Welcome to ACRBA

Hi all,
I've written this post to provide information about ACRBA (Australian Christian Readers Blog Alliance). I hope it will answer some of your questions as to how the alliance came into being, what it involves and more importantly how you can be involved.


What is ACRBA?
ACRBA is a blog alliance which came into being from chatting between Narelle Atkins and Jenny Blake. I (Jenny) am a member of a couple of blog alliances but due to cost many publishers do not send review copies to Australia and also do not include Australian books. It was our dream to see Australian books featured in the same sort of venture. We want to let people around the world see what great books are coming out of Australia and felt God wanted us to do something to help promote these books. While we may give preference to Australian books we are happy to promote books from other countries as long as they are well edited and fulfill the guidelines. We will be promoting a fiction book during the first week of the month and a non fiction or children's book during the third week of the month.


What is a Blog Alliance?
A Blog Alliance is where a group of bloggers will post about a book at the same time, on a particular day or days. Ours will be a 5 day period. Normally the html code for the blog posts is provided with the author info and book info. Also, a review by the blogger is often included with the post. Not all bloggers will request all books but we would encourage all bloggers to use the html code for each tour. There is a page (Reviewers) with a list of bloggers. As new bloggers join we will update the list.


How can I get involved?
You can go to the application page listed in the menu bar above to join the alliance. You can read the FAQ and guidelines for more information. If you would like to become involved you will need to have an active blog where you blog a few times a week. The blog also needs to have been active for six months or needs to show it is regularly updated. Once your application is approved, your name will be added to the blog list and you will be sent an invitation to a Yahoo Group where emails alerting you to the different tours and a link to the html code will be sent. International readers are welcome but in many cases print books will only be sent to Australian addresses and in most cases electronic books will be provided for everyone else.


How can authors and publishers get involved?
Again, we have submission form to be filled out and also we have book guidelines you can check out. Once a book is approved we will schedule the tour and email you with more details.


Do I have to review every book?
No, we will send out an email about the book about two months before the tour date and you will have about a week to reply to the contact person if you want the book. It is your choice if you request a book or not. While you do not have to request every book we would appreciate you posting the html code for each book in a blog post on your blog during the tour dates.


When will the alliance start?
We plan to launch the blog on July 30 and the first tour will be held during the first week in November.


If you have any questions, please either contact us or ask the questions in the comments section and we can add the questions and answers to this post.