Blogoversary Guest Post: The Book Monsters

This is a guest post I've been especially looking forward to all week. It is my great pleasure to have two of my favorite bloggers here today, Kate and Kristen from The Book Monsters.  The Book Monsters is their newest co-blogging venture, but you might recognize them from their former blogs, Kate from The Neverending Shelf and Kristen from Bookworming in the 21st Century.  I was so happy they were able to do a feature for the blogoversary, and they decided to speak about co-blogging, since they are quickly becoming experts on that subject.  So without further ado, take it away!

From Two Blogs to One

Kristen’s Side:

Kate and I began blogging around the same time over two years ago. I’m not sure how exactly we found one another’s blog and began talking, but we did. At first, it was a bit of a rivalry, but soon it become a friendship. Sure, it was mostly through twitter and google chat, but we had a connection that kept going. We talked so much that we started doing some blog projects together, anywhere from Readathons to Features and eventually just helping each other out from time to time. Also, we talked about our husbands, our lives, our jobs and everything in between.

I remember searching daily for Kate’s name to show up on google chat so we talk about books, our blogs, and life in general. And about a year ago, we started getting discouraged on and off about blogging. Life got in the way a lot and we wanted to find a place to put our ideas together. But we weren’t quite ready to give up our blogs yet. They were like our babies. And to start over with 0 followers was scary at the time.

Last January, I put out a call for someone to help on my blog. It was going okay, but it didn’t feel right and then I got busy again and so did my new blog partner. Kate was going through the same thing and we finally were talking about starting a blog together. Numbers didn’t matter as much anymore, we just wanted to work together. It took months to get our new blog together. We both had some great ideas and kept going back and forth on blog names and themes and ideas.

I remember when we settled on The Book Monsters. We were looking at blogs we thought were cute and I noticed that the design was using a specific artist’s online scrapping collection. So I went hunting around through some of her other collections and found these cute little monsters and there were books and I showed it to Kate. We were in love, and that’s how we came up with our blog name. Kate took the kit and created our marvelous blog and we both worked our butts off to back up our reviews and get everything savvy for when we launched it in June.

I have to tell you, best decision I ever made. I love talking to Kate and we keep each other on task. When school started, I felt so happy to have her on my side, filling in where we had gaps, pushing me to get something read and reviewed and just being an awesome blog partner. It was a bit hard to give up Bookworming, but it’s so much more fun to blog and easier as well.

Kate’s Side:

And... that is our history in a nutshell.

Basically, co-blogging was the best thing I have ever done. And I think Kristen will agree. Well, besides starting a blog in the first place.

Let’s start off with the facts. Having a blog is tough. Having more than one author for a blog can be a challenge. Blending our ideas together. (And contrary to belief, Kristen and I do not agree on everything. Heck, I wanna cheer sometimes when we agree on something.) Some give... some take. But at the end of the day, I could not ask for a better partner. She is there to give me a boost when I need it. And I am there to push her when she needs it.

The blog and our formula is always evolving. We have been together now for a few months, and things are still changing. That is part of the fun. Trying to get The Book Monsters exactly how we want it. To a place which we are both proud of. Are we there yet? Not quite. Will we ever be there... to that perfect balance? Probably not. But again, that is part of the fun. And we are having a blast!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  It's alwasy so wonderful to have both of you on the blog.  Don't forget to check out their new venture, The Book Monsters, if you haven't already.  It's shaping up very nicely!