Sunday, January 10, 2010

Introducing the International Book Blogger Mentor Program 2010

It can be tough to keep up with the book blogging community when you don’t live in the US or Canada. Publishers won’t send you books, most contests aren’t for you, and it can be next to impossible to find certain titles in your home country.

Over the past two years of book blogging, I’ve been very lucky about the amount of books I’ve received and I’ve passed a fair number of my books on to other bloggers in countries such as Vietnam, Pakistan, Scotland, Spain and of course Germany.

I would like to continue supporting international book bloggers and have decided to start the International Book Blogger Mentor Program. Any book blogger who blogs in English about books and lives outside the US and Canada can apply. Each month I will pick one blogger to send 2-3 of my most recent review copies to. Upon request, I will also look over the reviews you write for the books and suggest improvements. Once you post your first review, I will feature you and your blog on Presenting Lenore.

To apply:

You must have an active blog with at least 10 book reviews posted to date. Just write an e-mail to lenoreva at hotmail dot com with the subject line IBBMP 2010 telling me your future plans for your blog and why you’d like to be a part of the mentor program. You can also mention what new and forthcoming books are on the top of your wish list and I will try to match you up with at least one. If you are selected, I will write you an e-mail and give you a list of books to select from.

Hope to hear from you International Book Bloggers soon! And please spread the word.

55 comments:

Adele said...

Great idea, Lenore! It is enormously frustrating to be an overseas blogger.

Lenore Appelhans said...

Tell me about it! I've found ways to get books, but it's definitely been difficult at times. I hope to make it at least a tiny bit easier for my fellow international bloggers through this program.

chocowafer said...

Wow, I agree with Adele. This is such a great and generous idea. :)

Ana S. said...

This is AWESOME of you, Lenore. Thanks to The Book Depository and the generosity of blogging friends over the years I no longer have trouble acquiring books (and in fact have a towering tbr pile), but I've been there, and it's fantastic of you to do this for others.

Liyana said...

Ahh Lenore, you come up with great ideas all the time. This has to be one of your best. I'd love to take part. Is it weird that I'm more excited over someone looking over my reviews?

Unknown said...

That is such a great idea Lenore!

I live on Amazon and eBooks and even I've gotten a couple review copies in the mail, im sure I dont get more because Im in Israel =/

Thanks so much for this!

=)))

Anonymous said...

That's a fantastic idea!

Test said...

What a fantastic idea, Lenore! I'm sure all the international book bloggers will love having this chance.

Lightheaded said...

This is indeed a great and generous idea! I'm sure a lot of book bloggers will have fun with this one.

bermudaonion said...

I think this is a fantastic idea! I remember how hard it was to get books in English when we lived in France.

Nayuleska said...

This is an awesome opportunity, thank you! I've emailed you :)

Bookalicious Ramblings said...

What a brilliant idea! It's so wonderful and generous of you to be willing to help out those who live outside the UK and the US - I know how it feels living in the middle of nowhere! :( I'll send you an email later and I've already retweeted your tweet about this. :)

Ivana said...

Hi, Lenore!

This is a great idea, and very thoughtful of you...I'm from Croatia, and yes, it does get frustrating when you can't keep up with other bloggers.

I'll be emailing you shortly. Thanks for doing this.

Llehn said...

What a generous, generous thing to do Lenore! You rock :D

Amanda said...

This is a very good idea!

Kay said...

Wow, that is such a great idea (and a very nice thing to do from your part)!

Off to write you an email now :)

Thank you for organizing this!

Jenn (Books At Midnight) said...

I agree, fabulous idea! I live in the US, so I won't be participating, but I can't imagine having to go through all that trouble just to get one book. You're so sweet! :D

Unknown said...

What a super idea!

Memory said...

What an awesome idea! It's so nice of you to set this up for international bloggers.

Unknown said...

Wow, Lenore! That's so thoughtful of you. What a great way to help people get started. Great idea. Good luck!

Sarah said...

Wow this is a fantastic idea & very generous of you :o) I'm in the UK & have only recently started my blog so I haven't done enough reviews to participate yet but as soon as I have I'll send you an email!

Thanks for the opportunity

Michelle B. said...

Wow, this is an amazing idea! Luckily for me I live in Canada. :) This is amazingly generous and nice idea.

Ellie said...

Not an overseas blogger, but this is a fantastic idea!

Raíla said...

Thank you so much for doing this. It's so generous! I created my blog about 2 weeks ago and haven't posted any review since, but I'm heading to write them and post them soon. It's just I'm not a fluent English speaker... I'm still studying the basic English, but I read many book in English, so I think I can handle everything. Again: Thank you for your generousity. The only way I have to buy books is by Amazon and an unique bookstore I have here in my city that sells books from US, but it takes almost two months to arrive, so... Thank you over and over again!

Kirthi said...

I suddenly feel very glad I live in the U.S. This is a great idea for international bloggers!

Marce said...

Thank you for introducing this and putting yourself out there to mentor, wonderful idea.

I'm international but do not have an issue getting books but would love for someone to review and critique my writing.

