So how did we do with the first blog improvement marathon?  965+ hours of blog improvement from more than 80 participants.  That’s a lot of blogging! Fantastic!  From the blog posts and twitter stream, it seemed that everybody had a fantastic time!  And for some, it was surprisingly so!  I’m thrilled that it was truly a fiesta!

The mini-challenges may have ended up to not be so mini, but they were a huge hit thanks to our great hosts!  I am thrilled with how the Bloggiesta turned out and I can’t wait to host it again.  Perhaps, two times a year?

But there are books to be given away!  And our winners are . . .

Mini-Challenge Winners:

• Nicole from Linus’s Blanket
• Melanie from Melanie’s Musings
• Nan from Nan’s Corner of the Web
• Avis from She Reads and Reads
• Kristen from Bookworming in the 21st Century
• Drea from Book Blather
• Cindy from Cindy’s Love of Books
• Melissa from One Librarian’s Book Reviews
• J.C. from The Biblio Blogazine
• Pam from MotherReader
• Joanne from The Book Zombie
• Amy from Haiku Amy

Winner for Most Hours Spent on Challenge:

• Liyana from Liyanaland – Big surprise!  She spent 48 hours on the 48 Hour Book Challenge, so I was not surprised to see her devote 48 hours (with a couple very, very short naps) on this challenge!

Winner for Most Comments Left on Participating Blogs:

• Sheila from One Person’s Journey Through a World of Books – Sheila left a comment on every single wrap up post!

Winners, Just for the Pure Joy of Playing the Game:

• Jennie from Biblio File
• Jacqueline from The Undercover Book Lover

Many thanks to our Bloggiesta sponsors!

• Tilbury House (U.S./Canada addresses)
  • Remember Me: Tomah Joseph’s Gift to Franklin Roosevelt by Donald Soctomah and Jean Flahive, illus. by Mary Beth Owens
  • Amadi’s Snowman by Katia Novet-Saint Lot, illus. by Dimitrea Tokunbo (Maw Books review)
  • Under the Night Sky by Amy Lundebrek, illus. by Anna Rich
• Tor and Forge Books (U.S. addresses)
  • A Trace of Smoke by Rebecca Cantrell (two copies)
• Henry Holt (U.S./Canada addresses)
  • The Embers by Hyatt Bass (three copies)
• Unbridled Books (U.S. addresses)
  • Conscience Point by Erica Abeel
  • The Wonder Singer by George Rabassa
• FSB Associates (U.S addresses)
  • Horse Soldiers (Audio version) by Doug Stanton
  • The Lie by Fredrica Wagman
    
  • 7 Great Prayers by Paul and Tracy McManus
  • The Chris Farley Show by Tom Farley Jr. and Tanner Colby
  • The Compass by Tammy Kling & John Spencer Ellis
  • Annie’s Ghosts by Steve Luxenberg
  • Wounded by School by Kirsten Olson
• Maw Books (for our international participants only)
  • $15 gift certificates  to the online bookseller of your choice (two winners)

I am pretty sure I know which of our winners are from Canada and international and which are U.S.  But to be on the safe side though, I won’t assign books to winners until I have your mailing address.  So please contact me, so I can pass on your info to our sponsors.

Thank you everybody for a fantastic Bloggiesta!  Let’s do it again!

You made it!  Thank you everybody for partying during Bloggiesta – the blogging marathon with a fiesta flair!

I hope you had a great time and not only learned lots but got much accomplished!   Thank you SO much to everybody who participated.  We had 85 participants.  You’re enthusiasm was amazing!  I loved visiting your blogs and left more than 125 comments; I’ll be making the rounds again to read your wrap up posts.  I still am shaking my head with how many people participated when I just began to put this event in the planning stage just a week ago.  I love social media.  I do.

A huge special thank you to the mini-challenge hosts who graciously accepted the call with literally no notice on my part.  The posts, tips, and advice were fantastic.   Thanks Rebecca at The Book Lady’s Blog, Beth from Beth Fish Reads, Jill at Fizzy Thoughts, Emily from Emily’s Reading Room, Deborah from Books, Movies, and Chinese Food, Lynn from Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile, Jen from Devourer of Books, Amy from My Friend Amy, Trish from Hey Lady! Watcha Readin’?, Michelle from GalleySmith, Andrea from Book Blather and Ruth from Bookish Ruth. Couldn’t have done it without you!

