Blogger Profile: Kristen (& Contest)

Interested in winning a copy of The Ever Breath? Keep on reading!

The winner of the Two Books contest (sponsored by Book Chic) is Donnas!
The winner of Clockwork Heart (sponsored by Angiegirl) is Holly!
Here is the profile of the blogger Kristen. Be sure to check out her blog!

Name: Kristen
Alias: none
Blog name: BookWorming in the 21st Century
Blog URL: http://www.bookworminginthe21stcentury.com

Can you give us a quick bio about yourself? I'm a 24 year old woman who loves reading young adult books. I currently just accepted a position as an Library Media Specialist at an elementary school. Before that, I had been working in a variety of libraries since the age 19, which only furthered my love of reading. I do this as a hobby and have only been blogging for a little over a month now.

Name & describe your blog features: The main feature of my blog is book reviews. I participate in a variety of bookish memes as well - It's Monday! What are you reading?, Teaser Tuesdays, Waiting on Wednesdays, Friday Finds, and In My Mailbox - which are all hosted by fellow bloggers. I'm just starting to look into author interviews, my first being schedule for Saturday, July 25th with Jack Regan. I'm hoping to start including these on a weekly or biweekly basis. I also have been holding a few contests on my blog as well, giving away books.

Describe your review system: My review system is pretty basic. I use roses as my theme and it scales from 1 to 5. If a book is rated 5 roses, it means I loved it. If rated 4 roses, the book was pretty good - but flawed enough to distract. I generally don't hit 3 roses, but when I do it means there were flaws and I may not have liked the book, but it had literary merit. If ever I rate a book 2 roses, it means that I wouldn't highly suggest the novel, but that it could be a good read for someone else. One rose would mean that I gave up on it, or really had to push through to finish it and would not be recommended. I say that I'll never hit below a 3 because I generally enjoy the books I read, even if they're not of my usual genre. It would have to take a fiercely bad book to get to 3 or less roses for a rating.

How is your blog unique from other blogs? My blog is unique from others because I try to put a ton of time into it. Not just the blog, but I really love to comment on other blogs and see what they're reading. When I picked the layout, I wanted to create a warm environment and had to fight against my darker side to keep things more mild than my decorating tastes usual go (notice there is no black). I do tend to read more fantasy, but I will pick up any genre in YA if it's highly recommended to me or just simply looks interesting.

How do you market your blog? I twitter, hold contests, comment galore, and make sure to participate in bookish memes. I also have my blog listed on a few different blog lists - such as the YA Blogosphere.

Can you give us 3 tips about content? 1. Be honest about what you thought, but always include something positive. 2. Try to relate to the plot, the characters, not just what you thought. 3. Proofread, it's a pain, but do it.

Can you give us 3 tips about blog promotion? 1. Hold a contest, as big or as small as you like and ask people to follow your blog or advertise for extra entries. 2. If you follow them, they will follow you. Aka - look for other blogs that are in your same interest range and comment frequently. They want to read other blogs too and yours might be it! 3. Get listed! There are many blog listing sites out there and they will add you to their list if you ask.


Thanks so much, Kristen! Be sure to visit her blog.

To win a copy of The Ever Breath by Julianna Baggott (information here), read the profile, visit Kristen's blog, and then leave a comment on this post with your email address. For an extra entry, follow my blog AND Kristen's blog. I'll announce the winner on August 18th.