Press Release: Penguin Random House's Crown Imprint Launches Blogging for Books

The Crown Publishing Group announced today that it has launched Blogging for Books: an automated system that makes available thousands of advance reader editions and finished copies to bloggers in both print and eBook format. The program includes titles from every imprint in the Crown Group portfolio, comprising eight main publishing categories and over ninety sub-categories in Fiction, Non-Fiction, Faith, Business, Cooking & Food, Better Living, Crafts, and Entertainment.
The site's updated look and feel boasts a sleek new responsive design. Included in the new program is a personalization service where bloggers at registration are able to select their preferred categories. The blogger's profile is easily updated, and offers a wider breadth of books for review, allowing the blogger to view only the titles they are interested in reviewing. Bloggers on the go will find a user-optimized mobile version through any Internet browser.

Once logged into the system, a blogger need only to select a title and post their review to their site, and to BloggingForBooks.org. There are also options to post this review on a retailer site and to share via social media. When reviews are posted the blogger can make another selection and is then notified of new releases in their preferred categories via email. Bloggers also can continue to request review copies via their contact at Crown or through NetGalley and Edelweiss systems.

"Our collaborative relationship with book bloggers is one we are always looking to enrich," says Kate Rados, Director, Community Development for Crown. "The dual purpose of Blogging For Books is to increase reader discoverability of Crown's upcoming titles and to provide bloggers with the ability to more efficiently receive only the books they are most interested in reviewing."

Originally founded in 2009 by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of The Crown Publishing Group, Blogging for Books quickly grew to a network of 12,000 bloggers. Since the beta for the redesigned site was launched on April 28th, more than 1,300 review copies have been requested and 650 new reviews have been posted. To date, the program has generated over 30,000 reviews.

Chris Sigfrids, Senior Manager, Community Operations for Crown, says, "The Blogging for Books purpose is clear and simple: to provide our books in advance to bloggers in exchange for a review. But the program has become so much more. It's a catalyst for conversation and a powerful tool for bringing debut authors attention, while also supporting more established authors."