Pointers for Lit Bloggers from Janice Harayda of One-Minute Book Reviews

by Jane Ciabattari | Jul-28-2009

NBCC member Janice Harayda gives terrific pointers about shifting from print (she was the Cleveland Plain Dealer books editor) to blogging when she started her One-Minute Book Reviews in late 2006. She tells us she got a boost when then NBCC tech VP Rebecca Skloot posted a link on Critical Mass, which was launched in April of that year.

Here’s her advice in this week’s PW Soapbox column. She says, in part, “Like Meg Ryan logging onto AOL in You’ve Got Mail, I had no idea what I was getting into in late 2006 when I launched a site that this year had its first day with more than 10,000 visitors. I had planned to post occasional reviews whenever I found books that seemed over- or underappreciated. But within six weeks, One-Minute Book Reviews had become one of WordPress’s 10 fastest-growing blogs—the result of a National Book Critics Circle director linking to one of my posts from the NBCC site, which set in motion a cascade of attention.”