I found you from The Story Siren's blog. Glad to have found you, i'm enjoying your end of 2009 post.

Heather J. @ TLC Book Tours said...

I love this idea! I'm looking forward to "meeting" the international bloggers you'll be featuring!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Yes, I sound like a parrot, but this really is way cool!

Mariana S said...

OMG! that´s a wonderful idea! ;)

Liz @ Cleverly Inked said...

What a wonderful thing to do

Mystica said...

Though I would like to apply for the mentoring opportunity I cannot do so as I have not done the required reviews. However, I think its a wonderful opportunity. In Sri Lanka quality English books are available but at exhorbitant prices, the second hand book market is restricted to about 3 small shops in the capital city so reading even the reviews is extremely enjoyable to readers.

I dont think people who have had easy access to everything in their life including libraries and the vast amount of material available freely would ever begin to understand how much they take for granted!

Thank you once again for your generous offer.

Shy said...

This is such a great idea. I would like to sign up for this program, but the review that I'd made so far haven't yet reach the magic number.

However, it would be lovely if - for now - you can review some of the reviews that has been made and give me some advise on how to write a good reviews.

Thank you =)

Holly said...

This is an excellent idea, I have sent my email off and hope to receive a reply :)

Unknown said...

This is such an amazing idea. As I live in Egypt and it's hard to get ARCs and stuff over here.

Anonymous said...

I found your blog via the post on the Story Siren's blog.
It seems very nice of you to do this!

I am only new to book blogging, and although I live in Australia, so I don't find it that hard to find books, I'd love some advice on getting my blog up and running better.
Thank you very much for this oppertunity. I'll email you. :)

brizmus said...

such a cool and nice and wonderfull generous idea! I have sent you an e-mail!

Nina said...

What a great idea! Thanks lenore! :)

Serena said...

What a great idea! I'm posting you in my Hubbub Around the Blogosphere Feature today!

Liviania said...

Great idea! I hope you don't have too much trouble with postage and such. (It's always annoying when packages go awry.)

Blodeuedd said...

Cool :=) Must go and email you.

Mari - Escape In A Book said...

I was just going through my Google Reader(it's been a bit neglected in the past week because I had to concentrate on an exam) and I find this great post! This must be one of the best ideas in the book blogging community ever :) It would be great to have someone looking over my reviews.

I've spread the word on Twitter and posted about it on my blog.

I'm sending an email your way tonight!

Melissa said...

Love this idea! And I can't wait to discover some new blogs through this too.

Anonymous said...

What a good idea - can I return your generosity and offer you any UK review books I receive? Noah's Compass was out here first last year and my review is on my blog and up at The Literateur ezine.
I'll email with further details.

janette

Becca said...

I am in the U.S. and therefore do not need to do this, but I think it is an absolutely fantastic, thoughtful idea. I wish you great success with it, and you have inspired me to give a book to an overseas blogger in my next giveaway. :)

Kelly said...

What a FABULOUS idea!

Heather Zundel said...

Oh, that is so sweet of you. Really, kudos to you Lenore!

Sandra said...

What a generous thing to do. We miss out on a lot of arcs by being in Canada but at least we have access to some. All my giveaways and Bookmooch send-outs have always been worldwide I'm happy to say - I know postage kills - so I use library books when I can to save money. I would be willing to send a package of 2 or 3 books overseas to an address you gave me if that helps. I could give you a list of which arcs I am willing to let go of. Let me know, my email is at the top of my blog. Let's hope this idea starts a trend.

Elle said...

A big thank you to you for starting this! I'm going to apply as soon as possible. :)

Amanda said...

Hi Lenore,

This is so generous and brilliant! I heard about this program when Natasha of Maw Books Blog was interviewed on the podcast That's How I Blog.

This discovery was timely, as I'd just posted a bit of a whinge on The Story Siren's site about the rather discriminatory nature of ARCs & competitions in the book blogging world, where international bloggers are excluded largely, it would seem, because of high US postage costs.

So look out for my email in you intray. Thank you so much for doing this for the REST of the world.

Spellboundbybooks Mel said...

This is a fantastic Idea. I don't know how many times I've gone to enter contests and what not, only to stop when it says US and Canada only. I'm from Australia and it can be frustrating. When I finally do my contests and giveaways I will make sure that most/if not all will be open internationally.

Tesni said...

What a great idea it is! :D
I live in England and I'm annoyed by the lack of competitions and things I can't enter *sigh* Oh well. It sounds like a great project. Yay :c)

Alice said...

wow, this is a really great idea! It's hard to get books or win contests when you live overseas!

Anonymous said...

thanks! as a book blogger outside the US, I thank you

Fiction Spark said...

Thanks for such a brilliant idea. I just started my blog and still making changes here and there. But thankfully I've made my first post today. I found your link at The Story Siren. Again thank you so much for opening an opportunity to bloggers outside US.

Maji Bookshelf said...

wow! that is pretty amazing!!! thanks for giving international bloggers a chance! will send you an email as soon as possible!! :D

- juhina & Farah @ Maji Bookshelf