Review-a-Thon: Mini-Challenges

Monster Review-a-Thon Mini-Challenge #1
Rethinking Your Review Format – COMPLETED

1. Are you happy with your review format currently?

I’ve been using my current review format for about a year now and I’d have to say that I’m pretty happy with it. I’ve changed things around a little bit but I like what I have going on now.

2. Scrutinize it a little more, maybe compare it to other blogs you like, anything you think you might change?

I made two very subtle changes for this challenge: (1) Instead of putting the name of the series in parenthesis after the book title, I made Series have it’s own line under the book title. Hopefully that will make it easier to see. And (2) I removed Format from the book information area. Doesn’t anyone really care if I read the book in paperback or digital form? I’m thinking not.

3. Implement some basic changes and tell us what you think. Or, you can tell us one or two aspects of your reviews that you like.

I like breaking down my reviews to let readers know what I liked and didn’t like about a book. It’s what I look for when I read book reviews so I made it stand out in my own reviews.

Monster Review-a-Thon Mini-Challenge #2
Cross Posting Your Reviews – COMPLETED

I cross post my reviews on Goodreads, LibraryThing and Amazon (though I’m rethinking the whole Amazon thing). I usually cross post once a month, at the beginning of the month. Now I’m thinking I might be waiting too long to do this. So now I am going to try to make it a point to cross post once a week on a dedicated day – like every Friday. As of tomorrow, I will have FOUR reviews to cross post:

1. You Belong to Me by Karen Rose
2. Bad Girl by Night by Lacey Alexander
3. Nightfall by Ellen Connor
4. Glow by Stacey Wallace Benefiel

UPDATE: All done! I decided to go ahead and continue to cross post on Amazon as well.

Monster Review-a-Thon Mini-Challenge #3
Setting Up Future Review Posts – In Progress

I started out with a total of 11 books that needed to be reviewed – 7 of which are going up on my blog (the other 4 will be mini reviews that I’ll post only on Goodreads). Of those 7, one has already gone up and another is set to go up tomorrow. I plan on completing the 5 remaining reviews and scheduling them for the future (the near future but that still counts, right?). Here are the 5 reviews I need to complete and schedule:

1. The Chase by Erin McCarthy
2. Extreme Exposure by Pamela Clare
3. Something About You by Julie James
4. Turn It Up by Inez Kelley
5. Ideal Man by Julie Garwood

Monster Review-a-Thon Mini-Challenge #4
Updating Review Lists – COMPLETED

I have a Review page that I update manually about once a month. I usually update this when I cross post my reviews. But now that I’m going to start cross posting my reviews once a week, I think it would be a good idea to do the same with my Review page. I saw this great tutorial on Bookaholic Does Blogging that I’ve been wanting to try. And what better time to give it a shot then now, right? I just need to figure out how to embed a Google spreadsheet into the blog page. Once I do that, it seems like it would make it super easy to update the spreadsheet, which in turn would automatically update on my page. It would make alphabetizing so much easier as well.

UPDATE: As much as I want to try this out, it’s going to take some time. A lot of time, considering how long my review list is. So I’m going to keep my Review page the way it is for now and I will update it to complete this challenge.

UPDATE: All done!

Monster Review-a-Thon Mini-Challenge #5
Organizing Upcoming Reviews – COMPLETED

I use a spreadsheet to organize my reviews and plot my reading schedule. I list all the books I have for review and order them according to publication date. My columns include: Pub Date, Book Title, Author, Format, # of Pages, Source and Notes. I also color code my spreadsheet; LILAC means I’m waiting to receive the book, GREEN means it’s an ebook and YELLOW means I’ve read the book. I keep the book on my spreadsheet until my review has posted and I have notified the source that my review is up. Then it gets deleted. I also have a folder on my Kindle for review books, simply labeled ‘review books’.

I have an 8x10 monthly planner that I use to plan out my posts – reviews, memes I participate in, guest posts, giveaways and whatnot. I use pencil only (and lots of eraser) and try to plan out a month in advance. I’ve tried using Google Calendar to keep track of my posts but I’ve found that I work better with a physical calendar in my hands.

One thing I am going to try to implement is a review posting schedule. I am going to post book reviews on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I am hoping that I’ll be able to read and review fast enough to post 3 reviews a week. But of course, when the baby makes her debut that can all change.

Monster Review-a-Thon Mini-Challenge #6
Organizing Your Bookshelves – COMPLETED

Lucky for me, my bookshelves are already organized. I have two bookcases; one holds the books that I have read (the bookcase on the left) and the other holds my TBR pile (the bookcase on the right).

   
(click on pictures for BIGGER view)

I put my review requests (and books I’m going to read soon) on the second shelf of my TBR bookcase. I know where they are and they’re all together.

(click on picture for BIGGER view)

I’ve already got my Kindle pretty much organized as well. I have been using folders on my Kindle ever since the update came out that included this awesome feature. I have the following folders on my Kindle:

• For Pleasure (these are ebooks I’ve purchased for my own reading pleasure)
• NetGalley (ebooks I got from NetGalley for review)
• For Review (ebooks I’ve gotten from authors or publishers for review)
• Free Reads (free ebooks I’ve gotten from Amazon, Smashwords, etc.)
• Classics (for the classics like Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Orwell, etc.)

I purposely keep NetGalley ebooks separate from review ebooks I receive from authors and publishers because in the past I would sometimes forget about those NetGalley ebooks. So now they have their own folder which stars me in the face every time I turn my Kindle on.

Now that I think about it, I’m not sure why I have a ‘Free Reads’ folder. I was using it to keep track of which books I got for free but since I use Goodreads to catalog all my books I don’t really need to keep them separate on my Kindle. I could combine this folder with the ‘For Pleasure’ folder but I’ll leave it alone for now.