and as I don’t have a publisher behind me for marketing the novel, supportive, and impartial, bloggers have a huge impact. I have great respect for all they do. – Caroline E. Farrell author of Lady Beth.

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Hi there, I’m Angelique Russell, the other half of Matt Russell’s publishing operation (and his wife). Sharing my pro-blogger thoughts, sorry they’re so verbose but if you’re keeping a tally the TL;DR is ‘indie authors love book bloggers.’

Millennials and younger are crowd-sourcing their reading recommendations. Goodreads, Amazon reviews, Reddit, Instagram, YouTube, and of course book blogs are all common sources that are overtaking word-of-mouth and bookstore browsing. Few readers go on a voyage of discovery to find something cool no one has heard about yet.

To me a ‘book blogger’ is any person using any of these platforms to promote books en masse – not the casual reader who reviews books but the aspiring professional reviewer. On EVERY platform book shoppers can see how many books you review and can even search for reference comparisons: ‘does this reviewer love GRRM as much as I do? Okay good!’ Or ‘whaaat? If this reviewer loves these lame titles I don’t care for their reviews.’

Given the way book bloggers are found on various platforms, the most influential are not necessarily the ones with the most followers. Nor are they the ones with the biggest “blog” followings—you could have a large blog following with limited reach if its author/publishing friends and you’re not hooking readers into you blog via Bookstagram, BookTube channel, or Goodreads. Nor can you measure the impact with a sales bump, or blog views: the review is up forever, and just seeing that a popular blogger reviewed a book without reading the blog can elevate a book’s reputation.

That is all. We happily give our books away to anyone willing to review, and we are stoked to have our first ‘real’ book blogger review Age of Asango: Book 1 and promote it on Twitter. Does this matter more than the 15 ratings the book had on Goodreads? Well, in my opinion it lends legitimacy. There is a large sea of books out there, relatively few bubble up to a book blogger to review. So for an indie author book bloggers are HUGELY important.

In all industries there are old timers who don’t understand how democratized, reputation-based systems work. Book publishing is no different. Note that he offending publisher didn’t say what he (or she?) DOES think works—he’s probably just lamenting the good old days when he could call up his book buyer friends at (now closed or tightly controlled) bookstores and schmooze his way to 1,000 book sales in a day. He also claimed “social media” doesn’t matter—wouldn’t be surprised if this fool voted for Brexit as this is classic ‘let’s go back to the good old days!’ bullshit. I hope this one tweet is the nail in the coffin of his or her career in publishing; sorry/not sorry. – Dragon Tooth Press publisher of Matt Russell.

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Authors, particularly indie and small press authors, would be crazy not to. Someone wants to use their own free time to read and review and post about my book to their hundreds/thousands of followers? Fantastic! The more, the merrier! – David Sodergren author of The Forgotten Island.

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Good for you for doing this. Bloggers are an essential resource for writers. They should be celebrated. – P. S. Livingstone author of Awakening (The Transcendent Saga #1).

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That’s because you guys are very supportive of US. Big love and thanks. – M A Bennett author of STAGS.

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My first novel came out with a small publisher. Book bloggers got the word out with a tour and reviews and amazing support. They made a difference then and are still supportive now. – Catherine Hokin author of Blood & Roses.

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“I’ve been on all sides, as a reviewer, as an editor and publicist via publishers, and as an author. In the first case, I’ve participated myself in blog tours run by others, those that I’ve fleshed out to be solid organizers, and had wonderful experiences. I know that my posts during those tours, or just with stand alone reviewers, have sold copies of books or contributed to word of mouth via social media that sold books.

As a publicist, and a person who has done blog tours professionally, I always appreciate what bloggers and reviewers do. Not only does their passion shine through and their support mean so much to authors, readers following them or other reviewers in their circles, do buy from them. I’ve seen this with my own book even as an author. I send a request to a reviewer and many times I hear that they’ve already purchased off the recommendation of another reviewer.

