Three cheers for theme days!
Hooray for Haiku Day!
Yes, we Blogathonners love playing with that 5-7-5 syllabic pattern, especially when a poem gets us that much closer to our goal of blogging every single day of June!
Again, a blank page.
Desperation? Reflection?
Poetry saves us.
My Blogathon haikus from past years are here and here and here and even here.
Do you haiku?
**kmm
“Eye Can See the World” by cam morris https://openclipart.org/detail/65845/eye-can-see-the-world
Interesting – check.
Timely – yes.
Understandable to everyone – maybe?
As a blogger or website owner, whether you just dash off a quick daily note or craft a series of longer posts, do you ever think about
…readers with visual impairments being able “see” your images?
…people with color-blindness easily navigating your blog?
To help you reduce potential barriers for your readership, check out some free assessment tools and adopt simple practices for your blog.
For every image, photo, or video on your page, include an alt-text description. This allows screen readers to say aloud what it is. For instance, I use book covers from publishers in almost every BooksYALove post, so I always include alt-text like “book cover of Cool Book by Great Author published by Fancy Publisher” – which also gets picked up by search engines.
Be sure to bookmark and refer to the checklists on the Website Accessibility Project’s site so that you can institute the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines recommended changes one at a time (and monitor how they affect your site for viewers). The very first one is providing text descriptions for non-text elements.
Read a brief background on color-blindness and web design here, then use some of the free online tools listed by Sitepoint here to check your site. Good color contrast when a website is greyscaled also helps older readers better distinguish things there.
Free and easy ways to help more people read what you’ve worked so hard to write!
What accessibility tips do you recommend?
**kmm
image courtesy of boxfordlibrary at https://openclipart.org/detail/174651/book-on-monitor
If it’s June, then it’s time for Freelance Success/WordCount Blogathon!
I’ll be posting every day in June to build up my blogging muscles and help clear out my to-be-reviewed bookshelf. On Thursdays, I’ll highlight the new pair of free audiobooks for download, a great service of @AudiobookSYNC.
We should have some theme days (gotta do haiku and word clouds, as in years past!), and I hope to have a guest reviewer or two who’ll share their no-spoilers recommendation of outstanding young adult books that you might have missed.
If you’re interested in writing a guest post, please give me a buzz at Katy@BooksYALove.com.
Happy June and happy reading, y’all!
**kmm
image courtesy of Vinsche https://openclipart.org/detail/148327/paperpen
Is it June yet?
Can you haiku?
Wanna wordcloud?
Long-time BooksYALove readers (or any who show up this time of year) will recall that the WordCount Blogathon in May 2010 was the impetus for starting this book recommendation site. I set up my first Blogger site on April 30, then leapt into blogging on May 1, buoyed by how-to-do-this guidance from Michelle Rafter, some theme days to give structure to the month (31 whole days to fill!), and even guest posts.
Now, for my 6th year participating, I give big thanks in advance to Jeannie Phillips and the Freelance Success crew who are once again leading this supportive and enriching blogging experience, following Michelle’s lead.
If you want to build up your blogging muscles by posting every day of June (your choice of subject, of course), be sure to sign up by May 31 here, then reply to the email that Jeannie sends you. Also, like the 2015 Freelance Success/Wordcount Blogathon Facebook page where participants will share blog post links, find new blogs to follow, and seek guest bloggers.
It’s free!
Participants who post every day of June can win prizes!
And you’ll love the theme days, camaraderie, new followers, and sense of accomplishment that participating in this blog challenge brings.
C’mon over! Sign up here and blog along with us!
**kmm
I did it!
26 new books recommended in 26 days this April!
AprilA2Z Challenge 2015 is complete!
Was it worth all the effort? Let’s look at the numbers: Google Analytics says that my April readership was up 15% from March. Hooray! My Akismet site stats give a more detailed picture, showing a huge increase during first week of April, with lower numbers for the rest of the month, but page view total still about 20% above March 2015.
Of course, the opportunity (with deadlines!) to move 26 books from my “to be reviewed” shelf to the “y’all must read this & here’s why” files of BooksYALove is probably the main reason that I jump in to April AtoZ Challenge each year.
I might not have gotten to visit as many fellow participants’ blogs during the past month as I’ would have liked, since April also brings the Texas Library Association conference, but I will be visiting others during May and beyond because I do enjoy finding new ones to enjoy throughout the year.
A huge thank-you to the A2Z organizers who take time away from their own blogging to set up the challenge, visit participants’ blogs, retweet our #AprilA2Z tweets, and give us all a boost.
So, will I be posting 6 days a week from now on? No way! I plan to post frequently, with book birthday Tuesdays and audiobook Thursdays guaranteed, plus 1-2 more recommendations weekly.
