A New Hashtag: #TuesdayBookBlog

Most Twittering bloggers know about the benefits of 'blog share' days; it all started with Rachel Thompson and her fabulously successful #MondayBlogs.  Now, there is also #wwwblogs on Wednesday (Wednesday women writers), #SundayBlogShare, #ArchiveDay on Saturday, and probably others, too.

Since Rachel started #MondayBlogs, she's been battling against people using it for book promotion; her view is that you have six other days of the week to promote your books, but #MondayBlogs is about the writing itself ~ in other words, blog posts about anything other than your book!  The rule is: no book promotion of any sort on #MondayBlogs, not even third party reviews.

Because there are so many avid readers, writers and book bloggers out there who understand the benefit of blog share days, Rosie Amber's Book Review Team is introducing a new hashtag on Tuesdays, for book posts only ~ #TuesdayBookBlog.

Photo by Barb Taub

As anyone who starts a hashtag knows, the main difficulty involved is dealing with 'hashtag abuse' ~ tweeters who spot a popular hashtag and add it to any tweet, whether relevant or not.  We will do our best to limit this, but do feel free to draw anyone's attention to the rules, if you feel moved to!

The guidelines for #TuesdayBookBlog:

DO post:

• Blog posts only!
• Book reviews ~ either for your own books, or other people's, or reviews you've written on your own blog.
• Author Interviews ~ yours or others'.
• Cover reveals ~ yours or others'.
• Upcoming/new releases ~ yours or others'.
• Articles or guest posts about books/writers ~ you/yours or others'.

DO NOT post:

• Anything that isn't a blog post
• Blog posts that aren't about books/writers.
• Porn.
• Blatant promotion of an existing publication that isn't a proper article - in other words, a blog post consisting of nothing but the cover of the book, Amazon blurb and buy links.  This was one of the ways in which #MondayBlogs was abused, after people were told they couldn't use the hashtag for tweets with Amazon links; they simply stuck their Amazon links in a blog post.  Not cricket!!!

To get the most out of #TuesdayBookBlog:

• Retweet others on the hashtag and spread the word.  Hashtags only work if you do your bit, too!
• The power of Twitter is in the retweet, more than the tweet.  Hashtag retweets are never guaranteed, but do remember that the more you do, the more you are likely to get back. A while back I came across this as a Twitter rule: "An RT is better than a TY".  In other words, a retweet back is a better way of saying 'thank you for the retweet' than a tweet saying 'thank you for the RT' ;)
• We hope you will enjoy using #TuesdayBookBlog, and look forward to seeing you there :)