The other day, I received an email from the first author ever to contact me to review a book. She was thanking me again for my review so many months earlier. This warmed my heart, because I will never forget her, her book, or the way I felt when I saw her first email in my inbox.
This prompted me to think about book blogging and how awesome it is.
When I first started blogging, I didn’t have a direction and it wasn’t really about books. I used goodreads often and would post some of my reviews to facebook. At the end of the year, a few of my friends asked me to write a short blurb for all the books I read for the year, since they trusted my opinion. This small suggestion is what caused me to begin book blogging. I just wanted another place to share my thoughts and reviews. Then, I stumbled upon A Novel Challenge and signed up for 2012 challenges. Next thing I know, I have 121 followers and do a meme virtually every day.
I had no idea I could get free books for review. A few weeks into book blogging at the start of the year, I realized that most of the other bloggers were reading ARCs. I knew I had so much to learn. I was in awe!
Then, I got my very first email from an author asking me to review her book. I immediately called my husband, full of excitement. I had no idea this happened! I was ecstatic. I am so thankful now that my first author review request happened to be for a book that I still love and still recommend to people. I will never forget all the excitement I felt about being contacted and being able to share my review.
This is why I do reviews.
I have always been the kind of person that wants to share my opinion about books. I want more people to read and I want to raise awareness. Now, I have a place that is mostly dedicated to shouting, “hey, you over there, check this book out! here’s why I loved it.” It’s such a good feeling to share great literature with others. It’s a little less awesome when I share bad literature with others, but I realize it has to be done and if I put why I didn’t like a book, someone else can judge whether it might be right or wrong for them.
Six months into this hobby, I’m still just as excited to finish a book and post my review. I’m just as excited to receive an author request in my email inbox. I’m just as excited to win a book via a blog giveaway, librarything, or goodreads. I am happy to get approved for a request via NetGalley. And I’m even excited to download a self published Kindle freebie and share it with others.
But I will never forget my first time being contacted about reading a book in exchange for a review.
So, bloggers, do you remember your very first author request? Will you ever forget it?