I haven’t been able to participate in many of the BBAW Activities – I’ve been traveling a lot for work and my schedule has been pretty crazy. But at least I should be able to squeeze in one or two before the end of the week.

Today’s challenge: Brag on Yourself. Go hunt through your archives and find your favorite review, or author interview where you asked just the right insightful questions, or another post about something totally unrelated–a post where you think you’re at your best and share it here!

One post of which I am particularly proud is Will Blogs Save Books? It started conversations in several places about just what role bloggers play in the grand scheme of the things, and what we are trying – and not trying – to do. It was great to have people comment, but even better to see the conversation continue on other blogs.

Okay, while I’ve got a few minutes, I’m going to catch up on the Day 3 Activity: What are your best blogging tips? I haven’t been blogging for very long, but I will try and share what I’ve learned. Since so many of the good and obvious tips have been shared, let me dig for something more unusual.

What is one thing you wish you knew about blogging when you started or what advice would you give a newbie blogger?

This will sound ridiculous, but I would remind them that people actually read your blog. One of the first times a quote of mine was picked up for a review, it was something that didn’t come out quite right, and I wish I had phrased it differently, because every time I see it, I cringe. But people will read your blog and refer other people to it and buy books based on your reviews, so try to be as honest as possible. (And always spell check!)

What is your best blogging tip?

Try to find something interesting to set your reviews apart. One thing I often do is provide a bit of trivia – I’ll ask a question or give a little teaser, then provide the aswer in the comments. I was incredibly flattered when another blogger recently asked if she could borrow that idea for a post of hers. It doesn’t have to be something huge, I don’t know if there are any really new ideas, but if you look around there are a lot of blogs that do really interesting, original things. Whether it’s a bit of trivia or author’s signatures, or just posting the first line of the book, you’re sure to come up with something that will be yours alone.