I'm very excited to announce that I'm going to be taking over the British Books Challenge for 2013 from the lovely Kirsty at The Overflowing Library! I hope that everyone who has taken part in the past will continue to participate and it would also be fab to see some new people joining us - come on you know you want to!
So what is the British Books Challenge?
The BBC is a reading challenge that was created by Becky from The Bookette in 2011 as a way to encourage people to read more books by British authors. The challenge was taken over by Kirsty at The Overflowing Library for 2012 and this year it's my turn.
The books can be in print or out. Old or new titles. They can be from any genre and for any age range. Becky and Kirsty's blogs both focus on YA books but I read a mixture of adult and YA so you can expect to see reviews of both on my blog. Obviously it's entirely up to you if you want to read adult, YA or children's novels - or a mixture of all three!
If you sign up for the Challenge you will be aiming to read at least 12 books by British Authors (which works out to one a month). For every book you review each month you will get an entry into the draw to win a monthly prize pack. Therefore the more you read the more entries you will rack up. Towards the end of the year I hope to do some kind of special prize draw for those who have gone to the most effort over the year managing to read 50 or more British Books. As prize packs are mainly being sponsored by British publishers I'm afraid that some of the prizes will only be available for UK participants but I hope that international bloggers will still take part. I will try to host a couple of international giveaways throughout the year but it will depend on finances and whether I can afford postage costs for sending out the books.
If you have any questions about the challenge then make sure you check out the FAQ page HERE.
I have to say a massive thank you first to Becky for originally creating the challenge and also to Kirsty for hosting it in 2012. They have both put in an incredible amount of work to promoting British authors and I hope I can do half as well as they did next year. Special thanks to Kirsty for letting me pretty much cut and paste her FAQ and sign up pages!
To Sign Up:
- Write a post or page on your blog linking back to this one. (I find pages work best for me as they are always at the top of my blog)
- In that post/page write a list of the titles you hope to read. If you are not yet sure, just add one or two and update as and when you read titles with hyperlinks to your review. This is become very important when looking at a extra special grand prize draw at the end of the year)
- Insert your choice of buttons onto your sign bar. You will see there is a selection of them below the sign up form at the bottom of this post. Save the one you like onto your computer. Then go to add gadget on your sidebar to put the picture on your blog adding a hyperlink to it of the url address for this post.
- Fill out the Mr.Linky form below, make sure the link you add is directly to your sign up post and has your blog name as the title. Links to anything other than sign up posts will be deleted and only people who have created a sign up post will be eligible to win the monthly prize pack so this is very important!
- And finally, as you review the books on your blog, update your sign up post/ page with a link to your review. Every link up you do will be an entry into each month's prize pack (although some of the prizes may be donated by publishers only willing to send to the UK).
Exciting Extras:
I am absolutely delighted to tell you I have had a huge amount of support and encouragement in the planning of this challenge from UK publishers.
These wonderful publishers / authors have agreed to provide British bookish goodies for prize packs which can be won by the challenge entrants (I will be updating this list as new prize packs are confirmed)
- Bloomsbury
- Curious Fox
- Egmont
- Hachette
- Macmillan
- Oxford University Press
- Orion - Indigo
- Random House
- Simon and Schuster
If you are a publisher who publishes books by British authors or British author who would be interesting in promoting their titles through the British Books Challenge giveaways please contact me.
Current Participants in the 2013 British Books Challenge:
Please enter your blog name and the link must go directly to your sign up post.
British Books Challenge 2013 Buttons:
Please add one of these buttons to your sidebar and link it to this sign up post so that more bloggers can join in the fun!
Yes, I've signed up. I enjoyed doing this in 2012 so looking forward to doing it over here in 2013. Lovely buttons.(& Sarah's from Team Candor, so woo!).
ReplyDeleteIt's great to have you on board M! I hope you & Little M enjoy the challenge & yay for Team Candor LOL
ReplyDeleteSo glad you're hosting this challenge!
ReplyDeleteI've just linked up my blog for now as I'm planning to do all my sign ups then do one big post :)
Thanks for signing up Lettie! I hope you enjoy taking part and find some fab new books to read :o)
ReplyDeleteThis year I am signing up, but not with M. So it will be a challenge.
ReplyDeleteI love the buttons. The dog one is so cute.:)
Will definitely be joing in with this challenge this year. I shall pop back and link when my post goes up. x
ReplyDeleteI signed up because I'm new to this & it seems amazing... I was surprised how many authors I know & read by are British- only a few of my TBR's that I bought aren't (the Immortal Beloved series & Delirium series) so the odds are in my favour :) Glad you've got support & looking forward to reading with you... xox
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ReplyDeleteOh I'll be signing up. Will do my post soon.