I also see it for publicity or editing clients I have freelance or with the publishers I work with. Each blogger might not sell 5,000 copies like a mass market retail store, but they do sell copies and they do it ongoing. It’s a marathon not a race is the cliché and it’s true. If you do a blog tour and condense everything to over 2-4 weeks of straight out posts, you’ve hit everyone once and you won’t have substantial sales, so in that regard you might not get the sales reward you wanted. You have to spread it all out. For instance, I try to spread out my client’s publicity with hosts and spots over 3 months at least, but if they’d agree, I do it for longer, because you’re spreading out sales and getting yourself in front of more eyes as each new reviewer shares your story. And your brand.

As an author, my collection published a year ago, reviewers and readers are still buying and picking up from other reviewers each month or from posts they’ve hosted with me. And I know that reviewers anticipate my, and many others, next book or story and they let everyone know. When it’s out they review me/them again or they purchase. They are tireless cheerleaders that make sure your book doesn’t evaporate into a vacuum. Book bloggers, reviewers, social media marvels are FREE advertising. What they offer is way more valuable than buying a $300 ad. We should be very thankful because they give us hours and hours of their volunteer time just to support us when they don’t have to do so. Book supporters and reviewers are PRICELESS volunteers that should be given bookstore sales manager name tags!!” – Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi, owner of Hook of a Book Media and author of Breathe. Breathe.

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It’s the individual, idiosyncratic and personal views that make book bloggers THE BEST way to find a book you’ll love. If you love the blogger, you’ll likely love their book choices. – Ardal Jones.

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Book bloggers are not only fun, and full of personality, but they’re critical to what authors do. They perpetuate the reading community with a love of books, and add conversations that energize and breathe additional life into authors’ characters and worlds. – Justin Swapp author of The Shadow Magic Series.

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Bookollective were sad and disappointed to hear that so many book bloggers had been offended by a comment made by a publisher this week. As a service provider to both publishers and direct to author’s, including book blog tours, we rely on the incredibly friendly nature of our blogger team (#thebteam) and their professionalism in helping us to secure valuable reviews and exposure for hard working author’s. The fact that bloggers give up their time for their passion of reading is nothing short of admirable and serves the book community like no other. – Bookollective.

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During my relatively recent life as an author, and having recently just published my second thriller novel, I feel I have learned an immense amount about the writing, authoring and publishing world, but none more so, than learning about Book Bloggers.

For me, they have been the pillar, the cornerstone of getting my work in front of readers, for many reasons, but a few stand out above everything else. Aside from their tireless dedication, magical time management skills, incredible reading and analytical abilities, relationship building and management plus a whole host of other, hidden abilities not necessarily visible to the rest of the world, the blogger is an underappreciated gem of wonder. Despite what goes on in a bloggers personal life, that blog still gets written, and if you as an author, are on the list to be blogged about, you’ll get your day. If you want brutal but fair, useful critique, unrivalled passion for reading and writing, and someone who will, despite being a parent, partner, husband, wife, having another job to do, be dealing with health and personal issues, become your best friend. Not only will they look at your work with an open mind and impartially, they will tell you how it is whether you want to hear it or not, and that’s their beauty! We, as authors, need to hear what people think and what they really think, and a blogger will do that and tell people about your work as well.

Bloggers are often misunderstood. Some people I’ve spoken to actually believe they just sit in a dimly lit room with endless cups of tea and coffee, biscuits and cake, and a pile of books, usually knocked over by a cat. While that might actually be true, there is so much more to it and us authors need them in our lives.

I have been very lucky, I have worked with some amazing bloggers, and sometimes I had to pinch myself to believe these wonderful people actually have my work and want to talk about it. Me, little ol’ me, being blogged about! I couldn’t believe it. Bloggers are vital not only to authors, but to readers as well. When I want a new read, where is the first place I look now? Yep, a blogger! Why, because I trust what they say, they know what they’re talking about and I’ve not met one yet that wasn’t right in what they said about a read! Bloggers have access to a whole host of contacts, reviewers, tour hosts to name a few and this makes them experts, and that makes them important and trustworthy!

Never, EVER, underestimate or underappreciate a blogger or the depths of their loyalty to their cause. If they are working with/for you, they are worth their weight in gold and will fight to the very last for your work and you. I don’t think I could do a bloggers job, I really don’t, I don’t have the skills to take on the amount they do. If you have a blogger in your life, keep them, their word is well respected in all areas, and they’re great people. Keep them and never let them go! – P.S Bridge author of the Mark King Series of thrillers.

