Blogging takes up a lot of time, does it not? There's the whole reading the books. Hours and hours and hours. Of course, that's the best part isn't it? Then there's the time spent writing reviews. Then we spend time writing other posts. Archiving our reviews. Linking up our other posts. Reading and commenting on other people's blogs. Replying to comments on our own blogs. Filming vlogs and book hauls. Organizing our massive stacks of books. Submitting reviews to publishers. And finally, what tends to hit the back-burner for me, cross-posting reviews on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.
I used to be really good about cross-posting. I'm still really good about at least getting the review up on Goodreads. But Amazon and B&N? Not so much anymore. The thing is that I want to. I really do. I know how much it helps the author and how much it helps spread the word about the book. But honestly, I don't have time. There's just not enough hours in the day! And a lot of times, I read a book pre-publication and Amazon won't let me post a review before the release date (is there a way to do this that I don't know about?). So then by the time the book comes out, I completely forget and I can't keep track of what comes out when and what needs to get posted where, etc. It can get....overwhelming.
I'm thinking about maybe taking one day a month (at the end of the month, maybe after I write my monthly wrap-up) and just sitting down and cross-posting all the reviews for the month. That might work. But there's still a matter of finding the time to do that. I mean, I post three reviews per week on average. That's 12 reviews to cross-post on both Amazon and B&N. I just feel like that's time I could be spending reading other blogs, reading other books, hanging with my husband, talking to my family, going to the beach, etc. *sigh*
So how important do you think it is to cross-post? Are you pretty good about keeping up with it or does it tend to fall to the wayside? Is there a way to post on Amazon and B&N before release date? If you are good at cross-posting (kudos) how do you stay organized/find the time?
I am bad about this, too. I cross post on Goodreads and Amazon. On Amazon, I only post positive reviews because I consider it a way of doing something nice for the author. I like your idea of one day a month to do this. Otherwise, it can be hard to keep up
ReplyDeleteKate @ Ex Libris
That's a good way of looking at it. So hard to keep up. :(
DeleteI only cross post on Goodreads, although I share the review link on Twitter multiple times of the post date and once on my blog's Facebook and Tumblr pages. It's definitely time-consuming to even do just those four things!
ReplyDeleteSame here. And yes. It is so time consuming. I preschedule everything out so I don't have to worry about it the day of, but honestly sometimes I think that's what takes me the longest. All the scheduling.
DeleteI'm really bad about cross posting. I definitely cross post the books I review that I get from publishers on Goodreads, but I don't cross post on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. And I try to cross post other books I review, but I'm so behind on it, it's pretty sad. It is time consuming and my least favorite things to do, I would much rather spend my time doing other things. So I wouldn't worry too much about it!! ~Pam
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that I'm not the only one who sucks at this! Yay! Now I don't feel so bad.
DeleteI literally only cross-post to Goodreads (and to Edelweiss and Netgalley if that's where I got the eARC). Mainly because I'm super lazy. Lol.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it's somewhat important to cross post reviews on Amazon and B&N and such sites if you want to support the author- since good reviews might mean that more people buy the books. But at the same time, most bookish people go to GR for reviews anyway, so I feel like it's not quite so important to upload the reviews to the other sites :)
I'm so glad to hear that I'm not the only one who struggles to do this. I seriously felt like I was failing miserably. Lol. Yeah, I think I will try to post the positive reviews to Amazon at least. I really do want to help out the amazing authors out there. But I do agree with you. Bookish people go to GR, not Amazon.
DeleteI am very behind on cross posting my reviews! Honestly, I've yet to put them on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. I think that's something I'd have to have a whole month to do. However, I do post reviews on Goodreads, but they aren't my blog reviews. I'll write a review of a book on Goodreads only sometime just to share my thoughts and have some content on there as well. I put those books on a special 'reviewed on goodreads' shelf that I have linked in my blog's sidebar so that regular blog viewers can go find those as well, and I link my blog at the bottom of my Goodreads reviews. I'm not sure how well the system works out, but I enjoy it because I feel like I'm not bogging down my blog with reviews only yet I can add content to both sites. I know Amazon is definitely a great way to help authors with ratings and getting customers interested, but like you said in the response just above this, bookish people go to goodreads so that's normally where I immediately turn to after finishing a book.
ReplyDelete*well, tend to go to Goodreads before Amazon, at least from my personal experience. And also, I loved this post!!! :)
DeleteYeah. I was doing really well for a while and then I just didn't have time anymore. :/ But it sounds like no one else does either so I don't feel so bad. I am going to try to post my positive reviews on Amazon if I can find time I think. I just really want to help the authors out, you know?
DeleteI love reading all these comments!
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I type up my review, I grab out the highlights and paste it into Goodreads. And then, honestly? I use the exact same review on Amazon. Copy and paste. I should have already said all that I need to say! I hardly ever post on Barnes and Noble :/
Yeah, when I was cross-posting to Amazon, I was just copying and pasting the review from my blog. Same for Goodreads. I don't write separate reviews. I just put my review in multiple places I guess. :)
DeleteI suck at cross posting so I just stopped. At first, I would bother with copying & pasting my reviews into Goodreads and even though it didn't take a lot of effort, it was just that one extra step that I didn't really want to do and eventually, I stopped. For me, honestly, I don't think that not cross-posting really makes that big of a difference as I don't really use Goodreads for purposes other than keeping track of books and my progress - both things having to do more with myself than others. And cross-posting is not something that I'm doing for personal reasons and it's not something I like doing either so it became kinda pointless for me.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that makes sense. I do still cross-post to Goodreads, but everywhere else just stopped for me. I just really don't have time. I do think I may try to post my super positive reviews to Amazon though just to help the authors out. If a book is getting five stars from me, I feel like it deserves to be posted everywhere you know?
DeleteI used to be really good with crossposting but as with everything reading/blog related in the past two months, I just suck at it lately!!! I use a spreadsheet to track all my books and I have a column in there that is for posted to Goodreads and Amazon, so even if the book is before the release date on Amazon, I know to go back and update it!! I think doing it once a month is a great idea :)
ReplyDeleteThat is super organized. I'm impressed. Lol. I really am thinking that when I do my monthly rewinds, I may just do all the cross-posting. But more likely than not I'll get lazy and I won't do them... Fail.
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