Organizing geographically -- for a purpose

[Ann Kingman]

I've been thinking that it would be nice to have a directory or something of book bloggers by location (city, state, country, province, whatever). This idea first came to me when I attended the Connecticut Book Awards for work, and discovered that each U.S. state has a Center For the Book, as part of the National Center for the Book affiliated with the US Library of Congress. The people that were at the awards all worked in the book industry or were authors who were nominated for awards. I mentioned this to a bookseller, and she told me that there were little resources to promote the Center for the Book.

If book bloggers in a state got together and worked with their Center for the Book, I think we could at least raise awareness of what these Centers do, and highlight the awards.

Then I started thinking about some other reasons to organize by area:

1) partner with local booksellers for various things

2) Get on publishers' press lists for galleys that are local to an area

3) Receive notification of author events, possibly allowing author access for interviews, etc.

A few of us (booksellers, publisher people and bloggers) were talking this over on Twitter a couple of weeks ago, and we think there might be some real possibility. I'd like to know what you think:

1) is this a good idea?
2) How can we best organize this?
3) What other things would be enhanced by having a community of bloggers organized geographically?
3) What would be potential pitfalls to think about in advance (i.e., if you have Amazon links on your blog, a local independent bookstore might have an issue with that).

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

[Wendi Barker]

I think this is a great idea. A suggestion for those who want to keep their home town quiet - use a large city that you are near instead of your actual city/town. I don't live IN Seattle, but I do live near it. I am close enough that it would be easy for me to meet others in the area, but I am far enough away that I feel comfortable giving that as my location while still keeping my address from the public.

This is a fun idea!

Wendi

[Stacey @ book:thirty]

I think this is a fabulous idea. If I'd had more sleep last night, I might have more to say, but basically I think it would add an amazing dimension to book blogging if we could be more organized, unite, and actually have a tangible, real-world, locally-affected impact.

[Phyl G]

I also think this would be a great idea. I've noticed that there are a lot of Canadian book bloggers here too, and it would be useful to have sections for the various parts of Canada as well.

[Anastasia]

I'd love to get together with other book bloggers who live near me! It'd be nice to talk to people who actually knew what I was talking about when I mention RSS feeds, and so on. ;D

[ForstRose]

Keep me posted on this and I agree with Wendi if we use a city or metro area to identify our area instead of specific smaller towns or cities that allows people to provide a general location without sharing too much specific personal information publicly plus it gives people outside that area a reference point that would be more familiar instead of a bunch of unfamiliar towns - this would also make things more compact for organizing too. As each region in a larger state could be formed around bloggers who are in or near the major cities and designated by that city instead of specific locations.

Let me know what happens and how we are submitting our info for those interested when it gets going.

[Ann Kingman]

Thanks for your enthusiasm! Sunds like there are enough interested parties to start figuring out the next actions.

I am fairly certain that my web host allows unlimited domains at no extra cost, so I can host the technology.

The tech is where I fall down.

If I had to dream up what it would look like in my head, it would be a directory searchable by country/state/city, or within a mileage parameter (show me all bloggers within 50 miles of my bookstore). Links to the blog would be included. A "contact this blogger" form would allow interested parties to contact the blogger(s) without exposing the blogger's email address.

Bloggers could of course add themselves to the directory, perhaps with a couple of moderators reviewing the entries before they go public, so we avoid spammy links.

So that's the dream. What's the reality?

Kat, or anyone else conversant in databases, do you know how to do this, or is it way too much work and resources???

[Trish Collins]

I'm thinking this would best be done in Excel or Access...though I'm not proficient enough in those two things to offer my services.

[avisannschild]

I also think this is a good idea! I already meet up with a few other local bloggers on a semi-regular basis (we're meeting for the third time this weekend), and if nothing else, it's nice to exchange ideas (and books!) with others. We found each other via LibraryThing (more or less by chance) but I'm sure there must be other book bloggers in Montreal.

[Lexie]

I wouldn't mind having this! I would love to have other bloggers in my area to get together with and talk books.

I agree we should keep it away from Facebook--honestly even though I use it (I keep in 'touch', such as it is, with my mom's side of the family that way) I'm annoyed by it more often because of all the applications and things. For every application I don't allow to send me messages there's another 10 that still can!

And giving the option to list a major city instead of a hometown I think is a good idea. You can always give your address if you feel you trust people afterwards, but once your hometown is out there its hard to take back (not that I much care depending on the post office/zip code you are searching from you'd get one of three possibilities as my 'hometown'!)

I think this would be invaluable for author signings/visits, special workshops or just fun get togethers (or group trips--I'd love to get together with people and go to the used bookstores of NYC in the summer. Or just go to The Strand!). I don't know about anyone else but the sheer amount of websites, email groups, newsletters and blogs I sometimes have to keep track of boggles my mind and makes me miss when an author is close by for visits or signings.

keep my posted!!

Lexie

[Teddy]

I also this is a wonderful idea! It would also be good for bloggers to try to conect f2f with other bloggers.

[Ann Kingman]

OK, I'm mulling over a few ideas for the technical stuff. I will need to play around with some of the tools to see if I can make it work.

One question: I think my pipe dream of the "email blogger through this site" probably will not work. I know that most of you have "contact us" links on your blogs. Do you think that is sufficient, if a bookstore or publisher wanted to get in contact?

[Maw Books]

I do. I've seen most bloggers do that have info available.