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As a writer I can’t begin to tell you how valuable I feel the community of book bloggers are.

My writing has always been avant garde, pushing boundaries and expecting a lot from the reader. I like the fact that with the community of bloggers I can reach an audience directly and get feedback that is incredibly useful for ironing out any issues with the novel. I also like the fact bloggers aren’t concerned with the bottom line ie how commercial something is, and are just pure honest with what they feel about your book. They view your work as a work of art and nothing more. It makes interacting with them an honourable and trustworthy experience.

Any one who says otherwise is obviously trying to sell snake oil! – Sen Rajah author of Milk of the Moon: A Dispatch from the Edge of Consciousness.

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As we near the end of a gigantic month long Blog Tour for Dear Mr Pop Star I feel that we are well and freshly placed to share our experience of the Blogging community.

In an environment and climate where newspapers and many other physical publications are suffering plummeting sales, bloggers are now more important than ever to us authors. Many, unlike journalists, are our target audiences and our barometer of what that demographic thinks.

You really are a relevant, vital, new(ish) movement. I would much rather 20 Amazon reviews from bloggers than a few inches in the newspaper – you are there at point of sale constantly before the indecisive buyer adds to basket, and that to an author is gold.

On our side too, I got quite uppity when I was told that many authors, once a review, was posted, either gave ‘thumbs’ or did not react. I had 80 bloggers on my tour and with time I simply did not have – ie. to the detriment of daily duties, I sent personal thanks, left comments on their posts and tweeted them to bits with 100s of hashtags. Each blogger took an hour of work at my end. That in response to the hours that a blogger has spent on my work is nothing other than the right thing to do, and forges relationships.

In conclusion, EVERYBODY that I dealt with was brilliant, but that’s because I treated you with respect and courtesy and, crucially, did my groundwork and looked at all sites thoroughly before making an approaching or surfing away.

You are invaluable now and that will only strengthen. – Dave Philpott author of Dear Mr Pop Star.

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I publishing a book recently and I’ve spent a lot of time contacting reviewers because I wanted my book to be reviewed as well as to spread the word about it. I received one review and I’m impatiently expecting more to come through. I suppose its so important as a guide to what horror fans think of my work and want to read. An indication of were to go with the next project and what to aim for. – Astrid Addams author of The Haunting of Hope House.

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I’ve been absolutely bowled over by the extraordinary support, enthusiasm and passion from book bloggers! They champion the written word and the power of stories, support authors tirelessly and pour all of their time, effort and love for books into their honest and thoughtful reviews! By purchasing mounds of books, cheering loudly for brilliant new reads and providing heaps of insight and humour, they make up a truly remarkable community!!

They are some of the warmest, most welcoming people around! Sharing their love of books on their blogs, they invite readers to discover exquisite new voices, exciting stories and brilliant characters, all the while giving authors invaluable support! They are incredible! – Ronnie Turner author of Lies Between Us.

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“Fuck people who don’t value bloggers. Every blogger I’ve dealt with has been kind, enthusiastic and absolutely passionate about books. I can’t overstate how nerve-wracking it is putting your debut in front of strangers, then waiting for a judgement. Every blogger who reviewed Seven Deaths put their heart into it, and, if they liked the book, they became a champion of it. That initial surge of goodwill gave me the confidence to handle everything that came after, including the bad reviews, and helped to create a buzz around the book which almost certainly helped get it where it is. Bloggers are folk who love books, and who spend their free time writing about them – often without expectation of reward. If you’re going to be a dick about them, we’re not going to be friends.” – Stuart Turton author of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle UK / The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle US.

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For an indie author, book bloggers are a gift from heaven. When I published my debut novel “In Servitude”, I was starting from an author platform of pretty much zero. I asked Shalini of Digital Reads Blog Tours to organise a blog tour consisting of cover reveals, reviews and guest posts for me one week after launch. Whilst I cannot evidence their impact on sales conclusively, since it’s the period my friends will have been buying the book, I did get considerable attention across social media internationally. Importantly, it also yielded me my first 15 reviews on Goodreads, which provided a much-needed quality reference to anyone who wanted to check my book out.

