Re-blogged from The BandWagon
Welcome to The Bandwagon’s new feature for 2016 – #InspiringWomen. These posts aim to not only celebrate successful women, but also to encourage others to follow their dreams. Meet June’s lady, Rosie Amber.
Self-described as a book reviewer, avid reader and bookworm, Rosie Amber is campaigning to link more readers to writers.
What made you want to join your industry?
A few years ago I was inspired to teach myself about social media and not grow old and stagnant. I’ve always loved reading, so what better way to celebrate this than to start a book blog and reach out virtually.
What challenges have you had to overcome in order to get where you are today?
I began at the ground and worked up, first I didn’t know what blogging platform to use, I began with Tumbler, but found the audience wrong for me, so next I tried WordPress, it works well for my needs. Then I began at the bottom with Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and just recently YouTube. My second favourite is Twitter, I join in with Hashtag share days and work hard to build an audience.
To make a blog work well I put in lots of work, but it helps that I enjoy what I do. To keep an audience happy you must keep things fresh, try new ideas, stretch yourself.
I join in with challenges like the April A – Z challenge, I create my own themed book blog tours, I run readathons, I also run a successful book reviewing team, we held our first book awards last December to honour great authors who we’ve met via my blog.
Meeting people virtually opens up a whole new world, a few months ago I met up personally with some of my new virtual friends, now that was a HUGE step, really pushing new boundaries. 5 of us from my book review team came together from all over the UK and spent 24 hours talking books. It was amazing and luckily we all got on really well.
What does being a woman mean to you?
To me it means being creative and multi-tasking. I’m a mother, housewife and I work part time as a farm secretary, I deal with daily chores and next minute I’m chatting globally about books and writing.
In what ways has your gender helped or hindered you in your industry?
I like the social side of being a woman; we’ll chat easily about books, reading and are good at sharing on social media. Women are often less aggressive and demanding when it comes to book reviews. I hate to label some men but I’ve found the male ego an issue at times. Dealing with an author who refuses to accept that I didn’t like his book, it wasn’t my thing, I had issues with it for various reasons etc is a BIG FAT PAIN IN THE ARSE. This isn’t a widespread issue, and I have come across a couple of women who were the same but on the whole women deal with the critique by another women better.
Name some women who inspire you.
Louise Hay for her inspirational books like “I Can Do It”, Judith O’Reilley for her book “A Year Of Doing Good” it inspired me to do my own challenge of one good deed a day and I did it for 2 years, blogging with the weekly upates of my good deeds, it changed my life and I still try to do one each day now. Silvia Browne for her book “The Other Side and Back” which taught me so much about the spirit world.
What advice would you give to young women who want to go into your industry?
From my own place in the book world, I would say it’s a great place for women, but wherever you rest in the world, make it a place where you show your love for it and the people in it. I dislike the dog eat dog, ripping others off and making money in underhand ways that leads so much of society today. Only give out what you want to receive.
What does it take to run a successful blog?
I’ve touched on some of the ways in which I run my blog. It takes time, regular updates and the desire to succeed. Start with small ideas and build up, I began with reviews of books that I’d read, then I invited people to send their books for me to review, I offered guest posts, all simple stuff, I took part in challenges and went to other people’s blogs and got involved. Making comments and sharing what others do encourages them to come visit your blog.
I make sure my blog posts are easy to share, here are my quick tips;
1) If you use WordPress go to your Dashboard, then settings, then sharing, scroll down to “Twitter username to include in tweets when people share using the Twitter button.” Add your Twitter handle without the @ ie rosieamber1. Now every time your blog post is shared on Twitter it will appear in your notification page and you can easily re-tweet. N.B Twitter is all about the power of the re-tweet.
2) My blog titles have a mix of capital letters, hashtags and Twitter handles if they are about people or their books, for instance THE HOUSE OF YORK by @TerryTyler4 #Bookreview #TuesdayBookBlog. This makes them SUPER easy to share, attention grabbing and no extra words needed. Each time this is shared the author gets notification too and usually re-tweets as well.
3) Always use Hashtags on Twitter, find the popular ones which suit your blog theme. My team and I recently created the #TuesdayBookBlog hashtag to help anyone with news of their book, reviews, guest posts, book cover launched etc. We try to help share all relevant ones each week.
4) It takes an audience to run a successful blog, my own blog is still really small, but I never tire of coming up with new mad ideas to try, some work, some don’t. Keep working until you find something you enjoy, but don’t let it get boring.
5) Sharing someone else’s post? If you share to Twitter, make an effort to add a Hashtag or a Twitter handle to make you tweet more twitter friendly.
Blog | @rosieamber1 | Facebook
Rosie Amber is looking for book reviewers!
I’m looking for dedicated readers to join my book review team. I need someone who can commit to reading and reviewing a book within a month. I need the review posted on Goodreads, Amazon US & UK and a blog (if the reader has one), plus I get a copy of each review to post at a later date on my own blog. Reviews need to be around 3-4 paragraphs long, telling others about the book genre, setting, writing style, a little of the plot, the main characters, what worked in the book and what perhaps didn’t for that reader. I‘m not looking for 5* reviews but honest ones which help future readers. For more information check out this link or have a good rummage around my blog and see what others are writing.
It’s NOT a Holiday by Andy Robinson and Kirsty McGregor 
Becoming Anorak Nid – A Rude Awakening by local author Alix Macey
Beatrysel by Johnny Worthen 
Death of the Mad Hatter by Sarah J Pepper 
What it Takes by Terry Tyler 
Rosie Amber 