Recap: Book Blogging 101 panel + Giveaway!

How long has been it since I last posted in this blog? Hi, dearest readers! *waves* Christmas is just around the corner, I hope you're all ready for the holidays!

Photo from Kate of The Bookaholic Blurbs!

Fellow book bloggers and friends Precious of Fragments of Life and Sab of Sab The Book Eater had a talk the previous week and it was our turn on November 28th. Together with Kate of The Bookaholic Blurbs, Hazel of Stay Bookish and Jesselle of The Lifelong Bookworm we were invited to be in a panel to discuss book blogging at Fully Booked Town Alabang.

We had some time to burn and there was a sale, so imagine us running around the place looking for books we'll most likely end up buying, bringing them to the table for the talk.

A photo posted by Kate M (@thebookaholicblurbs) on Nov 29, 2015 at 6:42am PST

I was surprised and impressed upon seeing a row of YA books placed on the table, all titles familiar and most I've read, that got me fired up and nervous at the same time. This isn't my first panel, but I'm not really a public speaker, so I never get used to having people look at me while I speak.

Photo from SISC Monarchs' Twitter page!

I don't remember much of what I said, we introduced ourselves, why we blog and why YA and it was a blur from then on. The panel is for those who are interested in setting up their own blogs, so we discussed these:

- What's in a name? (Thinking of a name for your blog)
- Your genre (other genres aside from YA, and it's not just YA blogs that are popular)
- The lifelong debate: Wordpress or Blogger?
- The importance of blog design (and establishing your own "brand")
- Writing good reviews (Review style, short or long reviews, DNF's and of course, SPOILERS.)
- Establishing your social media presence (Which one do we use? Instagram? Twitter? Why? How? For what?)
- How to manage your time (School/work and book blogging)
 - Lastly, connecting with publishers

If you're interested, here's the PDF version of the slides we used in the panel.

Some tweet worthy points from the talk (note that I don't have any, so I might not have said anything particularly helpful ^^, and yes I am kidding!):

"Choose a blog title that identifies you because your blog name is your brand" -@jessellev of The Lifelong Bookworm

— Southville (@SISCMonarchs) November 28, 2015

"Start with the books you think you can connect with not just because you wanted to start a blog" -Kate Manalo of The Bookaholic Blurbs

— Southville (@SISCMonarchs) November 28, 2015

"Blog design matters" -Hazel Ureta of Stay Bookish

— Southville (@SISCMonarchs) November 28, 2015

The best part of the whole thing and what really made me happy was when it was time for the attendees to ask questions. I was pretty sure we spent an hour answering questions about Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey, what we put in a review to make it interesting, how many books we have, if we donate books and asking for book recommendations!

A photo posted by Kai A. (@amaterasureads) on Nov 27, 2015 at 8:59pm PST

Jesselle recommends The Start of Me and You
Kate recommended The Last Time We Say Goodbye (and Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone series!)
Hazel recommends Throne of Glass
I recommended The Raven Boys, The Beginning of Everything and We Were Liars!

I cannot thank Southville International School and Colleges enough for creating this event! We honestly need more of this, and I will definitely attend anytime not just to spread the word but to help encourage not just the younger generation but more people in general to not just blog but also read. A lot of teens can learn from this kind of talks and reading as well as blogging are really good ways to spend your time. To everyone who attended, thank you for spending your precious time with us and for asking great questions! I hope we were able to help you know more about book blogging and books in general!

A photo posted by Kai A. (@amaterasureads) on Nov 27, 2015 at 9:37pm PST

And I have a giveaway! Just because.

WIN 2 BOOKS + CARRY ON SWAG!
(PH ONLY)

I was supposed to give a book away during the talk but I completely forgot about it and the book ended up locked inside the car, which I didn't notice until I got home after the talk.

Just leave a comment and let me know what kind of bookish related panel you'd like to attend in the near future. (Who knows, maybe we can make it happen!) Not required to tweet but it'll be greatly appreciated if you can spread the word about this post and the giveaway!

Rules:

PH Only

Must be at least 13 years old

Ends December 15

GOOD LUCK!