Shannon Taylor Vannatter – Changes – Part 1 of 1

I’m making some changes around here and looking for feedback. Answer the question in this post for a chance to win a title from my backlist or the backlist of books I’ve edited (from what I have on hand).

Originally, when I started this blog back in May 2010, I blogged three days a week. Monday, Wednesday, & Friday. After a year of waiting, my debut novel, White Roses, was finally published. I needed a website and a blog the powers that be told me. I couldn’t imagine having something to write about two or three times a week about writing books that I thought might interest readers. Plus I had deadlines for two more books. I needed to concentrate my writing on those. Especially since, I’d written and rewritten White Roses for eight years. But I only had eight months to write book two.

So that’s when I came up with the idea to have other Christian authors share their real-life and character romances on my blog. And The Inkslinger was born. I wrote the first post about meeting my husband. After that, I hosted other authors three times a week, except when I had a new release, I’d fit myself in. Somewhere in the midst of several contracts with tight deadlines, I cut down my blogging to twice a week. Yes for the most part, other authors wrote my content, I still had to set it up, which could be time consuming. I cut down to Tuesdays and Fridays, which was a very doable schedule, even during deadlines.

Fourteen years later, the formula was still working, when I decided to try something different. When Toni Shiloh decided to quit doing her roundup of new book releases, sales, freebies, giveaways, and preorders, because it was too time-consuming, I hoped someone would take up her torch. In the end, that someone turned out to be me. I’ll admit, Toni did a better job. She grouped her titles for each section under headings, New Book Releases, Sales, and so on.

When I decided to make a stab at it, I didn’t have any book contracts. But I didn’t want it to be so time-consuming that when my next contract shows up, I’d to have to quit the roundup. So after studying Toni’s roundups, I decided if I provided a link to monthly new releases, without having to set up each cover and don’t include preorders, it was doable. I’d contacted Toni and told her my plan. And so did Narelle Atkins, who’d decided to take over the preorder part of the roundup. We’ve been tag-teaming it since the end of June.

When I added the roundup, I already had guest bloggers lined up on Tuesdays and Fridays for the rest of the year. I decided to squeeze in Shannon’s Book Bargains Roundup on Mondays. This year, when I started signing up guest authors, I decided to go back to Monday, Wednesday, and Friday blogging. So here are the changes I’m making around here. I’ll host authors on Mondays and Wednesdays, then move my roundup to Fridays. So my first roundup for this year will arrive tomorrow, then on every Friday. 

So even though I’m committing to the roundup for at least the first half of this year, I’m wondering if my readers like it or have found it useful. 

Question for Readers: Do you routinely follow the sales, freebie, and giveaway links I provide? If not, why? Have you won a drawing from a link I provided? Or downloaded a free book thanks to my roundup? Or discovered new releases because of the monthly link I provide? 

About Shannon: Award winning author, Shannon Taylor Vannatter writes contemporary Christian cowboy romance and has over a dozen published titles. A romance reader since her teens, she hopes to entertain Christian women and plant seeds in the non-believer’s heart as she demonstrates that love doesn’t conquer all—Jesus does.

She gleans fodder for her fiction in rural Arkansas where she spent her teenage summers working the concession stand with her rodeo-announcing dad and married a Texan who morphed into a pastor. Shannon is Scrivenings Press Acquisitions/Content Editor for Contemporary titles. In her spare time, she loves hanging out with her husband and adult son, flea marketing, and doing craft projects. Learn more & connect:

Shannon’s Website              Shannon’s Facebook              Shannon’s Bookbub

Shannon’s Twitter               Shannon’s Goodreads            Shannon’s Pinterest

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Come back Jan 4th for 3rd for Shannon’s Book Bargains Roumdup!

Come back Jan 6th for Caryl McAdoo!