August 17th of 2009, The Season celebrated the official launch of The Season website. It was a month long bonanza with an 8+ book and 2+ winners a day giveaway, which totaled 44 winners and over 90 books.
Well, The Season’s one year anniversary is just a month away and while it won’t be for a month this time, but starting Monday, August 16th thru August 20th, I’ll be holding a week long celebration with books aplenty to be won, and lots of fun and games.
If you are a published author and would like to donate your book(s) to be featured on the Blog for the giveaway, please contact me at contact at theseasonforromance dot com.
In other news, I’ve updated The Season website with a search feature!!! Yes! Believe me when I say, this feature is a major time saver. When the number on books on the site grew to unwieldy, even for me, I knew I had to put aside my trepidation and just do it. I’m happy to say that it seems to be working better than I could have hoped. Here’s a hint, if you’re doing literal searches, put a quote around the string. For example, if you’re searching for “I Kissed An Earl“, put a quote around the title so you don’t get everything with “Kissed” and “Earl” in it.
The search is on all home pages. The good news about that is, starting with the August issue, all genres featured on the site will have their own home pages.
Getting back to The Season’s One Year Anniversary week long celebration, what else would you like to see or do besides receive fantastic books? I’m looking for ideas. If I use your idea, you’ll be one of Day One’s winners and will get your choice of 3 books.
I think it would be cool to have the reviewers write a small post about our first romance book or how we got into the genre. Each reviewer could either write a small review/post (say like two paragraphs) about the first romance and their reaction OR their reaction to discovering the genre. Everyone has a story and each story usually have some unique elements. I think it would be a nice way to share. ^^
OOOO! I agree with Melissa!
If it weren’t so meticulous or time-consuming, I’d say you should make a website scavenger hunt. Leave historical themed clues on various pages and old school posts (be a great way to utilize the new search bar: ‘like: clue #1:search for a Viscount who dislikes being Deceived’ and when “Viscount Decieved’ is typed in the searched ‘The Dangers of Deceiving a Viscount’ by Julia London would be in the results [if you reviewed it or mentioned it] and you could edit that review and attach the second clue there)…it would all lead up to a final clue and the first (say 5) people to email you the ‘secret word’ from the final clue would win a prize or something. =)
There was something similar to this on this harry potter fan site I frequented. It was SO cool. I believe it was Veritaserum.net or something. But they had harry potter type questions like “I open at the close” and (me being a freak-fan I knew) it lead to the Deathly Hallows page and then I discovered the next clue. IDK, if you had the time, it would be such an awesome thing to try here!
Sounds wonderful. I would find it very helpful when you review a book to let us know when there are other books if it’s a series and in what order they should be read. My OCD prefers reading in order lol. I love that you show the cover of the books that you’re talking about!!
Sounds great, Bev!
How about a “quick” interview question with all the authors featured on that day? Even if it’s something as simple as “best book you read this year.”
Happy Soon To Be Anniversary, Beverly.
I think this site does a great job of highlighting new authors, which is wonderful as I love reading debut books.
As someone who is not so well-versed in the genre as a whole, though, for me personally it would be great to read a kind of ‘hidden gems’ feature, with authors who have been around for a little while but for whatever reason not quite as well-known as they deserve to be, judging by their work. For example, I recently stumbled acroos two books in Betina Krahn’s ‘TEST’ series, and they are really excellent. It was a complete fluke I found them (in a tiny USB in a tiny village) and now I’m interested in her more recent work and backlist.
I agree with everyone else. Those are wonderful ideas. I just started finding historical books and many have been from here. I would like to see giveaways with some author swag. That would be fun.
some quick polls would be interesting — ie: which is your favorite historical period; which author started you on romance in general or specific genres of romance; at what age group did you discover romance or who introduced you to it. Think it could be interesting to see how we all ended up addicted and compare “notes” about ourselves a little 🙂
How about a match the characters/scenes from books with authors game.
Is there any chance of a lucky reader getting an ARC of a much-anticipated book before the release date? For example, could a reader win an ARC of Christmas Eve At Friday Harbor or some other book that is due out later this year?
I like the above suggestions, but here’s a slightly different take: How about a Q&A between an author and readers? Perhaps you can let us know what author will be guesting; we can submit questions; and you choose the best ones to ask the author.
I would like to see more inform and comparisions between American and English writers and their releases. I have come across American authors throught facebook and on the internet and its hard to find their past publications. Its expensive to buy American publications over here, and I would think vise versa, if you dont know anything about the author and obtaining past publications. I collect historical mills and boons, up to date, im at 2006, but im missing some follow on stories, so I dont collect American authors.
how about a name that hero/heroine game… description of the person (what they did in the book etc) and you have to guess who it was.. would probably work with a multiple choice option (or a match up one side the descriptions the other side the options)
How about quotes/lines from fave books – posted by site as well as have others stop by and leave their memorable lines/quotes in the comments?
How about a recap of some of your fav books reviewed or most fav moments this past year hear at The Season? Like a top ten or something?
Happy anniversary!
