Even though I’m in New York for Book Expo America, I wanted the chance to participate in Armchair BEA for the first time. Today’s daily blogging topic is:

It’s the final day of Armchair BEA and we want you to keep your passion for books and blogging about them going long after we’ve closed the event. Today we’ll be sharing tips on keeping book blogging exciting and unique to your vision for your blog. Our suggested post for today is “Ask the Experts.” If you have any burning questions for your fellow participants about book blogging now is the time to ask and if you don’t we’d love for you to share your own personal tips about book blogging!

One of the conscious decisions I’ve made as a blogger is to minimize the time I spend on background projects — messing with my blog theme, redesigning my headers, updating my sidebars, whatever. I just so sucked into those projects that I run out of time for the things I think are important — writing good content and interacting with other bloggers. As a result, I’m way behind on new blogging technology, tools, and plugins. So here’s my question to you, blogging experts: What are some technology tools you use to make blogging easier? What are some of your favorite plugins? Mobile apps?

In exchange, here are a few things I’ve learned in four years as a book blogger:

• Recognize that having a great blog takes a lot of work. Blogging is an awesome hobby and I love it, but it can also be a lot of work. Having a great blog, one that you can be proud of and that brings satisfaction, takes time. There are days when the prospect of coming home and writing a review feels like doing homework, but you have to push through that some point if you’ll just give up.
• Find a routine. I’ve found that it helps me to write a couple of posts at at time and then schedule them out for the week ahead. That doesn’t work for everyone, but it’s helpful for me (especially on evenings when I have to go to a meeting or am just too tired to think about blogging).
• Develop consistency. The best way to build a loyal community of readers is to post consistently. There are bloggers that I love who regularly post only twice times a week (sometimes less), and I look forward to each of those posts. Going whole-hog for a week and posting every day, then going silent for two weeks doesn’t build a following and may burn you out and make you feel guilty.
• Make time for what you love to read. It’s so, so easy to get excited about review copies and accept more than you can reasonably read. I’ve been there. In a lot of ways, I still am there. I’ve started to be much, much more selective about accepting review copies and more assertive about finding time to read books without obligations attached. That’s done wonders for keeping my blogging energy up.
• Above all, do what makes you happy and keeps blogging fun for you. Some bloggers can post every day. That’s just not for me. I’ve tried before, and I end up feeling overwhelmed and anxious about responding to comments and reading enough to write that much. I’ve discovered that posting three or four times a week works best for me, so that’s what I try to do. Figure out when you’re happiest blogging and stick to that, regardless of what other people decide to do.

Even though I’m in New York for Book Expo America, I wanted the chance to participate in Armchair BEA for the first time. Today’s daily blogging topic is:

So, you enjoy writing do you? Would you like to be involved elsewhere on the interwebs or possibly start writing for your local paper? Perhaps you’d simply like to start drawing an income from your blog? Today we will be sharing tips that will help you move your blog forward or perhaps your own personal goals of writing and making an income from what you love to do. Today we’d love you to share your top tips for getting beyond your blog! Have you done any freelance writing? Are you monetizing your blog and how so? How do you make connections outside the book blog community on the internet? If none of these apply we’d love for you to share a fun aspect about your blog or life that may be completely separate from books! We’ll have another link-up this day as well.

I do a good bit of book-related freelance writing outside my day job and this blog. I’m currently a contributor to Book Riot, and before I moved from Madison I was a regular contributor to The Capital Times (you can find links to some of those stories on my About Me page). By no means am I am expert about how to go about getting paid exclusively to write about books, but I have a little bit of advice if you’d like to try and make a little money on the side or use freelancing to gain exposure for your blog.

Start with your local newspaper. Your local newspaper might have interest in book reviews, a monthly bookish events column, or interviews with local authors. Find out who the editor is, then write to them introducing yourself, linking to a couple of your best blog posts or stories, and sharing a couple of ideas you have for stories. Keep story ideas locally focused (or targeted to the audience of the publication your pitching to), and keep your introduction short. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t hear back right away, but don’t be afraid to call and introduce yourself or ask to set up a meeting.

[continue reading…]

Although I am off at Book Expo America this week, I still wanted to participate in a very cool event — Armchair BEA — which was organized by a group of bloggers in 2010 to connect book bloggers aren’t able to make the trip to New York City. Throughout this week I’ll be posting on some of the daily topics to, hopefully, supplement post I’m actually writing from BEA. I won’t have much time to respond to comments, but I’m hoping to get caught up when I get back.

Today is all about introductions.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?

My name is Kim, and I’ve been blogging for just over four years. I started blogging in May 2008 right as I was getting ready to graduate from college. I thought having a blog would give me a space to talk about books with other readers  after I wouldn’t get to talk about them in school anymore.

What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2012?

My favorite nonfiction read so far this year is Wild by Cheryl Strayed, and my favorite fiction read is a tie between The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff and The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.

Tell us one non-book-related thing that everyone reading your blog may not know about you.

People who are regular blog readers know that I have a cat, Hannah. But new readers from Armchair BEA might not know that, and I am always looking for excuses to post pictures of her on my blog! This is my favorite picture of her, throwing herself at my boyfriend, Nate.

What literary location would you most like to visit? Why?

I wish there was a way to go to Hogwarts. I’ve been to the castle in England where some of the movie is filmed, which was totally awesome. But I’d like to go to the real Hogwarts.

Have your reading tastes changed since you started blogging? How?

This one is hard for me because I don’t remember what it’s like to be a reader without having a blog (or, without being a student that had a lot of required reading). I do know that my reading has started to skew much more towards new releases than it ever did when I was a kid or a student.

Hello to everyone stopping by from Book Expo America or Armchair BEA. If all is going well, when this post goes up I’ll be on my way to the airport for a week hanging out with fellow readers in New York City. I’m so excited!

(And, because what we really all care about is books, I want to tell you that I have two packed for my travels: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and And the Heart Says Whatever by Emily Gould.)

This is a sticky post — for new content (some from Armchair BEA and hopefully from BEA itself) just scroll down to the next post. If you would like to get a hold of my at BEA, the best way is to poke me on Twitter — @kimthedork. I also hope to be doing short updates on my Tumblr, A Little Bit of Dorkiness.

About Sophisticated Dorkiness

Sadly, I’m not really the South Park character on my business card and blog header. I’m just a regular girl blogging about books. I’ve been writing here at Sophisticated Dorkiness for just over four years. The biggest news around the blog recently is that I was one of four winners of the first Independent Book Blogger Awards. That’s awesome!

By day I work as a community newspaper editor in rural Minnesota and by night I’m an avid reader, blogger, and freelance writer. I primarily read and review nonfiction, narrative nonfiction, and literary fiction, although I delve into other genres like YA fiction and comic books when the mood strikes — check out my Review Policy for more information.

That’s all I’ve got. Can’t wait to be in NYC, so if you see me, say “Hello!”