Sunday Salon: I've got a lot on!

Today I thought I would take the opportunity to talk about a few things that I have going on. This time of year seems to get very busy very easily online!

Where to start.

First things first! Have you seen the awesome Shaun Tan blogiversary giveaway that I have going on at the moment? You can win a special boxed edition of The Arrival and Sketches from a Nameless Land that at this stage has only been released in Australia. To enter, check all the details here.

Next up, South Pacific Book Chat. A few months ago, I mentioned in a Sunday Salon post a few months ago that Maree from Just Add Books and Tanabata from In Spring it is the Dawn were starting South Pacific Book Chat. There were lots of book chats on Twitter, but so often they were at inconvenient times for those of us who live in the South Pacific. So now, each week on Thursdays at 6pm JPN/8pm Eastern Aust/10pm NZ we come together and chat about all sorts of different things. Through #spbkchat I have met new book bloggers, and Tweeters, had a load of fun, and had some good book recs. Topics we have chatted about over the last few weeks include sports books, show us your TBR, spooky reads and more. Coming up this week we are focusing on Australian YA, so if you are on Twitter and would like to join in, then look out for the #spbkchat tag on Thursday nights.

One project that I am a little behind on is the Australian Book Blogger Directory. We are still taking entries, and there has been some discussion about there being a Book Blogger meet up in Sydney next March. Keep an eye out for further news about that. It will be announced both at the directory and here, and a few other places as well. If I get  organised, then I will try to organise one in Melbourne before then as well. I am planning to spend some time today putting new entries up. In the meantime, if you are an Australian Book Blogger and you would like to be added to the directory, then please head over to the Directory and leave your link.

Tomorrow, I will be posting about the 2010 Virtual Advent Tour. This will be the fifth year I have co-hosted the tour with Kelly from The Written World, and we always look forward to seeing all the posts by the participants. I just saw the buttons for this year's tour and they are Gorg-e-ous!

And finally, in a couple of weeks, we have a special week coming up at Historical Tapestry featuring one of my favourite authors, so I will be sure to tell you all about that when it happens!

All this means that I have lots that I can be doing on this Sunday morning, and can be very productive without even leaving the chair. If only I didn't have to be doing some housework at the same time! What are you going to be doing this Sunday afternoon?

TSS: Define book blogger

Last week I announced the Australian Book Blogger Directory so this week's TSS is going to be a bit of an update on that project, but the main focus for today is going to be around definitions. Does your blog have to be all books all the time to be considered a book blog? How about author blogs? Their focus is on books, admittedly usually only their own books, but still?

First up though an update! After one week we have nearly 50 Aussie book blogs registered which is totally awesome, and a fantastic start! My plan is to spend tomorrow getting all the entries I currently have up on the blog.

Some of the most pleasing aspects of this first week is that after the first few days it was probably 50/50 in terms of the numbers of new to me blogs versus the Australian blogs I already knew about. My Google Reader isn't thanking me, but I am loving finding all these new blogs. Now I just have to carve out more blog hopping time to keep up with them.

The other pleasing thing was that I was able to see new connections being made between people who hadn't discovered each other's blogs before, finding other people with similar tastes in reading. That was one of the aims I had for the directory so I am very hopeful that this will continue.

Before I move onto definitions, I just wanted to say thank you to those of you who posted about the Australian Book Blogger Directory. I don't want to forget anyone so I am not going to name names, but thank you for your support! I really appreciate it, and also to Violet for making a button for the directory.


So this leads me to my questions for today.

When I announced the creation of the Book Blogger Directory I got a couple of emails in particular asking what kind of blogs can be included. Which really is what is a book blogger? Here's a quote from one of those emails:

I would love to spread the word but need to know what your criteria are for "book blog". I am on an Aussie writer list and am happy to tell them about it. Some review books so that's easy. Some review books and write about writing. Some review books occasionally. Some don't review books but they write books! Are you happy to let them decide if they belong to the book blogging fraternity and apply to join the directory? I do think of myself as a book blogger, but also an education and parenting blogger. I have several Australian followers who are mombloggers. If they review books sometimes, can they join?

For the purposes of ABBD, I am really interested in connecting people with similar interests and who will be keen to meet up with other book bloggers in future, so I suspect that my definition might be a bit looser than some other peoples might be. Personally, if someone wants to call themselves a book blogger (and there is some bookish content on their blogs) then I am happy for them to join up, but then again, I actually don't see ABBD as my blog, but rather a community project, so will be happy to discuss other blogger's ideas.

So, what do we all think? Is an author a book blogger, or do they need to at least be chatting about other people's books as well as their own to qualify? What about other types of bloggers who occasionally talk books? What about blogs that are attached to bookstores? Often there are reviews amongst their posts, but really the aim is to try to get people to buy from the store.

Is there a definition somewhere of what a book blogger is or isn't? Does anyone who has signed up for the ABBD have strong opinions as to who should and shouldn't be included?

So, my question to anyone who wants to respond is "How do you define the term book blogger?"

TSS: Announcing.... something for the Aussies

I've been working on a new project for the last little while, and today is the day that I can share the details. First though, I thought I would talk about the whys and then give the detail.

For quite a long time, I have been thinking about Aussie bloggers and wondering about how many there are and how to connect with more. Some times I have been reading a blog for a few weeks and then suddenly they will post something and the penny will drop and I realise that they are an Australian! I am sure that there are loads of Australian book blogs that I either don't realise or Aussies or who I haven't come across before!

Reading about all the fun that everyone had in New York connecting with each other in real life at BEA was the next prompt, as was the acceptance that there appeared to be from the big published house towards bloggers at BEA.

So, an idea was born.

Today, I am pleased to announce the creation of

Australian Book Bloggers Directory

The idea behind the directory is that it is a place where people can register their blogs, plus a few details like what genres you like to blog about, and a general idea of location. Then hopefully we will be able to easily find other Australian bloggers with similar reading interests that you might not already know about, or other bloggers who may live in your area.

The second aim in setting up the directory is with a view to starting to get blogger meet-ups happening, at this stage probably in the capital cities, and maybe aligned with some of the major bookish festivals. In due course, assuming enough interest, we will look towards trying to set up a national book blogger event.

The third aim in setting up the directory is to try and raise the profile of Australian book blogging with some of the major publishers here. I don't know if I am just not aware of it happening, but I can't think of many examples where Australian publishers are working with book bloggers in the same way as it happens in other countries.

So are you an Australian book blogger? If yes, and it doesn't matter if you are a kids lit book blog, or a romance blog, or YA, or any type of book blogger really, head on over and add your details. Hopefully you will be able to connect with other bloggers who share your interests.

I would really appreciate people would help spread the word, to try and make the directory as comprehensive as possible. Also, if anyone has any graphic skills and would like to make some kind of badge that we could use both on the website and maybe to display on our blogs let me know! I do not have any skills in that area at all. Finally, if anyone has any suggestions on how to make the directory better, then I will be glad to hear them.

I would like to say specific thanks to Kerrie from Mysteries in Paradise, Amanda from Desert Book Chick and Kat from Bookthingo who were all very helpful in checking out the site and giving suggestions to help make it as easy and user friendly as possible.