We’re celebrating ten years of Booklover’s Bench, the site where readers are winners. Planning for this site began in fall of 2012, but we held our first contest in February 2013. Every year since we’ve celebrated our anniversary in February. This year is a very big deal because we are still going strong after ten years.
First of all, hats off to author Terry Odell who returned from a NinC meeting determined to form an author group for cross-promotion. She invited authors to join her. Those first authors included Terry Ambrose, Nancy Cohen, Karla Darcy, Linda Hubalek, Terry Odell, Joanna Campbell Slan, Maggie Toussaint, and Carol White. Alumni authors who’ve come and gone during our ten years include Terry Odell, Karla Darcy, Linda Hubalek, Karla Brandenburg, Joanna Campbell Slan, Diane Capri, Jim Jackson, and Tina Whittle.
The current slate of members (Nancy J. Cohen, Maggie Toussaint, Terry Ambrose, Cheryl Hollon, Diane A.S. Stuckart, Debra H. Goldstein, and Lois Winston) are all cozy authors who share in the costs, responsibilities, and promotion of the site.
Our original goal was to increase readership by appealing to readers with interesting content and free book giveaways. We still do that, but in addition to holding a monthly book giveaway/contest which runs from the 1-18 of the month, there are Thursday blogs from the authors on a rotating basis, special group posts on the 4th Monday of the month, a group Facebook page, group Facebook parties, and group holiday posts.
Keeping it fresh and keeping it fun keeps us in the creative zone and builds our reader reach. We’ve glad you’re here to be part of this wonderful journey! Thanks to all for your support of our authors and our books.
