Bout of Books 16 Day 1

Welcome to Bout of Books 16!

Here is the schedule of events for today:

TZC = Time Zone Conversion

10:30am CST (TZC) Morning Announcements with @boutofbooks
7:30pm CST (TZC) Evening Announcements with @boutofbooks
8pm CST (TZC) Twitter Chat with @BookBender

Please note: the form for the sign up will stay open through TODAY and TOMORROW.

It closes Wednesday at midnight (TZC)

Challenges

Introduce Yourself #insixwords -- HERE!

The challenge is simple: introduce yourself on Twitter, Instagram, or on this post using six words, no more, no less. Use the hashtags #boutofbooks and #insixwords

Bout of Books 16 Schedule

It's COMING!

Psst. Tell your friends:

For Bout of Books 16, all challenges will be hosted on the Bout of Books blog. Here. Right here. So keep your eyes on this site to see what's what for the day!

Challenges/Giveaways

Monday 5/9
Introduce Yourself #insixwords

Tuesday 5/10
Show Off Your Shelves Photo Challenge #shelfie4boutofbooks

Wednesday 5/11
5 Favorites

Thursday 5/12
If you like this, try this...

Friday 5/13
Freaky Friday Photo Challenge #freakyboutofbooks

Saturday 5/14
Share your favorite Bout of Books moment

Sunday 5/15
FREE DAY!


Twitter Chats
(chats last approximately one hour)
TZC = Time Zone Conversion

Monday: 8pm CST (TZC)
Saturday: 10am CST (TZC)

Bout of Books 16 Sign-Up!

Are you ready to SIGN UP?

THIS IS WHERE YOU SIGN UP.

Here's what you have to do:

1. Post on your site, Twitter, Google+, Goodreads, YouTube or Facebook account and declare your intentions to join us. It's EASY. We ask you share info to help spread the word. Please link back to us so others can find us here.

If you're posting on your blog, grab the official blurb (below) and our button (in the sidebar) and create a post. (Need an example? Check out Kelly's (incredibly simple) Bout of Books 16 post!)

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, May 9th and runs through Sunday, May 15th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 16 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Want to post on Twitter? We've written a tweet for you.

2. Add the direct link to your sign up post to the linky in this post. You have until Tuesday, May 10th at 11:59pm CST to sign up. (If the linky is closed, you're too late.)

3. On May 9th, READ!

Call for Bout of Books 16 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 16
• 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?!?!?

We will be closing this form on May 1st. If you're interested in helping us, make sure you get on our list before then!

Want to help spread the Bout of Books love?

Call for Bout of Books 16 Challenge Hosts

Bout of Books 16 is May 9th through May 15th

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 host a challenge.

Please note: if you are chosen, you will be required to provide a direct link to your challenge post before the beginning of the read-a-thon.

Challenges information

• Bloggers host challenges on their own blogs. (If you do not have a blog, you may host it here.)
• 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 April 17th at 11:59pm CST.

Things to keep in mind:

Preference will be given to challenges that are NOT genre specific. You will be turned down or asked to change your challenge so it's not genre specific. We want to include EVERYONE. For an idea on what we look at, visit Kelly's post on this topic: The Challenge of Challenges

Preference is given to international giveaways OR no giveaways. We're a worldwide read-a-thon.

You must have a challenge idea at the time of filling out the form to be considered. If you don't have an idea, check out what some past participants said about what they'd like to see.

Bout of Books 15 Grand Prize Winner

Bout of Books 15 has ended but the fun doesn't stop until the Grand Prize Winner is announced!

And the Winner is...

Melissa @ Superbookworm

Melissa's winning entry came from being a Bout of Books 15 participant.

Congratulations, Melissa!

Keep your eye on your inbox, you'll be receiving an email from Bout of Books soon!

We'd like to thank everybody who signed up and participated in the read-a-thon. We're always striving to make this event the best it can be and we couldn't do that without your enthusiastic participation.

Please note that the challenge hosts are responsible for notifying winners and announcing prizes on their own blogs for the mini-challenges.

For those that are interested in helping out for the next Bout of Books, we post a call for help roughly a month prior to the start of the read-a-thon - which will be around April 11th for Bout of Books 16. Keep an eye on this blog for that announcement.

Once again, thank you to everyone who helped make Bout of Books 15 a success! We appreciate that you love books and how vocal you are about sharing it!

-Kelly and Amanda

Bout of Books 15 Wrap-Up

Congratulations!
You have survived Bout of Books 15!

In this post, we invite you to link up to your overall progress for Bout of Books. You don't have to create a wrap-up post--it can be an update post with day 7's progress.

Whatever works for you, works for us.

Here are important informational nuggets you probably want to know:

Bout of Books 16 will be from May 9th to May 15th.

The Grand Prize winner will be announced TOMORROW.

Challenge hosts are responsible for announcing their own winners.

Following this blog is the BEST way to stay up to date on EVERYTHING.

Since we can't reach out to everyone personally to remind them about upcoming events (though wouldn't that be awesome?), we do our best to keep this blog updated with the most current information. That means you're responsible for following us if you want to receive the latest news.

Thank you for making this event fabulous!