How to hype your favourite reads

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve done a discussion post and today I wanted to discuss with you all different ways that we can hype and support our favourite reads outside of reviews. I think one of the biggest misconceptions about book blogging is that you have to review everything and if you’re not reviewing books then you’re not supporting those books or authors.  Yet, when I recently looked back through my blog posts whilst doing my brand redesign, I noticed that I very rarely review my favourite books. I usually review most of the other books that I read, but I just find reviewing my favourites so hard, I never know what to say! Despite not reviewing them, I still get a lot of people who tell me that they read one of my faves though I never reviewed them.

So, how can we hype up our favourite reads outside of reviewing?

Memes

One of the best ways I’ve found to share my favourite reads and recommendations with everyone is through weekly and monthly memes! Posts like Top 10 Tuesday and book tags are often some of my most popular posts that generate a lot of views, comments and likes. As a result of more foot traffic, more people see the books I harp on about every time I get an opportunity and those books tend to stick in people’s minds once they start to see them mentioned every few weeks. I also have a lot of books that I’ve added to my TBR through seeing other bloggers weekly meme posts.

 

Recommendation Lists

Similarly to the weekly meme posts, recommendation lists are always good especially when they are themed! Last year there were some fantastic recommendation lists for different diverse rep which were posted and shared widely by bloggers. These can be really useful resources for people to access and can keep being added to over time.

 

Author Spotlights

I love author spotlights and think they are such a fantastic way to feature your favourite authors. There are two main ways to do author spotlights that I’ve seen. The first is where the author themselves takes part in your spotlight, for example through participating in a Q&A, which can be really exciting for both author and blogger. This can be difficult to arrange depending on your access to the author, authors availability and whether they want to take part or not. The other way you can do author spotlights is by writing a post sharing your love for the author without them being there, which is something I have done before and really enjoyed doing. It’s easier to do as you don’t need to be in contact with the author directly and I’ve found that it always brightens their day when you tweet them the post.

 

Blog Tour

A great way to hype up a new release that you love is by participating in a blog tour for it. These opportunities can be harder to come by but there are a few ways that you can take part. So far I’ve been contacted by a publisher via email to take part in the Wicked Saints blog tour and I will be taking part in the blog tour for The Outcast Hours at the end of next month which I saw advertised on the publicists twitter. There may also be opportunities if you have received an ARC of the book either through Netgalley, which has an option to be contacted about author interviews and blog tours (although I’ve never received any this way), or directly through the publisher or author. If in doubt, it’s always worth asking!

 

Twitter + Instagram

Twitter is often my go to when I want to share things and interact with my followers as well as authors and publishing houses. It’s not just a great place to share your blog posts but also engage in threads. There’s a lot of book bloggers on twitter and it allows for more flexible and ongoing conversation than just through your blog. I’ve had a lot of my followers (bookish and non-bookish) pick up books that I’ve spoken about on there.

Instagram is another great way to share your fave read and you can keep using the same book over and over again for different set ups! Bookstagram can be intimidating and when I first started using it I thought I would have to invest lots of money in props and backdrops. As I don’t use it as a “professional bookstagram” account, I just take pictures of my books on my lap or on our sofa blankets, it can be as simple as that!

 

Buddy Reads and/or Themed Reads

Organising a buddy read or a themed read can be a great way for sharing your favourite books with others. When I was part of the Life & Lit facebook admin team last year, we hosted a readathon for Pride and the book I was hosting was the Song of Achilles. Lots of people read the book that had been meaning to for ages and it was fun being able to guide people through the book as they experienced it for the first time.

 

Discord

Lastly, bookish Discord groups are another great way of sharing the love. I’m part of Lauren‘s fantastic Books and Tea group which allows for so many opportunities to talk about your favourite books. There are dedicated threads for sharing book recommendations, talking about classics, general bookish chat, and loads more.

So, as you see there are so many ways to hype up books outside of reviewing. These are just a few of the ways that I’ve been using to share my love of particular books and (hopefully) encouraging you all to read them too! If you have any other suggestions then add a comment below and share them with me ❤

---

 

GOODREADS / TWITTER / INSTAGRAM / AMAZON / PATREON