Because I was selected as an ‘up and coming author’ and given a Spotlight at Bloody Scotland crime festival, I made sure to follow and engage with bloggers who were fans of (Scottish) Crime ahead of time. What became clear immediately is that they all a big, supportive family so each of their posts gets shared by the others. Sharon Bairden (Chapter in My Life) gave me my first break into that influential community by agreeing to review, and I was delighted to meet her in person at the festival. That one gift triggered a virtuous cycle of opportunities to feature on other blogs through guest posts and reviews.

Again, I cannot point to a 1:1 relationship between bloggers and sales, and it would be short sighted to try to do this. This is because bloggers raised my profile not just among other bloggers and readers, but also among authors, agents and publishers — which I’m sure will benefit me when I want to talk to them about book number 2! – Heleen Kist author of In Servitude.

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Book Reviewers/Bloggers/Vloggers; there are so many negative things written about these groups. Most people just do not understand that these guys do all of the work they do for free, because of their love for books and the book world. They do all of us, writers and readers a huge favour by giving honest – yes honest, totally honest reviews. I have many friends in this community now and we respect each other and our work. Each of us takes our part very seriously and would never be compromised into writing less than we believe. Also, remember that media reviewers (like bloggers etc) receive a free copy of each book they are asked to review – this is not a reward or payment – how could anyone afford to buy the number of books involved when they are doing this service for free? All I can do is admire all of these people and be very grateful they are there. – Owen Mullen author of And So it Began (Delaney Book 1), The Charlie Cameron series and In Harm’s Way.

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OK, here’s the thing: publishing is about people who love books; whether its writers turning out novels for little return, editors working longer hours than they’re contracted to finish polishing manuscripts, readers hunting out those rare finds in second hand shops – or pre-ordering the new release – and book bloggers / vloggers who spend their free time enthusing (and sometimes criticising!) their latest read.

I’ve had articles on blogs both large and small, and I’ve put an equal amount of effort into each. Mainly because I take pride in my work, but also because I know each blogger takes pride in their sites and I want to do a good job for people offering me space. And with so many books released each year (whether traditionally published, small press, or self-published) I’ve always considered reviews to be a privilege and not a right. Books get sold by word of mouth, not adverts on the TV, and book blogs / vlogs are an important part of that conversation.” – Daniel Godfrey author of New Pompeii, Empire of Time and The Synapse Sequence.

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On Book Bloggers: My first novel, A Criminal Defense, was published in 2017. It debuted at No. 1 on Amazon and went on to become the No. 6 best-seller for Kindle in 2017. A big factor in the book’s success was that a few independent bloggers with massive followings gave me 5 star reviews. Within weeks, I had thousands of reviews and was on my way to making the best-seller list. Bloggers possess the power to launch a novel into the stratosphere and are a force to be reckoned with. This may frighten some, but it shouldn’t, because the bloggers aren’t motivated by power but by good writing. Book bloggers love well-written engaging stories, so much so that they seek to spread the word when they find one. And that benefits everyone. I am tremendously grateful to bloggers for sharing their love of story. They have become the beating heart of the book industry. – William L. Myers, Jr author of the Philadelphia Legal Series.

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Last month my debut novel, The Tattoo Thief, was published. Tracy Fenton, of THE Book Club fame, put together an astounding 20-day blog tour for the book, featuring two book bloggers every day for the duration. As a newbie, I didn’t know too much about blog tours, but it seemed a huge, encompassing and very generous event, given that book bloggers read, review and publicise books for no remuneration.

Then last week a certain publisher declared, among other things, that book bloggers have no reach. It was time to look at the numbers. The 40 bloggers on my tour had a combined Twitter following of more than 170,000. Wow! Of course, these are not unique followers – there will certainly be a degree of overlap. But that notwithstanding, each day two new reviews were shared on twitter, retweeted by all the bloggers on the tour, and then further retweeted by their own followers. Add to that numerous Facebook and Instagram shares. My name, my book jacket, and an extraordinary number of wonderful reviews, shared over and over during an intensive 20-day period. It would be obtuse to claim that this could have no effect on sales. But sales aside, as every marketer knows, brand building and name recognition are just as important in building a potential customer base – and this is where a blog tour really wins out. How could I, an unheard-of writer with less than 1,000 Twitter followers, hope to put my name and my book title in front of so many eyes? In 20 days, I went from being an unknown writer to a writer that thousands of interested readers, and therefore potential buyers, knew about.

