Month of Guests 2013: Amy Bookworm

We have a very different and very brilliant post today by the wonderful Amy from Amy Bookworm, who is join by Rita from Weaving Pages...  Enjoy!

Oh, and Amy's writing in blue and Rita in purple, just so you don't get confused! :)

Did you know?

One of the RSS ways of following, Feedburner (mainly used for email followers), is very handy with Twitter! You can schedule tweets for it, under the 'Publicize' tab in your feed if you click 'Socialize' you'll spot it. Type in what you want to appear besides the URL & title of the post. For example, you could include someone’s @, it’s not a bad idea to include co-bloggers or friends who like being updated on your posts & don’t mind constant reminders- maybe ask, some bloggers bug me with this but others, like Rita, could probably get away with it (This makes me feel special!)

This is a totally handy tip in my opinion, but remember: you can also link with Goodreads & tweets can be auto-posted that way. Sound good? Go try it!

-Amy Bookworm

If you didn’t know the above, that’s why you need this post! If not, I hope you’ll enjoy it anyway… Amy Bookworm is also accompained by… Rita @ Weaving Pages (who agreed to do a joint-discussion as a one-off!) (And I was feeling nice….haha! No, It’s lots of fun doing joint-discussions with Amy).

Before we go in depth, Megan has asked us to say hello, and introduce ourselves:

According to Rita (also regarding the other's Twitter): Amy is the awesome person who plagues twitter when possible. She frequently joins me in various conversations ranging from me making her read various books (don't worry, soon she will have read The Mortal Instruments and Divergent) to participating in court cases over who gets custody of the REAL Peeta Mellark. Don't worry, Peeta's with me whilst Amy, Zoe and Hawwa have clones (Doesn't Rita Mellark sound awesome though?). In short, she is a very awesome, crazy, nice blogger!

According to Amy (also regarding the other's Twitter): Rita may be a fairly new blogger but who cares? Her blog is really getting out there & I know it has lots of fans already as it truly does stand out and frankly she's an awesome book-lover. Rita has been known to push books, shares my love for GIFs & is so thoughtful.

She's sort of crazy and is owner of one of my favourite blogs, Weaving Pages, but does steal book boyfriends :P If you like, and can handle, creative crazy people Rita will never fail to put a smile on your face (: I'm so happy she's stopped by and is answering some of my questions.

I believe we’re after one of our very amusing friends and of course, by now, you’ll know one of the uses of Twitter: to talk about book boyfriends. Who doesn’t?? This is something I enjoy, and so does Rita (yeah, part of the “book boyfriend talk” involves court cases)...

@Amy_Bookworm Amy, tell @snackingonbooks To give Peeta back, after all,my you stole him in the first place ;) SHARE LADIES

— Rita (@WeavingPages) June 25, 2013

See? What a screenshot. That’s just an everyday experience for those us of us who: a) are teens b) are obsessed with twitter but really… the only thing that matters is c) book bloggers! Seriously, a necessity for book bloggers is to have book bloggers. b) is pretty important, but as long as you have a Twitter you’ll be fine & probably not notice it happening until you start realizing you have hundreds of internet friends & about 1 real life friend, if you’re lucky. You see.. This is why the “About” bit on my blog says that my blog is the reason I still have friends in real life...

Oh dear, Rita! I wouldn’t blame my blog. Twitter, credit where its due! Besides book boyfriends, what else have we discussed? Unicorns. They are VERY important...Oh, and don’t forget Caleb...

Should we whip out your specially designed T-Shirts?, personally I’m not sure my cat will be much help to any up & coming tweeters! No, he’s just a talking cat, right? :P

Haha...as long as he isn’t offended by not being included! I’ve had an amazing idea… I should make specially designed Unicorns!!

Everyone: DO NOT tell Caleb that we missed him out… OK, ssshhh!

