Now it's May and time to reflect on this challenge. 2013 was my first foray into the A-Z Blogging Challenge and I learned the insanity of it is not just writing the posts but also visiting other blogs, reading them and leaving comments. But I enjoyed all of it, despite the tiring times and frustrations I'm happy to say the benefits far outweigh the hard work and stress. What benefits you ask? I'll list four.
1. Finding new blogs and bloggers. Including Erin Shakespeare.
2. Increase in readership and followers.
3. Challenging myself and following a theme straight to the end.
4. Being a part of something so major, well done and loved. Arlee Bird created something special and the co-host and A-Z team help keep it all together and running smoothly.
What I didn't like? My pet peeves were people posting non-related A-Z posts in the middle of the challenge and sites that didn't work properly and CAPTCHA.
My theme this year was my upcoming novella Sacrifice Her (Fall 2013). I plan to self-publish and in April I filled my posts with many things relating to the characters, city and culture within the story. Readers responded positively and I'm happy to say I did both a great job in getting all my posts out and doing some much needed early promotion. O is for Old World and A is for Age received the most comments and I nearly lost my mind when my just over one-hundred followers blog hit the two hundred mark. Then passed it. Thank you A-Z Blogging Challenge.
So at the end of the day I did it. While I'm not participating again next year I must say doing so this year was both fulfilling and worthwhile. What about you?
To post your own reflection go here.
