Sunday, August 8, 2010

Sunday Salon

The Sunday Salon.com

Happy Sunday everyone! Right now I'm in the middle of Purgatorio for Richard's Dante read-along. It'll be a bit late but I'll have my post up early this week. Once I get that done I'll finally have all my reading commitments out of the way and will be able to focus on Karen Tei Yamashita's 640-page I Hotel, which I have to review for The Front Table.

In other news, I have joined Book Blogs. Basically, it's like Facebook but for book bloggers. You can join groups (there's even one for Translated Literature), friend people, give "gifts," customize your page, and add applications. You can also exchange books, get caught up on all the latest giveaways, get in touch with authors and publicists, and just generally introduce your blog to a bigger audience. I do hope other people join me. There are a lot of members and they've been very friendly but there's no one I know.

I have also joined an affiliate program from IndieBound, a web community that promotes independent bookstores. (I'll have to update my FTC disclaimer.) What I do is link to books I mention through indie bookstores. If someone buys the book after using my link, I get a commission. It's pretty simple and it seemed like a great way to monetize my blog without getting those ugly Google ads. I don't expect to make much but it's nice to have a little something extra. I wonder if it's ethical to post reviews on Amazon now as long as I never link to them or promote them in any way? The Affiliate Agreement didn't mention anything about that.

So that's me for this week. How have you been?

And now for your weekly link round-up:

Amazing Voice: 7-Year-Old Gospel Singer Belts Whitney And Celine Songs

"Evil Be Thou My Good" (Improbable crossovers: the reason fan fiction exists.)

Hark, a vagrant: 263

Once more with feeling: sexual harassment is not a compliment

"Seven" and "Eighteen" (Fan fiction that had to be written.)

Women Debate The "Chick Lit" Label

6 comments:

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

I did the book blog hop this week. Who knew there were so many book bloggers?

I belong to GoodReads and LibraryThing and BookCrossing.

Here's my post for SS:
www.readerbuzz.blogspot.com

Wendy said...

Thanks for reminding me to go on over and join the Indie Community. I'm going to try their affiliate program as well...

Also thanks for the link re: the debate over the label of "Chick Lit" for women's fiction. I actually don't think it is offensive...I read plenty of that genre because it is light and appealing to women. Some of my favorite authors write "chick lit" (Katherine Center comes to mind). I don't see it as demeaning at all - and women's fiction is awesome!!

JoAnn said...

I've seen the Book Blogs button on other blogs, but never really knew what it was... will take a look at the sight later today. Thanks.

Iris on Books said...

I never knew what Book Blogs was exactly, it looks interesting. I'll look into joining sometime this week.

Eileen said...

readerbuzz: According to the Groups page, Book Blogs has at least 7,532 members. And that's just the people who have joined groups. I knew there were a lot of book blogs but I didn't realize there were literally thousands!

Wendy: I don't read "chick lit" so I really don't have an opinion either way regarding the label. The only chick lit book I've ever read was Amanda Trimble's Singletini which was jaw-droppingly awful, degrading, and had some very poisonous messages about weight. But, like the article says, there are good and bad books in every genre. The thing that does bother me, though, is when people lump all female-authored, female-oriented books under the "chick lit" label, which is what I think some critics are bothered by.

JoAnn and Iris: I do hope you join. It looks like a fun place and I've already found one great blog and gained a follower!

Amateur Reader (Tom) said...

I've read three first-rate chick lit novels. One had a blurb by Joan Rivers! All three were by Paula Marantz Cohen. The title of the first one should give the idea: Jane Austen in Boca.

Publicists? How horrible!

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