We need to show you this T-Shirt. Just one of Rita’s many designs, and a reason you should be on Twitter so get on there this instance! It’s worth losing friends for… I mean, you make so many book blogger friends & guess what? This year I’ve had 1028 hits which have been referred directly from Twitter but more have followed me, commented or such because of Twitter… Because of the Feedburner automated I’ve had an additional 118 views. Plus, in less than 6 months over at my other blog, where I have a co-blogger, there’s been 737 twitter referrals. Isn’t that good stats when I don’t even have that many followers? I have basically got 750 (rounded) followers in just over 6 months. I think you should now try tweeting & advertising your posts by Twitter too.

Yep. I agree! I get so many pageviews from Twitter, and it’s a great way to spread the word about your blog! I’ve talked to lots of authors as well as met lots of different bloggers. Twitter benefits your blog so much. It’s definitely essential when you blog.

Authors… Ah, I only got 1 review request before Twitter & I’d had my blog a few months previous. Then, since February, I’ve lost track of how many.

I agree with this. Most of the authors who ask me to review their book follow me on Twitter.

It’s obviously not that crazy as Amy Bookworm is less than a year old but it’s a few dozen, I get about 3 review books per month (I don’t have NG & am all about the Twitter connection method or emailing directly, I’m under 18 anyway so no NetGalley for me!) which is totally good numbers & mainly comes from authors asking on Twitter but some publicists I’ve met I actually found out about on Twitter but emailed first- the confidence comes from Twitter. Every time. Publicists or publishing houses may follow you & ask you to join their team. Massive shout outs to Indigo, and… for example, me and Amy are both part of Team Fox, which is a group of reviewers for the publishers Curious Fox. We got to be part of this through Twitter, and I think if we hadn’t had Twitter, we wouldn’t have gotten this opportunity… However, even if you’re not part of a review group, you can learn so much about which books are coming out on Twitter. Just by following Publishing houses, you can find out so many things about events that are happening and books that are being released!!

You can! Forget WoW, well not necessarily it’s different to a tweet after all, I’ve found out about way more new books on Twitter. And also, another thing I find, is not just authors & publishing houses RT reviews & your posts (often related to them but shout out to some fab indie’s who I adore for their RT love!) but other book bloggers do. What do they gain? Nothing, apart from the fact you may RT them & then you’re like even & have got the word out some more! RTing is easy, and favoriting too, so if you like a post, or just a tweet, please let a tweep now by pressing one of those buttons. It makes all the difference. Who knows? You may find out you have similar taste in books, or like me & Rita, end up helping each other to join a reviewing group! Discussing a book even is just as easy as discussing a book boyfriend, really!

Exactly. I mean, if you follow me on Twitter, you would know that after watching the City of Bones Movie, I had a HUGE movie hangover so I basically ranted about the movie. Also, since the last book is coming out in May, I had this breakdown where I basically cried on Twitter about how no one should be allowed to die because I love the character so much…

I knew you liked CoB before the movie because it’s one of your things you tweet about it a lot… A lot. If I go on your profile I have a 50/50 chance of spotting something related to that (not much of an exaggeration actually!) The next book is coming out in May, and Rita, using Twitter to book push, has demanded that everyone read it soon, like… in 2013 or 2014. (Me and Amy have a deal that means I have to read a book, and she has to read one! I have to read Fire soon… so she can read CoB.)

Hehehe...but trust me City of Bones is one of the best books you will ever read. Otherwise you’re missing out, I trust. Which means, how can I spend a whole DAY without tweeting something about it?

It’s quite annoying, I jest, how you can easily book push and/or stalk even a saavy twitter user’s reading updates & such. But don’t worry, Rita will know when I’ve read CoB & if you follow me, you would too :P If you’re a book pusher, get Twitter.

