Comments on: Big Box Book Blogs: Do You Read Them?

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:55:17 +0000

Oooh. Powell’s. Didn’t know about that one. Thanks!

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:28:29 +0000

Late as usual, Kate.

I don’t visit either B&N or Borders’ blogs. They smack of promotion, not examination. I sincerely believe their purpose is to sell me the book, not to discuss it with me, and frankly I understand that’s their MO entirely as a corporation. But I’m gullible enough, I don’t need that sort of sales pitch. I also have a fair amount of distaste for MBuonfiglio’s tone on her blog, which discouraged me from visiting the box blog.

I do like Powell’s blog though. I won’t say it’s not promotion but the variety of guest bloggers give it a wide ranging-voice, a lot of their guest author bloggers write essays on broad bookish topics (so it feels less like sales), and they don’t separate out their genre posts into separate blogs. It’s rather come-as-you-are. And it’s accessible from their front page.

By: Karen Scott

Karen Scott — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:19:53 +0000

I am not a fan of Romance B(u)y The Book, and I’ll just leave it at that.

I can’t stand Michelle Buonfiglio either. She’s a fanny. (The British meaning of fanny that is.)

By: Karen Scott

Karen Scott — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:14:01 +0000

I didn’t know that B&N had a romance blog, but I wouldn’t have visited even if I’d been made aware of it.

I must admit, I’ve yet to pay a visit to the Borders True Romance blog, and had DA not been involved, I wouldn’t even consider visiting. Promo blogs are beyond dull in my opinion. I may visit tomorrow if I can be arsed. Then I can say I at least gave it a whirl.

By: Marg

Marg — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 03:53:08 +0000

I didn’t know that Barnes and Noble had a romance focussed blog, and I can’t see that I will start visiting there now that I know that it is there.

Occasionally I do read the Borders one, but I have to say I don’t find it introduces me to new authors, it is more likely to be that an author I already know and/or like is featured and so I will stop by to see what they have to say. It certainly wouldn’t encourage me to buy new authors very often.

By: Heloise

Heloise — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:44:13 +0000

Ditto. I’m surprised actually to hear so many people echo my feelings about group blogs. I thought I was alone in not using the bigger sites like DA and RtB for recommendations. The Book Smugglers and Smart Bitches have always seemed to integrate their voices well, maybe it helps that there are only two of them?

For rec’s: TBSmugglers, and the single author blogs mentioned here. I’ve always assumed I have a slightly skewed overview of the romance blogs but maybe I’m more typical than I thought (of Jessica’s readers

The Store sponsored blogs: never went to B&N but the video blog at Borders really turned me off. Very good point about, if we are not the audience then they need to give it more space on their splash page!

By: Niveau

Niveau — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:07:39 +0000

I only knew about Borders. It’s in my reader, but unless there’s a big giveaway, I generally only skim each post. I’ve won two books off of it, and those two posts were pretty much the only ones I paid attention to. There’s not much to keep me coming back to it; most of the topics are ones I’ve already seen covered in much greater and more critical depth, and I can’t stand Sue Grimshaw.

By: lil

lil — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:29:12 +0000

I haven’t read either blog – mostly because I assumed they exist for PR purposes. IMO, the point of the Big Box Blogs is to sell me stuff whereas the reader blogs point me towards books I want to read.
I also have a problem with the way Borders segregates AA romances and choose not to buy from them because of this.

By: KristieJ

KristieJ — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:42:37 +0000

I visit the Borders blog occasionally but the H2H – never knew there was one and even now knowing, I won’t visit. I also don’t visit Romance B(u)y The Book – nuff said on that.
As for RtB – I don’t visit it very often either – only if a blogger I know says they have a post there. And even Access Reader of which I’m a contributor I don’t frequent as often as I should (my bad).
The ‘group’ blog I visit the most is the one at AAR.
But – I prefer the single blogs the most. It has more of a one on one feel to them then the ones where there is someone different posting every day.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:08:20 +0000

azteclady :

Jessica, why does your blog not like me today?
Reply

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