That, dear nice-but-dim publisher in question, is gold dust.

Book bloggers, I salute you! – Alison Belsham author of The Tattoo Thief.

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The act of putting words on a page sounds so simple and yet – I ask myself regularly why my blog is so intermittent. I generally scrape a daily wordcount on the current work-in-progress and far too many tweets (come and say hello @_alexandraclare) but both of these outputs have the distinct advantage that they don’t have to be coherent (the novel because it will be edited later, the tweets, well, ‘nuff said). My jaw drops when I look at the work of book bloggers and the thought and effort that goes into their reviews. Their comments have a breadth of view from being keen readers, without the pretension of language that can come from someone who is trying to make a literary point. I love reading book blogs, both for their insights into works I have read and for new books to try. We should celebrate book bloggers and be grateful they are sharing their love of reading with us. – Alexandra Claire author of He’s Gone and She’s Fallen.

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I can honestly say that bloggers are critical to the success of our books, our entire publishing programme. We publish a lot of debuts and unknown international authors, and we have been hugely successful in establishing them quickly and effectively through the passion, enthusiasm and reach of the bloggers who have taken the time to write reviews, join blog tours, and just help to spread the world. Blog tours have always been a critical part of our marketing strategy, and they are immensely successful in getting the all-important word-of-mouth thing going, letting readers know that the book/s is/are out there, giving readers a taste of their contents, how they read. In the past we have reprinted before publication on the strength of a blog tour (in one case in particular, we sold 2000 books before publication date).

Our top-selling titles in any given month are those on the blog tours, regardless of the number of mainstream reviews that have come in. Obviously there is much more to making a book successful, and we rely on a number of strategies, including traditional press, marketing and PR, but we could not do without the immense blogger network … their generosity of spirit, their knowledge, their reach, the time they take to write considered reviews and to support one another.

A huge percentage of online sales, in particular, are driven by online recommendations, and the bloggers provide exactly that! We publish our ebooks a couple of months before publication, and by the time the print book is released, we generally have dozens of reviews on key retailer/review sites, and a buzz going on … created entirely by the blogging community.

Anyone who says that tours and blog reviews don’t work needs to reexamine their strategy because it’s undoubtedly one of the most successful tools we have to ensure that readers know our books are out there! – Karen Sullivan, Orenda Books.

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Both reading and writing books have long been solitary pursuits. While the promise of the internet is the democratization of information and connection with like-minded communities, there are not many areas where this has become true. Book bloggers, however, give us both. I honestly marvel at the supportive, open minded, and enthusiastic community of book bloggers that exists on the internet, and who do everything they do for nothing but a love of reading. They give us a glimpse of the positive potential of digital connection. – Phil Halton author of This Shall Be a House of Peace.

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I’m a huge supporter of Book Bloggers, I seriously wouldn’t have the coverage, encouragement, laughter and support I have without them, and as an added bonus, their friendship. I’ve met so many lovely bloggers through Twitter & FB.

I’m not a big wave in the ocean, I’m more of a tiny ripple in the local pond but I would love to voice my heartfelt appreciation of Book Bloggers, particularly after the recent awful attack on their capabilities and reach. My latest book tour was hosted by amazing bloggers and they did myself and my Publisher proud. They put their heart and soul into promoting it, with such time and care taken on the reviews. – Gina Kirkham author of HANDCUFFS, TRUNCHEON & A POLYESTER THONG and WHISKEY, TANGO, FOXTROT.

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Book bloggers have helped shaped my writing career for the past few years. Not only have they given up several hours to read and write a review of my books, they’ve supported, encouraged and gone beyond the call of duty. I am full of gratitude for everything they do… that might include offering the odd tissue. Thank you! – Angelena Boden author of Edna’s Death Cafe.