Book pushing is one of the best things ever. I’m a book pusher and proud.. Yes..I am lying in wait for Amy to read City of Bones so she can fangirl with me...It’ll be funny seeing her collapse with all the feels….*evil laugh*

You underestimate me! That aside, allow your Amazon to update your Twitter when you buy someone- I may assume you have something to hide and/or never buy books otherwise. That’s a good trick, if you want to coax someone into reading your books. I sense buddy reads may be happening when a) someone checks out your reviews (auto-tweeted or not) b) you just say you’ve bought it c) when you threaten them, otherwise known as proposing a deal… :P

They need to know how to use Twitter so I’m telling them how to book push on Twitter. I refuse to delve into the specifics elsewhere but I do update Twitter when I review, purchase books, get to exciting bits in books…

Pfff...I never blackmail or threaten anyone… Ha, but someone could! Also, you can connect your Kindle to your Twitter account which allows you tell people when you’ve finished a book and how many stars you gave it.

Kindle, Amazon… It’s pretty much the same kettle of fish (I’ve never put fish in a kettle), but Goodreads is more necessary, I know I update Goodreads more than Amazon but in fairness- it’s what works for you. I mentioned earlier, discussing books- smetimes, when I get the same books as other bloggers, I quickly arrange a buddy read for the book. On Twitter, it’s amazing. Quickly mention someone else & BAM… it’s going to turn into a read-a-long :P As for updating each other, the Goodreads thing comes in handy! But also remember to update the author & them… Use a hashtag preferably too which all parties can check. It’s so flattering for an author to witness an occasion like that & you bet you’ll get RT’s! You think something about a book? Share it. Give teasers, not spoilers. Encourage your blogger friends to read more & discuss the book with them. It’s like 1, 2, 3… Oh, and, sometimes just adding a book to wishlist via Twitter could be classed as book pushing (if you think these things are book pushing, I confess. I’M SORRY FOR BOOK PUSHING! :D) Go ahead though.

I’M NOT SORRY FOR BOOK PUSHING….I HAVE NO REGRETS AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE BOOK I MADE YOU READ… :D (I’m so evil, aren’t I?)

Hehe… All I know, regarding my proper use of Twitter (well, it’s debateable but shhhh!), according to tweetstats.com, my top five words on Twitter have been: rt, book, read, know, books. Let’s see what Rita’s are, shall we? *goes to check mine!*

In the meantime, I don’t know where know came from. Maybe I know you should get Twitter, if you haven’t, eh? ;) While I’m talking about that, I’ve tweeted Rita the most. This brings up the fact that me and Amy have been asked if there is a day where we don’t talk..In reality, we can only go so long without having a proper conversation. Okay, I’ve replied to Amy 475 times, and Amy, your name is huge on my tweet cloud..!

The friends you make on Twitter ;) In July alone, I tweeted you 217 times, Rita. My tweetcloud has returned the love & guess who’s twitter handle is really big on my tweetcloud? Or rather, the biggest name is… Meeeeeee! No, it’s not ‘meeeeee’, it’s @WeavingPages :P Also, readers, you’ll be pleased to know that Rita has mainly used the words: rt, read, #bookishparty, book, books.(I’m disappointed that The Mortal Instruments isn’t in there somewhere...hmmm...I have to tweet more about that..)

Caption: We actually have ‘#bookishparty’ in common= comparing how big it is on Amy’s & Rita’s...

With that mentioned- we’ve said it all… All that we know, or think we know, has completely been documented here. I’m glad I had Rita to comment on Twitter with me. Hopefully Megan will like it and hopefully all you readers will like it too! You may one day find out your tweetstats, will they surprise you or be pretty normal like ours turned out to be? You’ll see!

Now, go tweet but don’t forget to read as well (FYI, that has never happened- it may get addictive but nothing should stop you from reading)!

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Whoa, guys!! That was one awesome post! Thank you so much!! I know I'm totally addicted to Twitter and literally Tweet all the time. I was Tweeting my Twitter friends from a zoo - and I was there with friends!! ;)

I hope you all enjoyed Amy's post! And don't forget to follow Amy's Blog: Amy Bookworm - and follow her on Twitter and Goodreads too! :D

Oh, and follow the wonderful Rita too at Weaving Pages - and on her Twitter and Goodreads! 

And keep up to date with MonthOfGuests on Twitter using #MonthOfGuests2013! And stop by tomorrow for a brilliant post by the amazing Lucy from Queen of Contemporary!!