Carolyn Crist

Hello friends,

It’s interview time! I talked to Colette Chimel, who writes book reviews for her blog, “A Buckeye Girl Reads.” It’s fantastic, so I thought I would feature her here!

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Carolyn Crist: What sparked you to start your website, and what keeps you going?

Colette Chimel: What sparked my interest to start my book blog was that a friend of mine through my personal blog started one, and thought-I could do that! My book reviews were taking over my personal blog, and my readers there weren’t as into books as I am, so I started it one night when I was bored.  What keeps me going is all the great comments I get from my followers, and when an author thanks me for reading their book or leaves a nice comment on my blog.

Carolyn: What interests you the most about book reviewing?

Colette: That’s a good question! I think what interests me most is that it’s a way for me to remember what I thought about a certain book and to help me with my writing skills..it also lets me read books I normally otherwise wouldn’t read.

Carolyn: How do you continue to find intriguing books and content to post on each day?

Colette: I’m not sure that the books I read are always intriguing to others, but I just read whatever sounds interesting or different to me. A  lot of authors & genres  I’ve found through different bloggers, and through that keep discovering more titles I wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t a blogger. I’ve also discovered that you don’t need to post something everyday and that helps keep the content fresh & I’m not boring people with having a different book meme every single day.

Carolyn: What types of characters do you like the most?

Colette: I love books with strong heroes & heroines. There’s nothing better then seeing a hero that’s tough on the outside become a softie. I love strong heroines that aren’t afraid to say with they think and solve problems on their own.

Carolyn: How do you support yourself financially while blogging? 

Colette: Most of the books I read come from the library! I also have a book budget that I try to stick with. I have found having a Kindle has saved me lots of money when it comes to book buying. I’m always amazed at the great deals and free books that are on amazon.

Carolyn: Tell us a bit about marketing and promotion of your site.

Colette: When I was a new blogger, I was really shy about promoting my site. I didn’t do much marketing or promotion at all. What helped me the most were joining reading challenges, book memes, blog hop giveaways and blogger events like Dewey’s Read A Thon. I’ve found that leaving comments on other blogs is the best kind of marketing you can do. I don’t suggest leaving a comment and then a link to your post, but just leaving a simple comment works wonders for word of mouth promoting. The only promotion I really do now is through blog hop giveaways, blog tours and twitter. The best advice I can give is just be yourself and do what you feel comfortable doing to promote your blog.