BBAW: Staying Connected

Book Bloggers Appreciation Week, #BBAW, tea, dragons, Earl Grey Editing, Elizabeth Fitzgerald

Today’s Book Blogger Appreciation Week topic is on how I stay connected to the community.

The primary way I stay connected to the book blogging community is through social media. Twitter is my favourite medium and it tends to stay running in the background most days. Community is what brought me to Twitter in the first place. I joined during the local science fiction convention one year so that I could access some of the commentary from that particular community. As far as I know, Time Turners don’t yet exist, but through Twitter I could watch one panel and still find out some of what was said in another panel.

Because I’m fairly new to book blogging, Twitter has been how I’ve met most of the community. I already knew Memory from In the Forest of Stories and Andi of Estella’s Revenge. Following them on Twitter introduced me to new people and new blogs. They also introduced me to blogging events like this one–which, I’ve found, are very effective ways of meeting new people.

Although Twitter is my favourite social medium, it’s not my only one. Earl Grey Editing has a Facebook page, though it serves more of a broadcast function than a way to connect. I’m not fond of Facebook as a medium and so don’t tend to invest much time there.

I also have a fledgling Instagram account. Photography is something I really enjoy and all the photographs on this blog are mine, unless otherwise stated. I enjoy sharing them on Instagram, which also helps me find new and creative ways to photograph piles of books. If you’re on Instagram, come find me!

While events like BBAW are great ways of meeting new people, it’s hard to maintain those new relationships without some kind of regular interaction. I read a heap of blogs and make an effort to comment. I know how delighted I am when people comment here and I expect most other book bloggers feel the same. However, finding the time is a constant challenge.

Another challenge is finding blogs that suit my reading preferences. Most of the ones I’ve come across are geared towards literature. While I enjoy reading a bit of literature, it’s not my jam so much as speculative fiction. So if you read or write any speculative fiction blogs, please let me know!

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that I’m connected to a couple of different communities. The other main community I’m part of is formed of Australian speculative fiction writers. The way I stay connected to this community is somewhat different and I have a lot more face-to-face contact. The Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild is one way I keep in contact with this community–both through their meetings and their mailing list. Conventions are another important way of connecting, which is one reason I’m really looking forward to Contact2016.

How about you? How do you stay connected to your communities?


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2 thoughts on “BBAW: Staying Connected”

    1. That’s a great way of putting it, Shannon. I feel like it also offers more chance to explore and meet new people than a medium like Facebook.

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