Armchair BEA Day 5: Experts Say...

And so all good things must come to an end. 

Today is the last day of festivities for both Book Expo America 2012 and Armchair BEA (well, Saturday is going to bring a wrap-up feature at the ABEA Central website…bit still ^_^). Unsurprisingly, Armchair BEA has been an enlightening and enjoyable experience, with all sorts of personal stories shared and many new bits of information learned. The organizers did a wonderful job, and they deserve all possible thanks.

The last topic for ABEA centers around the future of book blogging, both at the macro- and micro level. In other words, what will keep book blogging lively and fun for us all? What kinds of things can we do as individuals to improve our own personal piece of cyberspace as well as the whole of the book blogging community? The link-up page has a wealth of responses to those thoughts, going into the nitty-gritty detail about book blogging.

So I'll leave the details to others. ^_^

At its core, everything done on a book blog has to come from the love for reading, the love for books. Sure, for some there is a legitimate need to focus on the business or organizational side of having a book blog. But in the end, there's need to worry about having ARCs and the latest, biggest releases on hand. Notoriety in the community...far from paramount. Is your content book-related? Are you about sharing your excitement (or perhaps even lack thereof) about that which you read? I definitely believe in not forcing things...if you love what you do, hopefully others will, too. And there's no need to push out half-baked content "just because." In a way, that's something bloggers have in common with authors. Content is king, and passion is...queen? ^_^

Regarding plans for my own blog, I actually don't have aspirations of grandeur and fame. I like having a place where I can just share my thoughts when and how I wish, and have that reciprocated by other bookish folks. The tandem blog that I am a part of, Book Lovers Inc, is a much larger outfit, and I hope for as much widespread success for the Book Lovers as possible. It really is a place where contributors have different tastes in genre fiction (and come from different parts of the world), and thus share varied thoughts and opinions while maintaining a distinct sense of community (I know that I love those gals ta defff! ^_^). I'm confident BLI will have continued success because its team tries to keep fresh, informative, substantive content (absolutely key!) coming down the pipeline.

But on a larger scale, I forsee the book blogging community continuing to be a mainstay in the world of books and publishing. With the current shifts in how we consume our media, there will most certainly be greater emphasis put on the more social, interactive, and grassroots forms of entertainment consumption. (Think YouTube and Twitter.) I just hope that the book blogging community remains one of cooperation, generosity, friendliness, open-mindedness, and innovation. I also hope the community's unifying core stays the same: a genuine love of books and reading.

As always, be sure to check back at Armchair BEA Central, where the organizers will be sharing some very interesting book stats. Tomorrow, they'll be wrapping up and recapping the last several days' worth of activities, both at BEA and ABEA.  (For me, the fun is definitely far from over. I'll still be reading ABEA posts on peoples' blogs for a few weeks. Four hundred participants sure is a lot to handle!)

Did you enjoy Armchair BEA? Learn anything new and exciting? Has it changed or reaffirmed anything about how you look at books or the book blogging community?