Armchair BEA - Nurturing Relationships

Design credit: Sarah of Puss Reboots
Today the good folks at Armchair BEA have started a discussion about nurturing relationships through book blogging. I hadn't planned on posting today, mostly because I'm avoiding writing a review for Starcrossed, but also because I am lazy. This topic really got me thinking, though.

For me, blogging is all about the relationships. Every day I get excited about scrolling through my Google Reader feed for the latest updates from my bloggy friends. I'm a few weeks away from hitting that 6 month mark, and already I can count a bunch of you faithful readers among my friends.

It's kind of amazing when you write a review and an author personally thanks you. It's super cool to send out a tweet and have people respond. It's even better when popular, established, and admired bloggers take you under their wing and pump you full of confidence. If I didn't have these relationships, and the promise of more of them, I wouldn't come back here to write everyday.

Relationships take work. They need to be cultivated. I'm really looking forward to the end of school so I can devote more time to getting to know my followers and all of the stupendous folks I follow. I realize that currently I am a big fat slacker when it comes to commenting, and I promise it will get better.

When you do make those connections, though, people can really surprise you. They lend you books they think you'd like, leave you comments that make your entire week, send you emails of support, thank you for your review, and sometimes even give you free stuff! Which means, of course, that you should do things like that in return. Relationships are a two-way street, and if you're not giving, you're not getting, or at least not for long.

I got a big "get" recently that I want to point out. Small Review did a post last week about how to add a signature to your blog, and because I love all things awkwardly Paint created, I squeed a bit over her example signature.

So you know what she did? SHE MADE ME ONE. And linked to it in her comment back to me.

Logan, It’s totally understandable that you’d covet it. :) But fear not, I’ve made you one now HERE. That blob on the left is a hat (with a feather) and the blob on the right is a magical wand. The dots are magical sparkles. Get ready for skyrocketing follower numbers and droves of onlookers.

(and, no, I don’t actually expect you to use it!)

Of course, not using it was so NOT an option. This is what comes from good relationship cultivation. People make you awesome things. So without further ado, I now debut the magical Small Review created signature just for me. It's okay. You can be jealous.