Another huge thank you to the Bloggiesta sponsors for providing the giveaways that are not only just plain fun, but give us something to work towards.  Thanks Tilbury House, Tor and Forge Books, Henry Holt, Unbridled Books, FSB Associates , My Friend Amy, and myself.

Please sign the Mr. Linky again (I know, again!) with the direct link to your final summary post. Tis easier for me to find out your stats, etc. to divvy out the the prizes.   Your final summary post should ideally include the number of hours spent on the challenge, what you accomplished, the mini-challenges you participated in, number of comments you left while bloggiesting, what you enjoyed most about the challenge and what you’d like to see included in the next Bloggiesta.  Yes!  We will do it again!

Now it’s time to send Pedro down to sleep.  He’s exhausted.  Hasta la vista!

.

And please, don’t laugh too hard:

• Reader spotlight questions sent to:
  • Kathy
  • Ali
  • Suey
  • Laura H.
  • Jeane
  • Kim
  • Jen
• Book reviews for:
  • Charlotte’s Rose by A.E. Cannon
  • The Loser’s Guide to Life and Love by A.E Cannon
  • Love You, Hate You, Miss You by Elizabeth Scott
  • Long Shot by Mike Lupica
  • Dessert First by Hallie Durand
  • Down at the Sea Hotel, A Greg Brown song illustrated by Mireille Levert
  • Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom by Eric Wight
  • Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell
  • The Teashop Girls by Laura Schaefer
  • Picking Cotton by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton
  • Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea
  • That Went Well, Adventures in Caring for My Sister by Terrell Harris Dougan
  • Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
  • Everything is Fine by Ann Dee Ellis
  • Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
  • Miracle’s Boys by Jacqueline Woodson
  • The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale
  • Benny the Baffled Behemoth by Melissa Leembruggen
  • Unite or Die, How Thirteen States Became a Nation by Jacqueline Jules
  • Little Skink’s Tail by Janet Halfmann
  • Brothers in Hope, The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan by Mary Williams
  • Heroes by Ken Mochizuki, illustrated by Dom Lee
  • Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds, The Sammy Lee Story by Paula Yoo, illustrated by Dom Lee
• Send author interview questions to:
  • Elizabeth Scott
  • Janet Halfmann
  • Ann Dee Ellis
  • Emily Wing Smith
• Make author interview inquiries with:
  • Hallie Durand
  • A.E Cannon
  • Laura Schaefer
  • Rachel Renee Russell
  • Luis Alberto Urrea
  • Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton
• Download, convert and prep Shannon Hale videos from The Actor and the Housewife signing for the book review.
• Write the Richard Peck post from clear back in October when I met him and do signed book giveaway.
• Write giveaway post for a signed copy of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.
• Write my chocolate cake author recipe post.
• Write my Potty Training 101 post (it’s been in draft for a year!)
• Send book club questionnaire back to Trish for kidlit book club
• Send book club questionnaire back to Trish for neighborhood book club
• Send my blogging space photo to Cathy
• Fix my www.mawbooks.com main page so it doesn’t have errors.
• Install the WordPress plug-in that Bart talked about that link a title auto to Indibound, Powell’s and Amazon. (installed but a bit wonky, so it’s not active)
  
• Update my “Now Reading” sidebar and make sure links are present in most recently read books in “My Library.”
• Return a lot of emails.
• Figure out what is making my blog load so slow.
• Talk to my sister about my huge list of template sidebar changes that needs to be done.
• The very, very late BEA post.  Get it done!
• Update my summer calender with tours, etc.
• Visitor spotlight post.  I forgot it last month.
• The questionnaire that everybody already sent to Penguin? Yeah, still on my to do list.
• Record latest video for our “group vlog.”
• Schedule the date for the Utah Book Bloggers Summer Social
• Read my two Nerds Heart YA tourney book selections (Feathered by Laura Kasischke and I Know It’s Over by C.K. Kelly Martin, review both and post decision. By Sunday!  LOL.
• The Chosen One giveaway.  Still haven’t picked a winner.  Terrible of me!
• At this point, do I finish my half written post about the panels at the LA Times Festival of Books?
• Install the WordPress plugin that gives a little message to encourage new visitors to subscribe.  Come to think of it, I need to figure out which one it is.

