Friday, November 21, 2014

British Books Challenge 2015 - Sign Up Page



Hello! Today I have a very exciting announcement: in 2015 I will be hosting the British Books Challenge.  I have participated in this particular reading challenge for the past fours years and I'm crazy excited to now be hosting it myself.  I have a real passion for reading and supporting British authors and I really do hope that you will join me in this very special reading challenge in the new year.  I have to say a massive thank you to Rhys from Thirst For Fiction for designing this year's blog button! 


So what is the British Books Challenge?


The British Books Challenge is a reading challenge that will be running here on Fluttering Butterflies between 1st January to 31st December 2015 and the main focus of the challenge is reading and reviewing books by British authors.

This challenge is available for all bloggers and/or 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.  Please be aware that you may have to provide me with your address which may sometimes be passed on to a publicist in order for your prize to be sent out.

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. 

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 and to Sarah for hosting from 2013-2014. All three of these amazing women have put in an incredible amount of work towards 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 blog post or page on your blog or upload a video to your YouTube channel linking back to this one.
  • In that post/page/video compile a list of titles by British authors that you hope to read and review during 2015. If you are not yet sure, just add one or two and update as and when you read titles with hyperlinks to your review.
  • Insert the British Books Challenge button onto your blog's side bar. To do this save the button 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. For Youtubers, please include the graphic within your video.
  • Fill out the Mr.Linky form below. Do make sure the link you add goes directly to your sign up post and has your blog/channel 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. This is very important step!
  • And finally, as you review the books on your blog/YT channel, update the monthly review pages with a link to your review. Every link up you add will be an entry into that 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)

January - sponsored by Random House

February - TBC
March - Scholastic 
Watch out for the review link up post each month for details of what you could win.

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 by email.



Current Participants in the 2015 British Books Challenge:

65 comments:

  1. I am definitely taking part this year. Will will posting the signing up post soon.

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    1. That's wonderful, thanks :) Look forward to seeing which books you hope to read in 2015!

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  2. Can't wait to start! Great video by the way, you gave me some ideas for the challenge.

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    1. Thanks for joining, Alan :) I hope you have a great time reading lots of amazing books in 2015!

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  3. I'm so excited to start, hopefully it'll encourage me to read more books.

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  4. You can probably tell that I've made a mistake above. I've put my name twice on the participant section. What should i do?

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  5. Reading British authors isn't something I do very often (I can actually only think of two that I've read books from) and so I'm excited!

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    1. I'm especially excited as well Paige! Thanks so much for joining in :)

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  6. Super excited to get started :)

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  7. Just entered! I am so excited do this!!

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    1. Are US bloggers allowed to enter?

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    2. Yes, anyone may join and participate, though you may not be eligible for all of the monthly prize packs.

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  8. Love this challenge! Signed up today. :)

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  9. I've signed up! Super duper excited! I have done a collective post of all the challenges I am doing next year, so I haven't done a TBR or anything yet, but I will be doing one soon!

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    1. That's okay, I'm sure there'll be plenty of books to tempt you in 2015 :) Good luck to you and thanks for signing up!

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  10. All sorted! I hope I filled everything out right! This is my first time doing a book challenge and I have no idea what I'm doing!

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    1. I'm really pleased that the British Books Challenge is your first reading challenge :) This is the first challenge I've hosted so good luck to us both! x

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  11. Looking forward to the Challenge Michelle - thanks for hosting x

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  12. I am joining as I love reading and I have seen this advertised on my friends blog. If I read a book series would that count as one book if I did the series as one review?

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    1. Entries into the monthly prize packs go one blog post/video = one entry but you could definitely count each book towards your overall total read :) Thanks for joining and good luck!

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    2. Thank you I have renewed my books on my blog please may you check over them.

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  13. This looks fun and will tie in nicely with my challenge of reviewing at least one book a month and discovering new authors! Very excited :)

    www.northeastnerd.co.uk

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    1. Thanks, Fiona! I hope it will be fun. Don't forget to write a specific sign up post for this challenge to be counted for giveaways in the future!

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    2. I'll admit I got very excited before fully understanding the details but I have my sign-up scheduled for Friday :)

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    3. Just for the record :

      http://www.northeastnerd.co.uk/2014/12/british-books-challenge-2015-sign-up.html?m=1

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  14. Welcome, Michelle!
    Wishing you all good wishes in your new role :) and a successful BBC reading for 2015 !

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    1. Happy to have you on board, Brenna, but you will need to write a specific sign-up post :)

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  16. What fun!!! I'm new to the whole book blogging thing and love that I've already found things I can participate in!

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  17. I'm new to this and struggling to add the picture to my sidebar - could someone talk me through it please? Thanks!

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    1. Oh, I was going to try and help but it looks like you've managed! :)

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  18. I'm in - just got to sort the books and write the post then will be back for the linky - The cross overs from other challenges don't include any YA but they will be British:)

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  19. Good morning and happy new year! I am pleased to participate in the book challenge again this year. Thank you for hosting!

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    1. Happy New Year to you too, Tina :) Thanks for taking part!

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  20. Didn't complete this challenge last year and am very annoyed at myself, definitely giving it my all this year!

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  21. My record keeping page is here: http://paradise-mysteries.blogspot.com.au/p/blog-page_1.html and I have listed the challenge on that page.
    My British books for 2014 are listed here: http://paradise-mysteries.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/reading-british-crime-fiction.html

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  22. Thanks for hosting the BBC challenge this year Michelle! Really looking forward to getting stuck into more fabulous British books this year. :)

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  23. So excited for this! I stumbled upon this blog by accident. Following and joining the challenge!

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  24. Thanks so much - this is just my cup of tea! ; ) My books may be older as it's a little harder to get them from across the pond! :)

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    1. No problem whatsoever! Good luck and thanks for joining in :)

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  25. Excited to start this challenge :) It looks great, thanks for hosting
    Cora @SmallTownBookworm

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  26. working on getting my blog back up soon
    3rd year of this challenge!!

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    1. That's excellent, so glad you're returning to do this challenge :)

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  27. Hope I'm not too late to sign up! I decided this year I want to read as many books on the BBC Top 100 Books list, so this seemed perfect to share the experience

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  28. Stumbled across this challenge from another site. Signed up today. Thanks, Michelle.

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  29. I'm late to joining this as I wasn't sure if I could even mange the 12 books, but I am hoping I have enough already on my shelves to make the 12 books.

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  30. I'm fashionably late to this party, but so far on track, with six British crime novels (all new-to-me authors) read this year, out of 31 novels total. So that's not too bad. Pleased to be part of this. Bit behind on reviews though.

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