I think you should hold an imaginary ball. Set the the time and place and ask all your visitors to come in appropriate costume – either real for the time or a masquerade costume that would fit the time. Offer everyone some cyber refreshments. Tell us who the guest of honor is and let us loose to dance the night away.
It would be fun if the blog highlighted a certain catagory a day (like one day highlight a historical, next day a contemporary, next day a paranormal, mystery, etc.) and then we can discuss a book we’ve read in that catagory that we’ve enjoyed and can recommend to others.
It’s great that you added a search feature to the site Bev!
Since I love covers and cover artists and cover models- how about a feature on books that are getting re-vamped with new covers or those that were out of print & hard to find being once again available (Ashworth’s My Darling Caroline & One Perfect Rose by Putney for example)? Or heck, the cover models or artists themselves- maybe alternate?- perhaps once a month or something or whatever is doable lol
I always like when we have discussions. While reading reviews and winning prizes is always AWESOME, I think hearing from other fellow readers is a plus. Maybe host a “chat” where everyone can talk about what they are reading, what their favorite books are and why. Also invite authors in so that they can join in the fun and get to know what the readers like and why. It don’t have to be frequently but every once in a while would be great.
I also like the idea of a featuring a new author and having that author drop by and introduce the readers to her books. Sort of like a spotlight feature. I’m talking about an author who is a “virgin” to the game (1st book).
Bev you do a great job with the site regardless and I’m sure it will just get better no matter what. I’ve learned about so many authors and of course my pockets have become smaller LOL.
The search feature is a great idea, Bev! Thanks for offering romance readers so much great information and wonderful giveaways.
How about a “where are they now” feature, highlighting authors who haven’t had a new book release in a while, so readers know if their favorite authors are still writing.
Sometimes I like to read romances with similar themes. If I read a good one, I’m usually in the mood to read another one straight away. Like friends-to-lovers; second-chance/reunion; ugly duckling, May-Dec, etc.
So how about a “If you enjoyed (fill in title), you should look into (XYZ 123…)” recommendation list.
Just an idea 🙂
You might be able to get authors or other vendors to donate gift baskets, tote bags, foods (chocolate), gift certificates, jewelry, who knows what. Not sure what is available out there, but such things show up on other sites frequently.
I am sure the year has gone by very fast for you. Your site has certainly evolved rapidly. good luck.
How about being an romance heroine you want and the hero you want…or being a connect the heroine to the hero.
I read the question wrong the first time sorry. As to games, I always thought it was fun that everyone wrote a sentence in order to make a story – winner(s) would have to just be random but it usually ends up hilarious. Or romance words or authors – start with the letter A and keep going. No one answering twice in a row. Whatever you decide, I’m sure it will be fun.
love guest authors and blogs we like listed
a nice video of the books we liked
I enjoy participating and finding out the results of your polls so I would enjoy having some of those about favorite past posts. Also guest author posts and people picking favorite posts, books and covers.
How about a matching game? Hero’s to book title or author?
I would like to see an author per day who is featured who writes with a pseudonym too. Their name is one thing in historicals and another for their paranormals books, for example. Or a list of writers who write in 2 different genres.
The suggestions are really flying in, I would like to see a type of scavenger hunt across your website of a featured author where questions are asked about a specific book and the searchers have to guess what title is being asked about. Another suggestion is take sections of a book cover, like puzzle pieces, and hide them around your website and we have to discover the title and author, only show a part of the title or author’s name.
There have been several good ideas given. I like that each category will have its own home page.
I wouldn’t participate in a “chat” because the few times I tried were disasters. I’m a one finger typist and by the time I entered what I typed, the “chat” was about 20-30 comments away from what I was commenting on. It seemed crazy.
I like Maureen’s ideas (above) – favorite covers, past posts, and past polls. I’ve usually only read a few of the favorite books being polled by mid-month, so I don’t always participate in those.
Another suggestion for a game is to give clues throughout the day as to an author’s identity and the first one to guess wins a book or a prize. Example: Clue 1: This author only writes contemporaries. Clue 2: This author is a former RITA winner.
Congrats Bev!
I think it would be neat if you set up a novella writing game. We can start with a few paragraphs that you write, then post. Other fans of the site and even some of us reviewers can take turns adding to what you have written with a few paragraphs of our own. You can write in now and then to keep the story on track and moving forward, then see what we end up with. You can publish the whole thing on the site at the end of the week for a bit of fun. It is easy to set up as we could just program it like we do with the comments. Someone just enters their bit into a comment field like this and it gets added to the writing chain for the story.
I will donate some stuff to a giveaway if you wish.
Happy almost One Year anniversary Bev! What a great accomplishment 🙂
Playing off the ‘ONE’ anniversary, how about a 2 or 3 sentence description from a contest entrant on:
Tell us about the ‘ONE.’ The one book, review or book cover that introduced you to an author or genre you “FELL’ for! Best description wins.
Happy Anniversary!!!!!! Thanks for a wonderful year of reviews and contests.
Happy Anniversary!
How about a matching game listing like authors with similar styles and their books.
How about a chat with the Hero and Heroine ? Truth be told Bev, you’ve done an amazing job with the Season and I love it. You’re always right on top of things.
Carol L.
Lucky4750@aol.com