I find myself in this quandary from time to time and it is of my own making. I’m basically a shy person which isn’t a good trait for a journalist. When I have to be forward and ask the questions, I can. I guess I’ve always used a softer approach to it and for the most part it’s worked well.
Meeting and talking with authors in blogdom is pretty much the same way. I’m realizing more each day the amount of work and time authors spend writing the stories I love to read. For that reason I’m in awe of authors.
When I first started blogging I never imaged I’d meet and get to know so many wonderful authors and authors-in-the making. I’ve been thrilled and honored at the number of authors who have guest blogged here.
Now this brings me to my quandary which I hope those authors and soon-to-be authors stopping by will give me their take on this.
As I meet new authors I’d like to ask them to guest blog here or better yet give them an invitation to blog here whenever they’d like in order to let readers know about the author’s latest release. Sometimes after talking back and forth with the author, I’ll extend this invitation and others times I don’t.
The reason I don’t always extend the invitation is because I feel like I’m being pushy. The cases where I do extend the invitation is because the conversation has lead in that direction and I don’t feel like I’m saying, ‘nice to meet you, want to do me a favor?’
I would love to extend an invitation to all authors and soon-to-be authors to blog here because it’s a way to let others know about their latest work. With all the interesting and intriguing books coming out daily I can’t feature all of them in reviews so hosting the author is one way to help highlight their work.
From an author’s point of view is it being forward or pushy if someone gives you an open invitation to blog on their site? Does it put you on the spot even if there is no timeline involved? Or do you feel slighted if someone doesn’t ask you that has authors on their blog? Would most authors rather approach the blogger so that they can select sites that focus on the genre they write instead of being feature on a blog that covers different genres?
I realize time is a major factor in guest blogging. Shortly after I started hosting authors I extended an invitation to an author who had a book coming out. I received a nice e-mail saying thanks, but they were already booked. I was fine with that and completely understood. A number of months later the author’s publicist contacted me. The author had another book coming out and we were able to scheduled a post.
There was no pressure, just an open invitation at the author’s convenience.
So do I extend the invitation or not? Do I wait until I have ‘known’ the authors awhile before approaching the subject? Authors, please tell me.
BTW, this invitation is open to all authors (and soon-to-be authors) who read this - no pressure, just e-mail me if you ever want to guest blog here.