ReplyDeleteHello Sarah! I would appreciate it if you could let me know- post on my blog or reply here- if Sarah Crossan would count, her book is Breathe. She grew up in Ireland and England, and then moved to the US, where she now lives & I found this on the publishers site, bloosmbury.
ReplyDeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteCould you change my link please? to http://aboveaveragebelowspecial.blogspot.com/2012/12/challenges-2013.html
Post should go live on wednesday!
I can't wait to get started on this challenge and find some great new authors and books!
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting :)
All signed-up!
ReplyDeleteI love taking part in this challenge (if there's one book challenge I do every year, it's this one!). I'm so glad you've taken it on this year :)
Looking forward to this again this year!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the challenge!
ReplyDeleteI love the British Book Challenge. Thank you for taking over the responsibility for running it and for Thanks to Kirsty for all of her hard work in 2012.
ReplyDeleteAs a team we managed to read over 30 british books last year over all of the age categories. I hope that we will be able to match this amount in 2013 but as I don't like disappointment we are going to aim for a minimum 12 british books this year.
Caroline
GAH! *Face Palm* I added blog URL not Sign up post to Linky.Sorry
ReplyDeleteJust signed up! Really excited for this!
ReplyDeleteJust signed up,very excited!!! Harriet xxx
ReplyDeleteI've joined, this challenge sounds like fun!
ReplyDeleteI've joined, sounds like fun!
ReplyDeleteExcited to be doing this challenge!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! Now I just have to work out which authors are british!
ReplyDeleteI've joined! I have a great time taking part in the 2012 BBC, and I can't wait to have even more fun this year!! :) Thank you ever so much! :) all the best <3 xoxo
ReplyDeleteSigned up! Looking forward to a challenge (and maybe meeting some people too!)
ReplyDeleteThis sounds great...
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to find some fantastic British authors!
Have enjoyed this challenge for the past two years, so definitely going for it again. Thanks for taking it on!
ReplyDeleteI'm in! First time I am participating.
ReplyDeleteI have signed up for over 30 callenges already, but I just can't miss this one. Sad puupy eyes, one. Some of my fab authors are British, two. And this is the first challenge where international and other-than-English reviewing is not only allowed but encouraged. I always try to write my posts in both English and my natibe language, but this little fact just made me happy. So thank you for hosting :)
ReplyDeleteHello! Just signed up to this challenge. I can't wait to get stuck in!
ReplyDeleteI'm in this challenge will fit with my new year goal of reading at least 5 new authors in 2013.
ReplyDeleteMy first book is The Fellowship of the Ring.
Thanks for this challenge.
Deborah
http://deborahsbitsandpieces.blogspot.com/
Just signed up for my first year. Sorry, I also put the same link on the January reviews page. I have a link to add there and got confused.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for keeping this challenge going.
This is the first proper book challenge I've ever done.
ReplyDeleteA bit late but here I am!!
ReplyDeleteExcited to have found this challenge. Looking forward to disovering new authors.
I'm in! Excited to join & excited to see what everyone else is reading. I love discovering new authors!
ReplyDeleteJay @ www.literarykiss.com
I "rejoined" as I left the incorrect link the first time
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry that it's taken me so long to catch up with everyone's comments on the BBC posts! January has flown by and I ended up spending a lot of it in bed with a nasty virus! Anyway, I'm very excited to have so many people taking part in the challenge and I'll be spending the next couple of hours visiting your sign up posts and reading your January reviews :o)
ReplyDeleteFirst let me try and reply to the comments I've missed! I think this might be a very long comment so I'll probably split it!
@ Little M - it's great to have you taking part, I hope you find some fab new books to read :o) I'm glad you like the buttons, the dog is my favourite one too!
@ Viv - I'm so glad you're joining us Viv, I'm looking forward to reading your reviews! :o)
@ AwesomeAmy - welcome to the challenge, there are a lot of fab British authors out there so I'm sure we're going to have some amazing books to read this year :o)
Thanks for the link to the list of authors, I think the only way to tell which authors count towards the challenge would be by checking their individual websites / goodreads pages but it's nice to find so many new authors!
Sorry, I just saw your question about Sarah Crossan. As she was born in Ireland and currently lives in New York I'm afraid she doesn't count towards the challenge.
@ Siobhán @ Totally Bookalicious - welcome to the challenge, I hope you enjoy taking part
@ Nikki-ann - I'm so glad you're taking part in the challenge again, it's one I've really enjoyed taking part in each year so I'm excited to be taking a turn at hosting this year!
@ Lettie - Thanks for signing up, I've updated your link for you :o)
@ Jessica C - welcome to the challenge, I hope you find some fab new authors to try!
ReplyDelete@ Sarah - thanks for signing up again, I hope you enjoy taking part :o)
@ Caroline - it's great to have you on board again this year & I'm looking forward to seeing what books you read. 12 British books is a great target to aim for but here's hoping that you smash it and beat last year's total LOL.