Things I keep adding to the list (sometimes just so I can feel good about myself for crossing something off I didn’t remember to list earlier!)

• Pick winner for Freckleface Strawberry.
• Update all my plug-ins.
• Add blog to dmoz directory.
• update blog to newest WordPress version.
• update wordpress version for challenges.mawbooks.com
• update the theme for challenges.mawbooks.com
• update wordpress version for bookreviews.mawbooks.com
• update theme for bookreviews.mawbooks.com
• I haven’t touched bookreviews.mawbooks.com for 9+ months. Decide if I want to continue project or fold it.

Okay, okay.   You can pick yourself up from rolling in laughter on the floor.  Just watch me cross those babies off!

Led by our mascot . . .

Pedro!
Plan.  Edit.  Develop.  Review.  Organize.

(Seriously, is that not the coolest.  Jill thought he needed a name and @SlowTrav on Twitter came through in a big way.)

You’ve been prepping all week after checking out the challenge details.  You’ve ordered out for enchiladas, burritos, nachos and have a great big bowl of chips and salsa.  You’ve broken out the sweats which you’ve paired with a somberaro to match and your huge to do list is sitting dauntingly in front of you.  Take a deep breath, put on the mariachi music, shake out your shoulders and dive in!

How to Party!

When you begin the Bloggiesta challenge, sign in with Mr. Linky and link directly to your introductary Bloggiesta post.  That will let me and everybody else that you have officially begun and we can go share our mariachi tunes and cheer you on.

How many times you choose to update is up to you, but you should keep track of the hours spent on the challenge as well as the tasks that you have completed.  You do not need to write a new post for each mini-post completed, but do include and link back to the challenge host on your final summary post.

On Sunday, I will post a finish line post where you will link up to your final summary post.

Feel free to utilize the Blogging Tips forum for blog help and the twitter hashtag #bloggiesta.

Mini-challenges!

There are mini-challenges!  Twelve hosts have generously offered to host mini-challenges.  Each mini-challenge is geared to help you improve your blog, so they are well worth checking out.

All the challenges will be up for the duration of the Bloggiesta, so you have the entire 48 hours to peruse and complete them.  You don’t have to do them all, but for each one that you do complete with a comment on their post, your name will be entered for a giveaway.

• Rebecca at The Book Lady’s Blog – Getting out from underneath the feed reader.
• Beth from Beth Fish Reads – On lists and opinions.
• Jill at Fizzy Thoughts – Just when you thought the feed reader was halfway managed.
• Emily from Emily’s Reading Room – Are you talking about me?
• Deborah from Books, Movies, and Chinese Food – You have a blog?  So tell me about it.
• Lynn from Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile – Get listed.
• Jen from Devourer of Books – Wow. I wrote that when?  Let’s update.
• Amy from My Friend Amy – I need a friend.
• Trish from Hey Lady! Watcha Readin’? – On favicons and gravatars.  Huh?
• Michelle from GalleySmith – Anchor text.  You mean there’s a way this *should* be done?
• Andrea from Book Blather – Authorities?  What authorities?
• Ruth from Bookish Ruth – You’re going to analyze what?

Sponsors!

There are sponsors! A fantastic lot of publishers and publicists have generously donated titles to be given away during Bloggiesta! Each challenge completed will enter you, random draws for simply participating, most hours spent blogging, and if you keep track of the number of comments you leave visiting participating blogs, the one who leaves the most will also win a prize.  And along the way I’ll think of other ways to divide the goodies.  I’ll likely throw in some books from my personal stash of giveaway books.

Ready, set . . .  let’s bloggiesta!

Have fun!

Sign in with Mr. Linky when you’ve arrived at the party:

P.S. This post is sticky. My personal Bloggiesta posts will remain below this post.

So, I intend to sit down and tackle all of my book reviews, interviews, emails and bloggy housekeeping but thought it would be a lot more fun if I had some company.  When I put some feelers out via Twitter I got a great response and people were eager to start right away.

So, it’s with a little fear and trepidation that I announce the first edition of the Bloggiesta! The Bloggiesta will focus on blog content, improving/cleaning up your blog or working on your social network profiles.  I’m pretty open on what you can do during the bloggiesta but reading actually won’t count!  I know, I know.   The point is to catch up instead of adding another book to the “to be reviewed” pile.