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I’m an indie author and I can honestly say I would never have continued self-publishing beyond my first book without the support of the book blogging community. They have been so generous with their time and I’m grateful to them all for reviewing and spreading the word about my books. – Suzanne Rogerson author of Visions of Zarua, The Lost Sentinel and The Sentinel’s Reign.

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‘As a self-published author, I don’t know what I’d do without book bloggers. I value their time, their generosity, and their willingness to read books whose titles and authors they’ve never heard of.’ – Kathleen Jowitt author of Speak Its Name and A Spoke In The Wheel.

I’ve had excellent experiences with book bloggers. My book Molly’s Diary published by Poolbeg in Ireland became a bestseller in 2016 partly due to enthusiasm of book bloggers such as Margaret Madden (@margaretbmadden).

Also other books and my recent book, Leo’s War got great reviews worldwide thanks to Rachel (@rararesources) – In a world where children’s books account for a high proportion of sales yet are chronically under-reviewed in the media and the press, book bloggers provide a supportive review culture and much needed attention. They are usually insightful and passionate and encompass a wide variety of readers and opinion. Some work in the book trade or are librarians and teachers. Some are even young readers too. And it’s great to get the undiluted reviews of committed, passionate readers with no affiliations or log-rolling agenda. Even if you can’t measure effect on book sales, they provide a groundswell of opinion and word-of-mouth for books. They often too reach niche markets. Or give useful author feedback. For example I have learned that my books have a crossover appeal for adults. And even if set in Ireland have a much wider appeal. As an author and a reader, I think book bloggers are a refreshing and democratic addition to book culture. They often champion books that might get overlooked or marginalized and are a vital part of a healthy ecology of championing reading and books. Particularly children’s books where parents and children have a huge appetite for new titles. – Patricia Murphy author of Molly’s Diary and Leo’s War.

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For me, book bloggers are essential to not only indie writers such as myself, but all writers. After all, they are the life blood of the industry – people who invest in our work because they want to visit the worlds we create and meet the characters we conjure up. In fact, they are more valuable simply because not only do they read our stories, but they share them with the world and tell folk why they should read it too. Without book bloggers, I wouldn’t be where I am today. – Oli Jacobs author of Deep Down There.

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I was self-published when a Book Blogger recommended me to a publisher they knew. Now I’ve got a publishing contract and an audiobook is on its way to go with the paperback and ebook. So I gotta say #BloggersRuleOK – Luke E. T. Hindmarsh author of Mercury’s Son.

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Readers are as important to the novel as the writer. Without a reader’s passion, even the greatest book in the world would be pointless.

Book bloggers give that passion, and by sharing it they render it infectious. These days they are more necessary to a book than paper itself. – William Ray author of Gedlund, The Great Restoration and others.

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I started this author journey about six months ago, and you probably couldn’t imagine the nerves I had when I first reached out to bookbloggers to see if they would be interested in reading my book, Kingshold.

And then when I realized that Esme of the weatherwaxreport was going to read it immediately I was practically shaking with anxiety. What if she wouldn’t like it? When i read the wonderfully thoughtful and detailed review, seeing that she enjoyed it filled me with so much joy my shakes turned to skipping! That very first review has helped me immensely. I am sure it encouraged readers to pick up my book as well as other bookbloggers to also read it and spread the word, and without their help and support I wouldn’t have had any of the successes this year that I will always remember. I mean, I made the longlist for the Booknest fantasy awards because of the kind support of those bloggers.

So this is a long way of saying that I really appreciate all of the bookbloggers out there. There’s no financial reward in this for you. You do it because you love books. And for that, I salute you. – D. P. Woolliscroft author of Kingshold.

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Book Bloggers, how do we love thee? Let me count the ways!
We love thee for blogging about both Kindle and paperback
We love thee for telling us about fab new books we’d otherwise never
have discovered
We love thee for doing all you do for nothing but the love of books
We writers love thee for the praise you give, but also for the
constructive criticism
We love thee for your passion, put to use.
You rock. The blogging, writing and reading community is our corner of
the internet. We’re happy here. Thank you 🙂 – Terry Tyler author of
the Project Renova series and other books.

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Well, there you have it. Massive thanks to all of those who contributed, sincerely, thank you for showing that book bloggers are appreciated, valued and that we do matter.

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