I am terrible about being consistent in my connections to other bloggers. I get overwhelmed with the amount of amazing stuff out there and feel lost. I am once again going to resolve to leave thoughtful comments on others’ blogs. I always wish I received more comments on my posts so I need to “be the change”, right?
One place I do better is Twitter. I reply and retweet with regularity and find interesting links there. Much of my Twitter realm is devoted to writing, writers and books — not just book reviewers. As another BBAW-er posted this morning, having Twitter lists is key. It’s a great platform but it can get noisy. I’ve been bad about that but it’s a good idea.
I think some of my most exciting connections have been on Twitter, actually. I’ve chatted with favorite authors and met people who I became friends with in real life. And Twitter is how I learned about this sort of blogging in the first place. (You mean they send you books in the mail!? To your house?! For free!?!)
I do use Goodreads, sparingly. It mostly helps me keep track of books I am interested in or have read. I’m in a couple of groups there, but that platform has grown like kudzu lately. It just doesn’t seem like it lends itself to connecting with readers. And I DESPERATELY miss their bookswap program.
I highly recommend Armchair BEA to connect with and trade stories. There are tons of interesting people with a wide variety of tastes. And the organizers always have cool prizes to giveaway every day.
I think as bookish people, we tend to be introverts anyway. But one thing I have noticed over the years is once you get us talking, we will engage in literary conversations all day!