Book Blogger Interview I #1

Today on the blog, I have my very 1st Book Blogger Interview!

With so many book bloggers out there it can seem quite tough to find an audience and getting your name out there, but the community is so supportive and very welcoming!

Since I started, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity getting to know a duo of book bloggers who you should definitely check out!

I’m happy to introduce the wonderful duo, Mana + Sil, from the TheBookVoyagers

1. Thanks for being the first book blog interviewees on 24hr.YABookBlog Mana & Sil!

So to start off what inspired you to start TheBookVoyagers?

Sil: Yay!!! Thanks for having us ∩(︶▽︶)∩ Well I wanted to start a book blog for my own, but I knew I just couldn’t do it just myself. I thought of Mana when I was thinking of friends that didn’t have already one, and asked her about doing a book blog together. I am very thankful she said yes!!! It’s like we created a beautiful baby hehe.

Mana: Thanks for having us! ❤ Nothing specific, unless it slipped my mind. Sil asked me if I ever considered a blog and after that, we thought of a name by throwing ideas at each other and by then we had a logo (my poor graphic skills! Rip editing slump for real) and a twitter. It was so fast, but I think what really inspired us was the fact all our mutual friends had one and liked doing it, so we thought, “Why not?”

2. What genres of books do you review on the blog?

Sil: We mostly review Young Adult, New Adult, Adult {Contemporary romance}

Mana: I read whatever. And I’m the WORST when it comes to reviews, but if I really want to shout it into the world, probably a book I really enjoyed, regardless of genre. [but I review a lot of contemporary + fantasy in general.]

3. What are your favorite YA Books? + Any YA Books you wish had more attention?

Sil: Wow. This is very hard??? I’m just going to say my favorite right now and the ones I have recently read that I really, really enjoyed. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, The Wrath and the Dawn by Reneé Ahdieh, This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab (I know it hasn’t come out yet oops! Couldn’t help it), The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie, all Marie Lu books to be honest LOL.

I wish these books had more attention: ON THE EDGE OF GONE by Corinne Duyvis, BEYOND THE RED by Ava Jae, JUST VISITING by Dahlia Adler, EXQUISITE CAPTIVE by Heather Demetrios, THE BOLEYN TRILOGY by Laura Andersen, LOLA CARLYLE 12-STEP ROMANCE by Daniella Younge-Ullman, and many more most likely!

Mana: One of my favorite books is The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. I love politics and I love found families so reading that book was life changing to say the least lol. Some other books that I will love forever is probably: Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed, Last Night I Sang to the Monster by Benjamin Alire Saenz, and Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins. Haha, I think WITS deserves way more attention than anything, it’s very important in today’s world, I would say.

4. Any genre of books you wish had more attention? + Any recommendations within that genre?

Sil: Books that have f/f otps! In any genre, give me all. I’m going to rec books that haven’t come out yet but I’m pretty excited about:

• Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Robin Jaye Brown
• Unicorn Tracks by Julia Ember
• As I Descended by Robin Talley
• Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst
• Out on Good Behavior by Dahlia Adler

 

Mana: Hmmm, honestly lol, not really actually!

5. Whats it like working with each other? + Whats the process like for creating posts etc.? 

 

Sil: It’s great!!! I like it very much(✿◠‿◠). We talk in whatsapp and come up with the posts there and the elements the posts will have. Sometimes one of us will start a draft and just imput stuff in it when we can.

Mana: Sil is the queen of putting posts together. I’m always busy with college so I usually do a lot of stuff during my breaks, but it’s great! I love Sil. We were introduced by mutual friends and I don’t think I can see myself working with someone else! Haha, we throw ideas around a lot on whatsapp and when we agree on something we go for it. We don’t really have a process, it’s very chill.

6. What are your favorite kinds of posts to make? 

Sil: As you can probably guess, for me, it’s creating the Book Recommendation posts. I’m obssesed???? It’s becoming a problem but not really LOL. We like to put all the tropes, the themes  – of books together so if you’re interested in one in particular, you will find them all (not really all, but the ones we know about/have read) there. We created those lists because sometimes you’re searching for them but you can’t find them or you don’t know which ones are gooooood. 

Mana: Can I say a specific post? My fav for life will always be #GirlConqueringBooks. The best thing about that was showing how awesome girl power. But in general, I love anything that promotes writers of color or book recs with rep.

7.Whats been a big highlight/milestone for your blog?

Sil: We love when we see people reacting to the posts! For me, it makes me really HAPPY :’) I seriously don’t know what to say other than thank you all so much for going into our blog and enjoying the posts we make hehe.

I also really like our Valentine’s Day event very much!

Mana: Our first twitter chat!! So amazing.

8.Both of you really bring a great energy + spirit into book blogging! Any tips for newer/aspiring book bloggers?

Woah really? Hah! Thanks  ❤ Mmmm, well anyone can make a blog. You can make a blog  – the person reading this right now. If you want to, do it. You’ll have fun and talk/meet a lot of great people that enjoy the same things you enjoy. Sometimes it’s gonna be hard (like book blog slump! can’t come up with new posts! you have too much school/work right now!) but you know what? We’ll always be here for you if you need any help with anything ❤ Have fun, do cool stuff, talk about important books that need to be told, share your thoughts and your emotions. We all love that!

Mana: Thanks! Ha, I’m hardly on the twitter because I get super nervous. So I’m usually on my personal (suliivanmeadows! Be there or be squared.) But for newbies, always be you! I don’t think anyone should compromise their values or morals to be part of something, you know? And I KNOW I’ve tried to especially since I was so new to the book community when we started this book blog, but I think at the end of the day, it’s always important to stick to your gut and have an open mind. 

And Finally

9. I also notice you make great edits for your reviews/posts which are fantastic!

Do you have any favorites? + How long does it usually take to make one?

Sil: Thanks!!! We love making them, it brings something colorful to the blog LOL. Hmmm any favorite edit? Well I loved the blog post we did with Julia Ember for UNICORN TRACKS {link} We had lots of fun and we had never done something like that so it was my favorite for sure.
For me, if I’m inspired and have time, it usually takes little time. For the twitter banners, it takes like 5 minutes. But for the more complicated ones like the guest posts or book recommendations (when we do graphics) it takes so much longer haha, we sometimes don’t finish the same day because we need to sleep hah!

 

Mana: I think my favorite one that I’ve done is probably the #GirlConqueringBooks one. It was really pink, but pink is great so  my fav of Sil’s was probably her Just Visiting Graphic. So prettttty. For me it takes 20 minutes if I really have an idea, but sometimes it takes me forever because editing slumps are so real and annoying.

Let me know if you would like to see more feature posts such as this one in the comments below!

+ If you have additional YA Book Blog feature ideas, I’d be happy to hear your thoughts in the comments below 🙂