Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Blog Thoughts: Giveaway Winner and Reviews

First!
Huge congratulations to Wayne who won the $20 Amazon gift card! I've sent you an email regarding your win.
Thank you to everyone who entered, and came out to help celebrate my first year of blogging!

Today I want to talk a little bit about reviews.

When I first started my blog, I thought I would focus on reviews because the blog was always a labour of love for me. I saw all the extra stuff as either work, directed at acquiring more readers, or really intimidating. 

Part of my problem was that I only put so much stock into everyone else's reviews - so who was I to inflict my own upon the blogosphere? 

I decided right off the bat that my emphasis had to always be on - well - my blog's name: To Each Their Own.  Sometimes I find a reviewer whose opinion clicks with mine, and more often, other people end up focusing in on details that didn't make any kind of impression on me. So I always want to underline that the opinions shared on this blog are mine, and mine alone.

Otherwise, I'm looking to change up the format of reviews to make them more fun - both to write and to read. I'll still try to hit all the highlights and lowlights, and will continue to respect that every book is someone's baby. I believe that there's a reader out there for every book, but that reader might not be me. 

What do you like to see in a review? Do you like it when reviews are more formal or do you prefer a chattier or otherwise alternative format? I'm thinking bullet lists, I'm thinking pros and cons, I'm thinking comparisons to other novels and links to other reviews of the same book. Please comment to let me know what you'd like to see in reviews on this site!!

Now, you may have noticed that the blog's content has expanded - particularly in the last few months. I've been doing memes such as Top Ten Tuesday since last year, I've posted a few rambles sharing my opinion on various book-related topics, and over the summer I expanded to include cover reveals, giveaways, blog tours and tomorrow I'll be sharing my very first author interview! I'm gradually becoming more comfortable with the normal repertoire of book blogging! 

So! In the weeks ahead, I've got more book tours booked, I'm sure there'll be a cover reveal or two. I have my first author interview going up tomorrow, and next week?  We're going to be celebrating Christmas in October! The entire week will feature books with a Christmas theme! I'm excited! I love Christmas! And yes, it's early, but Christmas themed books are available now!




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