How to Blog for Books

So I’ve done a couple book reviews on my blog by now, and may have piqued your interest in “blog for books” programs . You look at the books and think, “hey, I want to read a book for free!”

Hesitate no longer,if you are interested in getting involved in any of these programs, it’s easy to sign up! I don’t know if they have a limit of how many bloggers they allow, but personally I have been able to sign up and request a book the same day I decide to do so…

There are two programs that I now belong to (click on titles to go to their main site):

BookSneeze, which is a division of Thomas Nelson publishing and offers their books,

and

Blogging For Books, which offers books by Waterbrook Multnomah publishing.

Both of these sites offer choices of fiction and non-fiction, paperback (they pay for shipping!) and e-book – as well as some books in Spanish.They both request that you review the book on your blog and on a consumer website – could be Amazon, could be Christianbook.com, your call.

I’ve found that Blogging for Books tends to have a greater selection – BookSneeze has less fiction books. The latter site sends out an email when they will be releasing a lot of books, and sometimes you have to be quick to snag a book you want to read, before all of the copies have been requested. I have noticed that the variety at BookSneeze has steadily been increasing over the last couple years.

Blogging for Books will also send you an email reminding you to read and review your book, which is helpful.

In the end, I would say that the difference between these sites is pretty small, and you’re pretty sure to find a book you would enjoy reading and talking about through either program. So what are you waiting for? Jump on this train before it’s filled up. And keep your eye out for other publishers that adopt this idea!

Know of any other sites that let you blog for free books? Comment below!

Blogging for Books: Sierra Jensen, Volume 1

Wow, I haven’t written a post since my last review? That’s bad. Sorry about that. Right now I’m kinda figuring out… future plans, so blog posts have been on hold til I’m sure of the direction I want to travel. Sometime in the near future, I’ll find some interesting topics to blog about.

But for now, I have another book review! I recently joined a second program that allows you to read free books, with the criteria that you must review them on your blog and on a consumer site (Post to follow on how to get involved in such programs).

The first book I requested from Blogging for Books, which offers books from publisher Waterbrook Multnomah, is the first volume of the Sierra Jensen Collection. I had heard good things from friends about the author Robin Jones Gunn, who also wrote the popular “Christy Miller” series. This series is connected to the Christy series, in that Sierra met Christy while on a mission trip in Europe, and will continue to meet up with Christy further on in the series.

Volume One is a collection of the first three Sierra stories, “Only You, Sierra”, “In Your Dreams”, and “Don’t You Wish”. In these stories, Sierra returns from a mission trip in England to one adventure after another that will try her – a new home, a new school, a grandmother that is losing touch with reality, sister troubles, the need for a job, and a chance meeting in a London airport with a guy named Paul that happens to live in Oregon, too, and that she begins to run into frequently.

Through it all – even with her strong will and sharp tongue – Sierra keeps God in the forefront, and will make a great role model for every tween/teen girl.

Gunn’s casual way of writing about a teen girl’s daily life never lost my attention, and in fact reminded me a lot of the “Diary of a Teenage Girl” series by Melody Carlson, which are some of my favorite books. My only complaint about these books is that even though the main characters go through hard times and struggles, it often feels like their lives are pretty well put together. When I was younger and reading Carlson’s books, it felt as if every one of her main characters had a job, their license, and a car by at least 16, 17 years old. Felt pretty unfair to me that their lives were so easy, although looking back it wasn’t that long until I had my license and a job, just felt like a long time in waiting, ‘cause everything feels like a long time when you’re a teen…

I’ve also wondered if the reason the lives of the teen girls in Gunn’s and Carlson’s books seem easier and “rosier”, is because it’s difficult to truly capture the small things that cause friction in day-to-day life and keep us from having truly great days. When you think about it, what are the things that bring you down, that cause tension in family and friends? Sure, there’s the big things, but I’d bet that most of the things that can make our lives short of perfect… would just sound plain silly when written down. Someone drank the last of the chocolate milk in the fridge? Slow person driving in front of you as you were headed to the grocery store? The day is ruined!! Sounds silly… but stop and consider, what are the things that get to you, and that you allow to make your day that much less enjoyable?

And if the lives of these characters in these books ever start to feel a little rosy, consider… maybe the things that we allow to bother us are so trivial, they would sound ridiculous written down.

Just a thought.

I’m hoping to get the rest of the Sierra series through Blogging for Books – I want to see how her life continues to play out. If you want to check this book or this author out, I would say go for it. Although Melody Carlson is still definitely my favorite – if you’re going to head to the library to check out any books after reading this blog post, I recommend her “Diary for a Teenage Girl” series, especially the Caitlin books.

 

Disclaimer: I received this book from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers for free, in exchange for my honest review.