Call for Bout of Books 20 Experts

We need YOU.

Bout of Books has attracted more participants every time we've held it. And as it grows, we're limited as to how many people we can reach and interact with.

That's where Bout of Books experts come in.

What makes a person a Bout of Books expert, you ask?

• You've participated in AT LEAST four Bout of Books prior to Bout of Books 20
• You love Bout of Books and want to make sure everyone knows how awesome it is
• You're willing to commit some of your free time to helping us
• You love connecting with fellow book lovers and cheering them on

If you're chosen as an expert, you get to visit #boutofbooks-ers' blogs and comment on their posts--tell them how awesome they are and how well they're doing. WHO DOESN'T LOVE SPREADING LOVE?!?!?

Call for Bout of Books 20 Challenge Ideas

Bout of Books 20 is August 21st through August 27th

Like us on Facebook

and follow us on Twitter & Instagram 

to join the social media fun.

We need YOUR help. This post is ONLY for people who want to help plan a challenge.

Please note: if you are chosen, you will be required to provide all pertinent information for your challenge idea before the beginning of the read-a-thon.

Challenges information

• For Bout of Books 20, challenges will be hosted on the Bout of Books blog with credit/link to the site/person who provided the idea.
• Challenges run for 24 hours and run from midnight CST to midnight CST.
• There will be a limit of two challenges per day.
• Challenge sign up will close July 30th at 11:59pm CST.

Tips and Tricks - What about reading sprints?

This week's tips and tricks are a slight departure from what we normally talk about.

Reading sprints

We get asked about those A LOT.

Officially, Bout of Books doesn't host any reading sprints, BUT participants are more than welcome to put together an impromptu sprint using the #boutofbooks hashtag.

How do you do this?

Throw out a quick tweet on the #boutofbooks hashtag asking if anyone is interested in a sprint. Don't get any responses? Don't despair! Sometimes people see the tweets after the fact, but still end up joining in. Set a time you'll check back in and sit down and read. When time's up, come back and let everyone know how you did.

(Incidentally, for the writers out there, this is a good way to do writing sprints as well.)

Doing multiple sprints in a row -- for example, three fifteen minute sprints with a few minutes downtime between each -- gives other Bout of Books-ers a chance to see the tweets, clear their schedule, and join in.

Obviously, there are other ways sprints can be done. If you have a tried and true strategy that's worked for you, let us know!

Tips and Tricks - Using the hashtag vs using the handle

Today's topic is one that's near and dear to our hearts...

Twitter hashtag vs handle

Let's start by taking a look at what each of them do.

The #boutofbooks hashtag

Essentially, the hashtag acts as a search function. ANYONE can follow the hashtag and see any tweet tagged under it without following the individual person tweeting. Considering how many people participate in Bout of Books, this means you don't have to waste time following several hundred people just so you know what's going on.

Seriously, which would you rather do: Take an hour or two to hunt down everyone's handle so you can follow them all or just tap into that magical hashtag and see what's what in the Bout of Books world?

I'd rather spend that hour or two reading, so I'm going to go with the hashtag option.

The @boutofbooks handle

The handle directly connects you with us. As in, me and Amanda. Us. The people behind the read-a-thon.

We do enjoy interacting with everyone, but...we strongly encourage using the hashtag vs the handle for several reasons.

Reason 1:

If you start your tweets with @boutofbooks, only your followers who already follow @boutofbooks will see them. Adding #boutofbooks instead lets all your followers PLUS anyone following the hashtag see it.

You know, it's the old "You tell one friend and your friend tells one friend and then your neighbor tells one friend and suddenly everybody's talking about #boutofbooks!"

(What? I'm 100% certain that's how the saying goes!)

This is one of the key ways we get the word out about Bout of Books. Without people hashtagging and talking about the read-a-thon, we wouldn't have any participants. And if we have no participants, what's the point?

Reason 2:

If you use the @boutofbooks handle in your tweets, our notifications start to look like we're throwing a no-parents-home-for-the-weekend house party. Which sounds fun, in theory, but quickly becomes overwhelming.

Especially when we're trying to sort through them to see if we have any questions that need to be answered.

So take pity on your hosts and hashtag, hashtag, hashtag. Save the @-ing for chats or if you have any burning questions you need answered.

Hey, guys. You might have heard this before but... YOU GOT THIS!