Friday, November 21, 2014

British Books Challenge 2015 - Frequently Asked Questions

I am super excited to be hosting the British Books Challenge in 2015. I have been a participant in this reading challenge since the very beginning and I love being to able to read and support my favourite authors. I'm really hoping that quite a few of you will continue to choose the British Books Challenge as a reading challenge you will accept in the new year!  Very big thanks to Rhys from Thirst For Fiction for creating the brilliant graphic for this year's challenge.

I would suggest following this blog using your preferred feed subscription (by email, Google Friend Connect, BlogLovin', Feedly etc) in order to keep up with the latest news and posts regarding this challenge throughout 2015!

Here are a few of the FAQ concerning this challenge:




So what is the British Books Challenge?


The British Books Challenge is a reading challenge that will be running throughout from 1st January to 31st December 2015 and is all about reading and reviewing books by British authors.

This challenge is available for all bloggers and booktubers who review books on their blogs, YouTube channels or readers who review on other websites such as Goodreads.

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 (assuming that you've left all appropriate links on the monthly link page!) Therefore the more you review the more chances you have at winning that month's prize(s). There may also be some kind of special prize draw for those challenge participants who have gone to the most effort over the year and reviewing 50 or more books by British authors. 

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 this will be dependent on my own personal finances.

In terms of what books would count towards the challenge - the books can be in print or out. Old or new titles. They can be from any genre and for any age range. In previous years Becky and Kirsty focused mostly on young adult books on their respective blogs, and Sarah's reviews for the challenge spanned many genres and age ranges. The primary focus on Fluttering Butterflies will be on YA and MG, however feel free to read any books by British authors and have those books count towards the challenge: children's books, middle grade, young adult, new adult, or adult fiction or non-fiction.

Sign up for the British Books Challenge 2015 HERE


What books would you suggest that I read for the British Books challenge?

I will be writing many a blog post throughout 2015 to give you any and all recommendations but until then, Sarah, Kirsty and Becky have provided this fabulous round-up of links for other suggestions and recommendations: 

A great resource for information about British authors of YA books is the UK-YA blog, they even have a list of the Top 100 UK-YA titles (as voted by readers of the blog) which should give you plenty of suggestions!

There are some great YA suggestions on Kirsty's UK-YA shelf on Goodreads HERE or Sarah's Goodreads HERE You can also see what books I've read for the challenge on my British Books Challenge shelf HERE 

Since 2013, I've maintained UKYA lists on Goodreads which has tried to be comprehensive lists of the UKYA that was published in each year. You can see those lists: UKYA in 2013, UKYA in 2014 and UKYA in 2015 While I make every effort to maintain that these lists are accurate, the occasional non-UKYA title has slipped through

You can always check my own tag 'British books challenge' for Fluttering Butterflies which has over 200 reviews and blog posts concerning British authors over the years. HERE 

If you're on Twitter, following the hashtag #UKYA usually is an interesting place to find out about newer or older titles.

You can always have a look through other participant's review links on the monthly link up pages once the challenge gets started. I'll add links to each month's post below.

These links by no means include the only books that count towards the challenge but hopefully they'll help you get started.

Don't forget to post links to your reviews each month for your chance to win prizes:

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

How did the British Books Challenge come about? 


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, was  hosted by Sarah at Feeling Fictional between 2013 to 2014. And will now be hosted with me, Michelle at Fluttering Butterflies throughout 2015. 

Before we continut with the FAQ, I have to say a massive thank you first to Becky for originally creating the challenge, to Kirsty for hosting the challenge in 2012 and to Sarah for hosting the challenge in 2013 and 2014. All three of these incredible women have put in a huge amount of work promoting British authors and I hope I can do half as well as they did next year. 

Special thanks also goes to Kirsty for letting me pretty much cut and paste her FAQ and sign up pages! 

And finally, an absolutely massive shout out to Rhys from Thirst For Fiction for being hugely creative and generous by creating this year's wonderful blog button. I hope you'll agree that it looks wonderfully classic and absolutely stands out. Thank you, Rhys! 


I post reviews on more than one blog. Can they count towards my challenge total?


Yes.


I am an international entrant and sometimes I do not have time to write my reviews in English. Can I write them in my native language?


Of course. It would be helpful if there was a little summary in English so that I can comment but as long as you make sure the book's title is translated somewhere on your post then it is fine. I'm delighted that international bloggers are going to help promote British authors.


Do Irish authors count towards my challenge total?


No. Ireland is not part of the UK. The UK is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Authors who live in any of these four locations can count towards the challenge.


How about authors who were say born in America (insert any other country here) but are currently living in the UK?


Yes, we are using the following criteria to decide whether an author can count towards the challenge:

  • Authors who were born in the UK, live in the UK and are published in the UK
  • Authors who were born overseas but are CURRENTLY living in the UK and his/her books were/are being published in the UK first
  • Authors who were born in the UK are currently living overseas but his/her books are being published in the UK first

Top examples of authors born in other countries but who currently reside and are published in the UK and count as being 'British authors' include Patrick Ness, Meg Rosoff, Moira Young, Laura Lam, CJ Daugherty etc.  We love these authors and we claim them as our own! 

I know it can be tricky to work out if X author counts towards this challenge so if you are not sure about a particular author, please do contact me and I'll see what I can do to help!


I do not have a blog but I would love to take part. Is there a way that I can take part?



If you have an account on Goodreads or another book review website you may still join the challenge. Sign up by linking to your profile page and make sure you link directly to your reviews each month to be eligible to win the monthly prize packs.


I am a publicist promoting a book by a British author (or indeed a British author). Can I promote my book via the British Books Challenge?


Yes. If you would like to donate prizes to the monthly prize packs that would be fantastic. Please contact me via email to discuss this further.  I really do appreciate the generosity of publishers and authors who have donated books as prizes in the past and I hope that this continues in the future!


Can I count books that I have already counted on other challenges?

I don't see why not.


I have a question that you haven't answered here. How can I contact you?


The best way to contact me is by email, I will reply to all emails as quickly as possible but sometimes life gets in the way so please bear with me if it takes me a couple of days to respond.
I do have a twitter account (@cloverness) and love to hear all thoughts/comments regarding the BBC there, however, email is still your best bet towards hearing back from me.

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