You’ll definitely want to stay tuned to BooksYALove this summer, as SYNC and Audiofile Magazine once again will provide 2 FREE young adult audiobooks for you to download each week from May 7 through August 13. I’ll post direct links to each pair on Thursdays, starting next week; you can also sign up for reminders on the SYNC site here.
If you subscribe to BooksYALove by email or RSS feed, please do come over to the site occasionally and comment so that I know you’re out there! I don’t think that the site stats or Google stats can measure your smiles, trips to the library, or visits to your favorite bookstore resulting from my recommendations.
So many more great books coming up in the weeks and months ahead!
Let me know what you’ll be reading.
**kmm
Are you ready?
26 book reviews, alphabetically aligned, in 30 days!
This year’s AtoZ Challenge begins on April 1st, and I think that I’m ready…
You still have time to sign up and build your blogging muscles: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/2015/01/the-2015-to-z-challenge-list-is-open.html BooksYALove is number 507, if you’re checking.
I’ll also be digging in to the 2015 Diversity Reading Challenge – 12 book categories to stretch perceptions and horizons (listed here).
And you have till April 10 to register for the great giveaway package at DiversityInYA’s blog here – 20 winners each get 5 books from their amazing list, which includes some I’ve recommended on BooksYALove, some on my upcoming list, and some that I can’t wait to read.
See y’all on the first!
**kmm
If you’re disappointed that the recent kids’ or young adult book you adore hasn’t won any awards, take heart!
It’s your turn to vote for your favorites in the Children’s Choice Book Awards
Voting is open through May 3, 2015 in several categories:
Kindergarten-2nd grade
3rd & 4th grade
5th & 6th grade
Teen
Each category includes 5 nominees for book of the year, plus Children’s Choice Debut Author and Children’s Choice Illustrator of the Year.
Individuals may vote in each category (once only, please!), and there’s a special spot for group ballots from entire classes, families, and book clubs, too.
See all the categories on their cute staircase here, and get all the kidlit and YAlit fans you know to vote! May 3rd will be here before you know it.
**kmm
Once again, I signed up for the April AtoZ Challenge (see me at #507 here).
Posting 26 times in 30 days sounds straightforward enough, BUT the posts must follow the alphabet, with A on April 1 and so forth.
Using a theme for April AtoZ makes it easier for readers, since they know your subject for the month, and harder for writers, as we must find relevant posts for that tricky X on April 29th!
So, my April theme for 2015’s AtoZ Challenge is…
drumroll, please…
young adult books beyond bestsellers!
Ha! If you thought that I’d wander off into cat photos or recipes for two for a whole month, you must be new to BooksYALove! I’m pleased that many of April’s titles will have diverse characters or be set in other cultures.
Use the links in the right-hand column to subscribe to my posts or add to your blog-reader so you don’t miss any of these great books.
Counting down until April 1st – no fooling! (you can still sign up for the challenge here and build up your writing/blogging muscles along with hundreds of others)
**kmm
Every year, I wonder – should I blog AtoZ or not?
Twenty-six posts in just a month? Crazy!
Forcing my posts into alphabetical arrangement A to Z? Like a straitjacket!
Getting a couple of dozen books deserving a review off my TBR shelf and out to y’all? Priceless…
So… I said yes. And there I am as #507 on the April AtoZ Challenge sign-up list.
If you are a blogger (or want to become one), give the AtoZ Challenge a try – 26 posts on your subject of choice, going from A to Z during April (Sundays off, thankfully). You also have a ready-made list of active and interesting blogs to visit (the challenge folks suggest visiting 5 daily and leaving an encouraging comment – you may find new favorites that you want to follow long-term)
There’s a new 2015 AtoZ logo, loads of single-letter badges, banners, even a calendar to set as your desktop so you remember what letter goes on which day – all free here.
My advice after a few years of April AtoZing: Schedule posts in advance, feel free to phonetically pronounce your post title on that darn X day, and include the #AtoZChallenge hashtag and @AprilA2Z Twitter ID when you Tweet out link to your daily post.
See y’all more frequently in April! Let me know if I should be visiting your AtoZ posts then, too.
**kmm
Ready!
Set!
Read!
Today is National Readathon Day – your choice of your books, reading bliss from 12noon to 4 pm local time.
Sponsored by the National Book Foundation and Penguin Random House, National Readathon Day is designed as a fundraiser (you can donate to this tax-exempt organization here) and as an opportunity for readers to share what they love as they take #timetoread.
So tweet out your #timetoread titles during the afternoon today (or any time – we all love a good book list, right?), and please support the National Book Foundation as it strives to create, promote, and sustain a lifelong love of reading in America.
**kmm
with my stack of to-be-read books at hand for #timetoread