Don't worry about the incorrect link, I just updated it for you :o)
@ Lisa Fry - thanks for signing up, I hope you enjoy taking part
@ Sophie Grayling - great to have you taking part, I hope you have fun!
@ Librarian at last! - I hope you enjoy taking part as much as I always do :o)
@ Harry Gibbs - welcome to the challenge Harriet, I hope you find some fab books to read!
@ Sarah Elizabeth - there are some great links with suggestions of British authors to try if you have a look at the FAQ page. Of course it has been impossible for us to list all of them so you're very welcome to read authors who aren't on these lists!
@ Kat - thanks for signing up, I hope you enjoy taking part :o)
@ BooKa Uhu - Thanks for signing up, this will hopefully be a fab way for us all to find some great new authors to read and some wonderful new blogs to follow! I'm looking forward to getting to know you all better :o)
ReplyDelete@ W-O-W - it really is great that so many people are taking part in the challenge for the second or third time! I hope you enjoy it as much as last year.
@ J - welcome to the challenge & I hope you find some wonderful new authors!
@ Beth Kemp - I'm so happy to have you taking part again, I hope you enjoy it as much as previous years!
@ Catherine - welcome to the challenge, it's great to have you on board!
@ Topcho - WOW 30 challenges is impressive! I've signed up for 6 and I'm going to have trouble keeping track of that many LOL. I hope you enjoy them all and I'm so glad you're taking part in this one too :o) You're very welcome to review in whatever language you feel most comfortable in, I'll be trying to visit all of the reviews so it would be great if you could try and include at least a little but of English but if not I'm sure I can use google translate to help me LOL
@ chrissireads - welcome to the challenge and I hope you enjoy taking part!
@ Deb - I hope you enjoy taking part, The Fellowship of the Ring is a great choice to get started with. I read The Hobbit as one of my books towards this challenge last year and would really like to try and read the Lord of the Rings books this year :o)
@ TracyK - thanks so much for signing up! Don't worry about putting the link in the wrong place - I'll remove it from the January page :o)
@ Jay - I love taking part in this challenge and discovering new British authors! I hope we'll all find lots of great ones this year :o)
@ Lady Bren - it's never too late to sign up (in fact I think you got around to doing your sign up post before I did LOL) so welcome to the challenge. I hope you enjoy taking part. Don't worry about the incorrect link, I've deleted it from the list now :o)
@ Rachel Verna Shep - I feel honoured to be hosting the first challenge you're taking part in! I hope you enjoy it and do feel free to contact me if you have any questions :o)
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OK so I'm finally up to date with comments on this post. I'm so sorry for the delayed replies and I'll do my best to get back to you much faster in the future!
Hi I posted the wrong link accidentally, please delete number 64. Awesome challenge! Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting me know Emily, I've removed the link for you :o)
ReplyDeleteSorry, I accidentally post a review on this page. I only realise I was on the wrong page right after I did. My apologises for being an idiot.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first challenge that I've ever participated in. I'm new to blogging so I hope I've done everything correctly!
ReplyDeleteI am very excited to join the great challenge and hope to get through LOTS of books. I could not work out the whole sidebar/add gadget thing so I hope it's okay that I haven't done that (I am new to blogging).
ReplyDeleteI've signed up! Excited!
ReplyDeleteIt's already June... is it still okay for me to sign up? Also, does the challenge mean 12 different authors or can I read maybe three books by the same author (like reading the entire Harry Potter series by JK Rowling)?
ReplyDelete@ Rachel Verna Shep - Don't worry, it's so easy to do that. I add the wrong link to challenges all the time so I'm glad I'm not the only one :o)
ReplyDelete@ shhitsalibrary - I hope you're enjoying the challenge :o) I'm glad you picked this one to be your first!!
@ Laura Jane - it doesn't matter at all if you've posted about the challenge in your sidebar, I just hope you have fun with the challenge & find lots of fab books to read :o)
@ millielouiseee36 - welcome to the challenge! I hope you enjoy it :o)
@ asjennflipsthrough - of course you're still welcome to join in! You could join in December if you wanted too, the more the merrier LOL. You don't have to read 12 books either, that was just to give everyone a goal to aim for but it doesn't matter if you read less (or more) than that! All books by British authors count so if you read all 7 Harry Potter books that's 7 books towards the challenge. Just remember to add links to your reviews to the monthly post so you're in with a chance of winning the monthly prize packs :o) I hope you enjoy taking part!
Delited to discover the BBC challenge, Sarah! have added my link and will be scrambling to add BBC completed books as they are many!
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting ;)
Welcome to the challenge Faith! I hope you enjoy taking part and that you discover lots of fabulous new books :o)
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