A little over a year ago, I and another author, Deborah Siegel, decided it was about time that our community – of professional writers, mostly – organized ourselves online in a way that would make the lives of legions of overworked, underappreciated authorpreneurs easier and more efficient, or at least give them a place to complain.  (Firstly about the very existence of the term “authorpreneur,” not to mention its attendant tasks.)  With this in mind we put up a shingle, albeit a virtual one, and we called it She Writes.  We knew we’d hit a nerve and a need when more than 1,000 women signed up for SW in our first week; as of this writing, we have more than 11,000 members from all over the world.  She Writers range from bloggers to aspiring authors to diary-keepers to National Book Award nominees, but we all share one thing in common: a love of writing…and by that we mean books.
So when I had the good fortune to meet The 3 R’s Florinda Pendley Vasquez at this year’s BlogHer10 conference (we were on a panel together) and she told me about BBAW, I wanted in.  Bigtime.  Why? A) Because I love anyone who loves books; B) because writers need book bloggers (bigtime!); and C) because book bloggers are writers, too, just the sort that we need and want to add to the discourse on She Writes.
So without further ado, in the spirit of BBAW, allow me to offer, from She Writes to you, some serious appreciatin’.
Two four six eight, what do we appreciate?
1)  That book bloggers are actually the kinds of people who could even be accused (wrongly) of doing it in order to get free books.  Frankly, I want to be friends with anyone who loves books so much he/she will try to find ways to get them for free.  Most people do this with things like alcohol, and shoes.

2)  That book bloggers are rising up and filling the void created by the disappearance of book review pages everywhere, a void that makes writers feel sad, and kind of freaked out.

3)  That book bloggers do it for love.  The truth is that most writers do, too.

4)  That book bloggers are not only filling the void left by the closure of so many traditional reviewing outlets, they are also reinventing the form, grassroots style.

5)  That book bloggers care enough about books to get into tussles related to them, and leave many ALL CAPS comments.  (I gleaned this from the witty, informative, hard-act-to-follow-thanks-very-much-Raych Year In Review.)

In short, She Writes appreciates book bloggers a whole heck of a lot, and we hope you will stop by some time and say hi, and potentially stay awhile.  The author and She Writer extraordinaire Meg Waite Clayton, whose new novel, “The Four Ms. Bradwells,” will be published by Random House in March 2011, started a group awhile back called “Blogging About Books and Writing!” – and I have a feeling it might just be an excellent place for a book blogger on She Writes to start.

Kamy Wicoff is the Founder of She Writes, a community and resource for women who write.

Florinda of the 3’Rs blog is recapping the daily festivities of BBAW over at She Writes!  Don’t miss out!