A few questions I've received, and my answers. Please note: these are just my opinions right now, and are subject to change. Hey, I think we need to be flexible with this whole thing.
Q1. About the books we'd be highlighting on our blogs: I assume we'd have to go out and buy them? Some authors might have ARCs they could supply or even actual copies, but not all. Is that correct? Because I know people who don't have a budget for that sort of purchase, small as it may be. Like me, for instance, who has no income.
A good question, but I'm going to be daring and say this: I don't think we have to get the books ahead of time. In fact, I don't think we necessarily have to read the books ahead of time. (GASP!) I think we should have a staging area--a private blog or message board, such as this one--where we interview authors ahead of time. The authors can post something of an online press kit: bio on themselves, background on how the book came to be, synopsis/what the book's about, why they wrote it, and so on. If folks have the means and resources to get the book and read it ahead of time, great; do it. But if you haven't read the book, you could still do a number of things for your blog post: author interview, story background, a personal rumination on the story's central theme, an analysis of the book's design, or whatever. You're creative. You'll come up with something.
Bottom line: we don't need to be intimately familiar with something to say a bit about it. If you doubt this, I invite you to watch an hour of cable news programming.
Q2. Would books chosen be CBA, ABA or both?
I'm really going to campaign for doing both. This is a crossover area we're exploring, and we need to do our best to highlight work in that crossover area. If you're a person who concentrates mostly on CBA, I'd like to suggest you try to support ABA authors who write from a Christian worldview. If you're a fan of ABA, I'd like to suggest you support CBA fiction that's stretching the boundaries.
Can't we all just get along?
Q3. Can I get in on it later? I'm not sure I can devote the time right now.
Sure. But with a commitmentn to only one post per month, I'm hoping it won't be too much of a time commitment.
Q4. I don't have a blog.
If you have 10 minutes, you can have a blog. Try my quickie online tutorial at http://www.tlhines.com/zoe/blogging.html
I'm always available via email (willieeverlearn@yahoo.com) to answer questions.
Q5. How are you going to promote this?
I'm not. Given three or four dozen members, it doesn't matter a whit if anyone outside the Syndicate knows of its existence. This isn't a blog ring, or a link exchange, or any of those other things designed to get exposure for your blog. It's a numbers game, designed to move the needle on Blog Pulse, Technorati, Blog Lines, and similar blog trackers--on behalf of the books and authors highlighted.
That said, the more members we have, the better. Once again, three or four dozen would be the magic number, and anything above that would be icing. For that reason, I'd like to keep membership always open: invite anyone you want to participate. There's no need to put a badge, or a link, or anything like that on your site. Just do the blog entries on the assigned days. Easy enough, huh?
-Tony
Posted by TLHines at June 15, 2005 12:06 PM