Best Practices: 05/31/17

Here I am on my third re-write of this post. I could write a twenty page treatise on best practices. It stems from years of a perfect storm of working in marketing, being a former UI/UX designer, years of blogging, and being a librarian.

But...

I know you're busy with other things and we've been encouraged to keep things short for Armchair BEA. So here's a list. In the future — when we're not in the middle of an online conference, I'll take the time to expand some of these thoughts into standalone articles.

Until then....

1. Know your audience
2. Know the scale of your audience — including local influence
3. Don't sacrifice your moral center for books or views
4. Don't personally attack publishers, publicists, authors
5. Less is more — don't forget to live your life outside of your blog
6. Take in the gestalt of your blog — think of your reviews as a library or a book store — is it the type of place you would want to get books?
7. Don't be afraid to change as your tastes change
8. Be a life long learner — push yourself to improve how you curate, how you read, how you review, how you blog, how you build your site
9. It's okay to make mistakes
10. Take responsibility if you really and truly fuck up.

Comments (16)

Comment #1: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at 14:00:46

Steph

This is a great list, thank you for sharing!

Comment #2: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at 18:53:00

Pussreboots

You're welcome. I'm glad you find it useful.

Comment #3: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at 14:11:06

Lory @ Emerald City Book Review

Great list. I especially like "don't sacrifice your moral center" - that can be a bit of temptation in the online world, where we don't have face to face interactions to ground us. And yes, life long learning always!

Comment #4: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at 18:55:00

Pussreboots

Your online life no matter how careful you are will come back to find you in the real world.

Comment #5: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at 15:54:39

Katie @ Read-at-Home Mom

All of your tips are great advice! I especially like #s 3, 4, and 5.

Comment #6: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at 19:05:00

Pussreboots

Great. I'm glad you find them useful. Have a great week.

Comment #7: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at 20:05:07

Erica

Wonderful best practices!

Comment #8: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at 21:44:00

Pussreboots

Thank you.

Comment #9: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at 22:15:18

Erica

Wonderful tips!!

Comment #10: Thursday, June 01, 2017 at 15:39:00

Pussreboots

Thank you. Have a good week.

Comment #11: Thursday, June 01, 2017 at 00:55:27

Gabriella M

Thank you so much for sharing. Happy ABEA!

Comment #12: Thursday, June 01, 2017 at 15:42:00

Pussreboots

You're welcome. Same to you.

Comment #13: hursday, June 01, 2017 at 09:58:12

Elizabeth @ Silver's Reviews

What a terrific list...thanks.

ENJOY the rest of the week.

Armchair BookExpo Introduction

Comment #14: Thursday, June 01, 2017 at 15:43:00

Pussreboots

I'm glad you like it. It was nice meeting you.

Comment #15: Saturday, June 03, 2017 at 21:07:04

Darlene

I love your list!

Comment #16: Saturday, June 03, 2017 at 19:54:00

Pussreboots

Thank you.