I don’t know about you, but I LOVE monthly-wrap up posts! I can’t possibly read every post from every blog that I would like to (trust me, there are hundreds of you out there that I would like to do that for), but I CAN read lots of wrap-up posts and then go and check out posts that specifically interest me that I didn’t originally see. That way I feel like I’m not missing out. It’s perfect!
BUT I often miss people’s wrap-ups, too. Even though I try to keep my eye out for them at the end of the month, I KNOW there are plenty of posts that I miss. And this makes me sad. The solution? A Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up, of course! If we have a place to link up all of our month-end posts, then we won’t miss out on what’s been happening on each other’s blogs. To make things even more fun, I thought I’d add in a monthly giveaway, too.
So, here’s the plan. Every month, at the end of the month, I’ll put up a monthly wrap-up link-up post where everyone can link up their month end posts. There are no specific requirements for what needs to be in your post, as long as you have a book blog and your wrap-up summarizes your month in some way.
Then, one week later, I’ll create a giveaway that encourages people to visit YOUR month end link-ups, giving entries for commenting and/or sharing.
Anyone can participate in the giveaway – you won’t have to actually link up in order to participate.
I also plan to turn it into a fun scavenger hunt type game by allowing Random.org to choose some of the posts and creating specific giveaway entries for those posts (for instance, I might ask, “What was so-and-so’s favorite book she read in July?” or something similar). I figure this will be a fun way to engage people in our monthly happenings!
If you don’t already post a monthly wrap-up, I highly recommend it! Here are a few things that you could include (you could choose some/all of these or just use one or two!):
- Books you’ve reviewed over the past month (with a listing of ratings and links to the actual reviews, if you can manage it).
- Your top posts for the month.
- Any other discussions/events posted that month.
- Your favorite discussions/events on other people’s blogs.
- Anything that happened in your life personally that month (this could be anything – events attended, movies you saw, special days, new music you discovered – sky’s the limit).
- Your favorite book of the month.
- Any other fun info you want to include! (Progress on challenges, giveaways won, favorite books received – anything you can think of!)
Want to help?
I’m also looking for bloggers who might be interested in helping out by sponsoring a month of the round-up and helping out with that month’s games and giveaway. I already have a couple of people interested, but I’m not announcing anything until it’s official. If you’re interested in finding out more about joining us, let me know in the comments or shoot me an email. The more the merrier!
Another way you can help is by sharing with your friends so they’ll know to join us! You can tweet using #WrapUpRoundUp
The July Link-up
Be sure to link up your July month end posts here! And watch for the giveaway, which will be posted on August 9th!
Aj @ Read All The Things!
I love reading people’s wrap-ups, so I think this is a great idea. Having a bunch of them linked in one place will be much easier than scrolling through Bloglovin’ and searching for them.
Nicole
Exactly!! Come and link up once you have your wrap-up written! And share with your friends so they’ll know to join us too!
Jessica Samuelsen
This is an amazingly great Idea!!! Right on time too! I want to do this and help by sponsoring a month… You can email me writingpearls@(dot)gmail.com. Great Idea! I am super impressed and am excited to join… Now I am going to go work up on my july wrap-up!
Nicole
Awesome! I’ll shoot you an email about it!
Jessica Samuelsen
Look Forward to it! I just made a banner…. Though I will include yours too. Is there a way to get the code for the linky? So I can point to all the other blogs?
Jessica Samuelsen
One clarification is the current linky for July or June wrap-UP?
Nicole
July – I put it up a couple of days early, so it will be here when people post theirs. I’ll have to clarify that in the post!
Grace @ Rebel Mommy Book Blog
Love that idea! I have been thinking of starting a month end wrap up anyway!
Nicole
Perfect timing!
kindlemom1
I think this is a great idea!!
Nicole
I’m excited about it! Should be fun!!
tonyalee
aww, I created a link to wrap up posts too. No giveaway tho
Nicole
You did? How did I miss that?! Did you just do it recently?
tonyalee
Yeah, last month.
Lory @ Emerald City Book Review
Sounds great! And I would be interested in hosting a month. I’ve been enjoying doing my own monthly wrap-ups and am happy to share the love.
Nicole
Awesome! Did you get my email about it?
Lory @ Emerald City Book Review
Uh oh, no I didn’t. I’m not finding anything in spam either. Do you mind to try again? Inputting my personal email with this comment which is fine to use too.
ShootingStarsMag
Oh, I love this idea. I always like seeing blog’s monthly wrap ups. PLUS, it’s a cool way to find new blogs, I think. 🙂
Nicole
I agree! Monthly wrap-up posts are great because you can easily scan what people have been up to for the last month and see if it’s a blog you might want to follow more closely!
Silvara
I keep meaning to do a wrap-up post, since I like reading everyone elses. But never quite get around to doing it. Will have to see if I can put one together consistently/well.
Nicole
The beautiful thing is that you can make your wrap-up as complex or simple as you want. There are no rules, so you can’t do it wrong!
Heather
I like monthly wrap up posts too. I’ll help host a month if you still need help.
Nicole
I’d love to have your help, Heather! I tried to email you, but couldn’t get the link on your blog to work. I’ll reach out via Twitter, but feel free to shoot me an email, so I have your address (my email link is in the upper right hand corner).
Cynthia @ Bingeing On Books
I love this idea! I would be happy to sponsor a month’s roundups or host some giveaways. This sounds like a great feature. 🙂
Nicole
Awesome, Cynthia! I just shot you a message on Twitter with my email address. Contact me and I’ll give you details!
