Armchair BEA - Blogging Ethics

Design Credit: Emily of Emily's Reading Room

Today's Armchair BEA Question: Do you have recommendations to new bloggers to ensure credit is given to whom/where credit is due?  Have you had an experience with plagiarism?  How did you deal with it?  What are the guidelines as bloggers that we must follow?

I don't have much to say on the topic. I don't think I'm popular enough to be plagiarized.  I am careful about pictures that I post -- I don't want to use other's work without permission.

I have used Creative Commons once in a while and I recommend checking it out.

Since I don't have much to add, I'll be interested in reading your stories! Thanks for stopping by.

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Armchair BEA - Blog Development

Design Credit: Emily of Emily's Reading Room

Here's the assignment for today's post:  Tell us about things you've done to expand your blogging horizons, and the things you'd like to do but haven't managed (or figured out) yet. Come back here to link up your post, and then go see what other participants have to say. Let's foster our development as bloggers and learn from each other!

This is a real weakness of mine. I didn't start my blog to count followers. It was supposed to be a personal thing. And, my blog grows very slowly. I have over 500 followers, but I've been blogging almost three years. I actually have done LESS in the past year to attract people to my blog.

What do I do? I participate in a couple of memes on a weekly basis. I try to comment a lot (but never enough.) I mostly review books that are current -- either right before or right after they are published. I think my reviews are good. They are fairly short. They don't give away any spoilers -- actually I don't talk too much about the plot except in general terms. I concentrate on what I thought about the book. That's what I'm looking for when I read a review. I don't need six paragraphs on what happened in the book and then a two sentence, "I really liked it." That doesn't help me.

What SHOULD I do? I've wanted to update the design of my blog for a long time. Actually spend some money. I should be more active on Twitter -- but that takes away from my reading time. I should do more giveaways. I should post things besides reviews. Even though on other blogs I follow, I pretty much only read the book reviews, other people seem to like other stuff. Author interviews, book blasts, etc.

Will I do this? I might some day work on my blog design. I might try to have more giveaways. But other than that, probably not. My heart just isn't in the marketing aspect of blogging. I'm all about reading and reviewing. If I don't have many followers it's really OK.  Really.

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Armchair BEA -- Let me Introduce Myself!

Design Credit: Emily of Emily's Reading Room

Today during Armchair BEA, we are supposed to tell you a bit about ourselves. So, here goes...

Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?

Hi! I'm Annette, and I'm a high school librarian. I've been blogging for about three years. I started blogging for a couple of reasons. I wanted to remember the books I read a bit better. I read fast, and I read a lot. Sometimes I can't remember what a book was about. And my job is all about recommending books to teens. So I thought if I wrote something about the books I've read, it would help me remember them. And it has. Also, I can't possible read EVERY book that my students might be interested in. So, I read a lot of reviews and I feel like I can get a good impression of some of the books I don't have time to read.

Where in the world are you blogging from? Tell a random fact or something special about your current location. Feel free to share pictures. 

I live in Illinois, close to St. Louis, Missouri. It's a very rural, small town, but in 30 minutes I can be in a big metropolitan area. I love that part about living where I do. As far as my current location, I'm going to leave that for another question below...

What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2013? 

2013 has been a great year for second books in a series! I've loved Dark Triumph, Days of Blood and Starlight, Fragments, and Rebel Heart to name just a few.

Tell us one non-book-related thing that everyone reading your blog may not know about you.

Armchair BEA always seems to take place while I'm on vacation. Last year I was in Florida. This year, tomorrow I will be leaving for a 17-day cross country camping trip. So, I hope to be posting some pictures of my "Armchair" in all the spots we are camping. You can follow my journey here and on the Instagram Challenge.

What literary location would you most like to visit? Why?

I really want to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I know, that might not be considered very "literary" but I need to go! I want to drink ButterBeer and buy myself a wand. Maybe a magic broom too. My husband has NEVER been to Disney World, so I think we need to go there too. I'm just not sure where to go first, or if we can go to both in one trip. Such dilemmas...

I hope you enjoy visiting all the blogs participating in Armchair BEA. Thanks for visiting, and I hope you come back soon.

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