Thursday, June 7, 2012

Beyond the blog ~ freelancing and free stuff

Today's Armchair BEA topic:
"Has blogging opened up opportunities for you beyond getting free, advance copies of new books?  Has it helped you get offers to write or review elsewhere (maybe even for pay)?  Have you gotten invites to special events or places you might not have been to otherwise?  Today, we'd like you to talk about those opportunities in you own posts, and later this morning, we'll have a guest post from one of our own Armchair BEA team members, about her freelancing experiences."
Is that what it's supposed to boil down to?  Free ARCs, offers to write or review, getting paid, invitations, and freelancing?  If so, I might as well leave the conversation.  I've already been there, done that, and retired.  I have been a writer since the mid-1960s, with my by-lined articles published locally, nationally, and internationally.  I have been editor of two in-house publications.  I am blogging now because I enjoy reading and talking about books, not as a way to get free stuff or to get jobs as a freelancer.  I'm not blogging to be discovered, but to share books.  I quit accepting ARCs after the first few because I decided it wasn't worth the trouble.  I don't limit my reading to what's being published this year, but write about what interests me, quite independently from the publishing world.  Today's topic makes all book bloggers sound mercenary, and that's just plain sad.  (And I'm not the only one who has noticed the "what's-in-it-for-me-me-me?" thinking this week.)

2 comments:

Beth Kephart said...

Oh, Bonnie. I do appreciate you. There is so much that is beautiful and right out there. We just have to keep finding and celebrating it.

Marg said...

Some days it does seem like it is all about the goodies, but I hope that at the heart of it most book blogger's blog for the love it!