Freda
Fantastic idea! I’m totally in. See you in the link up in a couple days!
Nicole
Perfect! See you then!
Naomi @ Naomi’s Reading Palace
A monthly post is a good idea… I do weekly ones right now. I always like yours though 😉
Naomi @ Naomi’s Reading Palace
Nicole
I just so love month-end posts because I don’t miss anything that way!
Tiffany @ The Bookish Thought
It’s a great idea, Nicole! I love reading monthly recap post too, mostly because I like reading about people’s life xD
Nicole
Yes – it’s fun to see what’s been going on with people throughout the month!
Julie S.
That’s a cool idea! I’ve not done a monthly wrap up before, or really paid attention if a lot of bloggers are doing it, but maybe it would be a good idea to try it out.
Nicole
I like seeing a sum up of the month on people’s blogs – there’s always something interesting that I’ve missed!
Julie S
Is it a lot of work to do a wrap-up post? I think UBB automatically adds reviews via shortcode but what else do you include?
Nicole
You can include just about anything you want. Things that went on that month, your favorite reads, etc (I give a list of suggestions in this post, actually). 🙂
Emma Adams
This is an awesome idea! I like recapping what I’ve read at the end of each month because I don’t always have time to share it weekly.
Thank you for visiting my blog! 🙂
Nicole
I do have a weekly wrap-up post, but I tend to include different things in them. It’s worked out well for me to have both.
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
I love this idea! I haven’t been doing monthly wrapups since I usually do it weekly, but maybe I’ll start. The weekly posts don’t cover things like where I am on challenges and other goals. I’ll have to start planning for next month!
Nicole
Yes, my weekly and monthly wrap-ups have different focuses, so I like doing both!
Lola
I love monthly wrap-up posts for many of the reasons you mentioned here. It’s nice to see what a blogger posted or read in a month and hear what happened that month. I like reading them on other blogs, but I don’t do them on my own blog as I already do weekly recap posts and then I would end up with a weekly and monthly recap post in one week, so I just stick with the weekly ones. I do think this is a great idea and I would love to have the chance to stop by more monthly recap posts.
Nicole
Great! Well, watch for next week’s giveaway post and then go visit some wrap-ups and enter to win! 🙂
Holly @ Nut Free Nerd
What an awesome idea! Thanks for stopping by my blog to let me know about it! 🙂
Nicole
You’re very welcome! I adore monthly wrap-ups, so I just wanted to spread the love!
Shannon @ It Starts At Midnight
AW MAN. I wish I’d read this earlier! I had thought about making this week’s weekly post a monthly one. AND I could have linked YOUR post up in MY links (which I still will, but you know). This is what I get for being hopelessly behind. I DO talk about August a lot in my post? Does that count? I don’t think that counts. Le sigh, next month, I suppose! Love this idea though!
Nicole
I totally understand the being behind thing – that feels like a perpetual state for me lately. 🙂
Karen Blue
I love this idea! I wish i would have known sooner, since I just did my wrap up video and included it in my Sunday post. Gah! I might put something together anyways. I am definitely interested in helping out. Email me when you might need my help and count me in!
Nicole
If your July wrap-up is included in your Sunday Post, that’s totally fine. Feel free to link it up!
HeatherAnne @ Foofy * Not Foofy
This is PERFECT timing. I have been meaning to start posting a monthly wrap-up and was searching for ideas on what to include tonight. I found your post! Serendipity. My first wrap-up is linked above. I’d love to help with the games and giveaway too!
Nicole
Glad I could help inspire you! I’ll shoot you an email about helping out with one month!
Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews
My monthly wrap-up is really for my challenges, but almost all of my July reviews are included, and I didn’t really do any discussion posts in July, so I hope that’s OK.
This is a really good idea, especially because I’ve been such a slacker lately, with school and work and Uni off for the past month 🙂
Have a great week and happy reading.
Nicole
That’s totally fine – that’s why I didn’t put a lot of requirements on what constitutes a month end wrap-up – different people like to include different things, so I didn’t want to limit it.
Amy @ Read What I Like
What a brilliant idea! Thanks for stopping by and inviting me to play along. Did you want us to share our wrap-up links in the comments or did I miss a linky someplace?
Nicole
The link-up is in the post, but one person said they had trouble seeing it when they went through Bloglovin’. Very strange. Try again, and if you can’t see it, I’ll link up for you!
Amy Softa
Okay I see where it is supposed to be. For some reason it won’t let me access it. I’m wondering if it has something to do with my wonky computer that has been acting strange. If you wouldn’t mind adding me this month I’d appreciate it and hopefully I can figure out what’s up by next month…
Nicole
Just jumping back here to let you know that I did add you to the link-up. The giveaway post is going up tomorrow!
Amy @ Read What I Like
Thanks so much! On a different computer today and I see it is working here. In the future I’ll remember that I need to use this one and not the one at work… Must be some sort of setting that doesn’t let that type of coding.
Danielle @ Love at First Page
This is a great idea, Nicole! I might be able to help with a month down the road. I love monthly wrap up posts, too!
Thanks!
Nicole
I love wrap-ups too – it’s a great way to catch up with everyone! I’ll shoot you an email about the possibility of helping out sometime down the road.
Faith Hope & Cherrytea
Soooo much great wrapup inspy here… thanks, Nicole!