Armchair Bea -Real Life Networking

“Today's suggested writing topic...we'd love for you to share a positive "real life" experience with books! Either by way of your own partnerships in your community, a book signing you went to or possibly even a get together with fellow book bloggers. Tell us all about it!”

OK, first I wasn't sure what to post about here really, but heres what I came up with.

I think I do quite a lot of networking in a variety of ways.

1) I work in a library so there is always someone to talk about books with, whether it's a quick 'ooh I enjoyed that book' as the person takes the book out, or a more in depth discussion as they ask you for assistance. The possibilities are really endless. And a great way to recommend books to others.

2) In that same library I run 2 book groups - one for 9-12 year olds and one for 13-18 (Teens). Each group meets once a  month and we discuss books, take part in activities and games and generally make reading fun. Running the blog has been so helpful for finding ideas for their next reads.


3) Not very often, but if we are lucky we will have author events at the library or for a promotion day with the library. In the last few years we have had Julia Jarman, Pauline Bell, Steve Cole, Sarah McIntyre, Knife & Packer, Alexander Gordon Smith, Mark Walden, Lucy Christopher, David Melling, and probably a couple of others. It's a great way to meet new people and brings the books a whole new dimension. (I'm also friends with some of them online now too, it's awesome!)

4) My local bookshops run some awesome author events, some of them are just signings, others are discussions. I have met Derek Landy (twice), Louise Rennison, Rachel Caine & her husband Cat who is an illustrator,  can't think of others at the moment but they are always great fun and a fabulous way of meeting other fans and discussing the book you love while you wait.


5) London is not too far away from me (about an hour and a quarter) so if I can arrange to get there I attend some fantastic events there (but not as many as I would like to attend. For example if you look back through my posts you will find one on a Sci-Fi event I attended in London including Philip Reeve, Sarah McIntyre, Steve Cole, Moira Young, and Kim Lakin-Smith, on a discussion panel, and afterwards you get to meet them and have a chat. Also in the audience was Teri Terry, Candy Gourlay, Patrick Ness and a variety of others. I got to chat with some of them too and it's great networking. Also a good way to promote your blog. I have business cards made up that I can hand out so the authors can get in touch for any promotions/discussions they may want. :D


That's all I can think of right now. 


Unfortunately I haven't met any of my fellow bloggers in real life but I'm hoping to one day, whether its at BEA for real or somewhere else entirely. I look forward to it. :)


Thanks for reading. How do you network???