Actual blog content is what I’m really aiming for with some technical/housekeeping bloggy stuff mixed in for good measure.

What to do during the Bloggiesta?

• Write book, movie, TV, product reviews.  Any reviews really.
• Write backup posts for a rainy day.
• Write that great post idea from three months back.
• Work on series posts.
• Write guest posts.
• Put out invitations for guest posts.
• Conduct and edit author interviews.
• Create template posts for your future reads (ie: title, images, linking, tags, etc,) so you can open up, write review and post without being bogged down with technicalities
• Clean up your tags, archives, books reviewed list, etc.
• Improve your blog template, clean up sidebars, add a favicon, install those plugins that you’ve been meaning to do.
• Add or edit your about me page, review policy, create landing pages (for example – an about me for Twitter readers page) or any other pages you might have.
• Any bloggy type housekeeping that you’ve been neglecting.
• Clean up and update your challenge lists.  Link up your posts with hosts.
• Make sure all of your social network profiles are up to date.  Brand yourself through those profiles with color scheme, images, etc.
• Go get a gravatar.
• Visit the Blogging Tips group on the Book Blogs Ning and find ways to improve your blog.
• Work on any specialized projects that you may have going.

How to play:

1. The date is Friday, June 19th beginning at 8am, Saturday the 20th and ending Sunday the 21st at 8am (8am your time, wherever you are).  That is a total of 48 hours, of which you should aim high for a total of 18-24 hours spent on the challenge. (I chose both a weekday and a weekend to hopefully accommodate different needs and not take up your entire weekend.  And yes, that’s only a week away!)  The hours spent on the challenge do NOT need to be in a row. Use the entire 48 hour time frame and see what you can do with it.  I say aim for 24 hours but really if you can only do six, twelve or eighteen that’s fine too. I just like to have something to aim for.
2. It’s your call as to how much you want to put into it.  But you have to put something into it or it’s not a challenge. So stay up all night or sleep and take care of kids when you need to.
3. When you start the challenge, come back to the “starting line” post and link to your specific post about beginning the challenge which is posted on your blog. That way I’ll be able to track participants and know who’s really playing the game.
4. How many updates (if any) you want to do is up to you.  Make it work for you.  Personally, I plan on making a to do list and then crossing off items as I accomplish them.
5. If you are on Twitter, use the hashtag #bloggiesta to join the chatter.
6. Your final summary post needs to be posted no later than noon on Sunday, June 21st. Come back to the finish line and link to your specific summary post.  Your summary should include the number of hours spent on the challenge, what you accomplished and any other experiences you’d like to add.
7. Sign the Mr. Linky now if you intend to join the challenge. That way I’ll know if it will be me, myself, and I or if I’ll have company.  If you blog about the challenge, point them to this post.  I’ll have a starting line post on Friday to sign in when you begin the challenge.  Don’t forget to subscribe, so you’ll be notified of  future bloggiesta posts.

Who can play?

• Anybody!  While obviously hosted by a book blogger, I’d love to welcome anybody who has a blog who would like to write content or improve their blog to join in.  In addition to adult, kidlit, YA, romance, mystery, historical fiction, non-fiction, and publishing book blogs  any other bloggers are welcome.  Movie blog?  TV blog?  Mommy blog?   Gardening blog?  Photography blog?  All are welcome!

Will there be prizes?

• I certainly hope so!  I’ll see what I can come up with.

What can you do to help?

• Spread the word!  I put this together so fast that I imagine many won’t know about it until it’s to late.  The more we have join the challenge, the more moral support we’ll have during the challenge!

There will be people available to answer questions or give advice about blog improvement during the challenge if you so need it.  Mainly on Twitter and the Blogging Tips Group.  So who’s with me?!  (*pleaseihopei’mnottheonlyone*).  Sign Mr. Linky (which is making his first appearance on my blog, I hope he works) if you intend to join the challenge.  Any questions?  Or am I totally confusing?

Mr Linky:

P.S Many thanks to Pam at MotherReader for allowing me to “borrow” her format and wordage from her successful 48 Hour Book Challenge.  Which by the way, was a blast.  And thanks to my awesome husband who made the button for the challenge.  I fell asleep while he was making it last night and that cute illustration is what I woke up to this morning. And thanks to everybody on Twitter last night who helped name the Bloggiesta!