Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: How do you organize your books for review? Does it work for you or have you had to change it?
I used to be very organized about my reviews. I had a print calendar I used to track all my posts because I liked being able to see it visually. When I first started, I posted three times a week (at least) and usually wrote posts two weeks ahead, so I always had a buffer of posts already scheduled. I used the calendar to keep track of posts made and scheduled, which helped me balance the focus of reviews and vary my non-review posts.
And…then life got busy! At some point I got through that buffer and never caught it up again. And I dropped down to two posts a week, though I’ve been successful maintaining those. I don’t use the calendar anymore, I just know I post Monday and Friday. I still schedule everything–I usually do the Friday post (like this one) during the week some time, and write a review for Monday each weekend.
I never did too much organizing of books in anticipation of reviews. I do track my books read though, in a print notebook. If I don’t have a book in mind to review, I’ll page through that to see if I read anything recently that sparks some thoughts.
Fellow bookbloggers, do you have an organizing system for your reviews, or is it more haphazard? Has it evolved over the life of your blog?
When I have a book with a preferred date (usually publication) I schedule it in my blog, with a draft post, for the Saturday nearest publication date. Then I put it on my currently-reading list or in an appropriate place near the top of my TBR list (on Goodreads) so I get it read in time.
I have once or twice been caught out, when the book was very long or at least was very long in the reading, but I’d read enough by the time review date came to give an honest opinion. “This is a surprisingly long read” is a giveaway phrase!!
Cheryl, similar to you, I aim to post twice a week (Tues and Thurs) and sometimes a third time (Sat) if I have more material. Unlike you though, I post about every book I read.
Organize? What is this strange concept of which you speak? 😛
If I’ve committed to doing a blog tour (every few months) or a review on a specific date (rarely), I’ll mark it on my Google calendar and make sure to start reading/writing well in advance. Otherwise, I tend to be a mood reader, and once I’ve finished reading something, I’ll eventually get around to writing about it and schedule the post. For regular reviews, I try to look at the upcoming month and start by scheduling things once a week. If I’ve got at least one post per week for 3 weeks scheduled, then I’ll fill in to posting twice a week.
As a steady reader of your blog, I appreciate the consistency with which you post – and I figure it takes some good amount of work to keep to a steady schedule like that. It’s nice to see something new (and interesting) on a regular basis. You don’t often post a “best of” recycling of a past blog post. 🙂