Hello everyone and happy December!! Can you believe we only have a month left of 2017? Where did it go?!
About this time last year, I introduced a reading challenge — Beat the Backlist. It started as a personal goal I set to read more backlist titles in the coming year because I realized that most of my TBR consisted of unreleased/newly released titles. And there’s nothing wrong with that! But my TBR was getting out of control. BTB was born and y’all seemed to like the idea enough that I made it into a reading challenge open to everyone!
This past year definitely had its ups and downs, and I’d consider it one heck of a learning experience, but there was enough interest to bring it back for another year and I’m excited to see where it goes!
What is Beat the Backlist?
In short, this is a reading challenge where your goal is to read backlist books (published prior to the current year). For 2018, it means reading any book that was published in 2017 or earlier. You have the entire year to read as many books as you can/want. YOU set your own reading goal and this challenge isn’t just for bloggers. You do NOT need to have a blog to participate. Any online social media account (Goodreads, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) will work, and if you have a blog you’re welcome to join in too!
Now to add a bit of a competitive edge, when you sign up for the challenge you’ll be randomly placed on a team. These teams will compete to see who can get the most points, and each month one winner will be drawn from the team with the most points to get a book of their choice (open internationally). You get points by reading books! And you can earn extra by posting a review to retail websites (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc).
Each team will have their own Rafflecopter that you can submit your points through so it’s super easy, and you’ll be able to see which team is in the lead too. You don’t have to submit anything if you don’t want to, but it will help your team and better YOUR chances of winning a book of your choice so you may find it’s worth it!
Still have questions?
Check out the official challenge page. If your question hasn’t been answered on there, you can submit it through the form at the bottom of that page!
So. . . are you in?
TO ENTER. . .
Go out onto the interwebs and declare yourself a BTB participant!
You can do this as a blog post, a Goodreads shelf for the challenge, a Twitter thread, Instagram post, whatever you want! Your post can be a potential TBR, a goal for how many books you want to read, any other challenges you want to set yourself (XXX books in a specific genre, etc), or anything else you think of!
You shared your post? GREAT!
Just fill out this form below with the link to your post/GR shelf/etc and your name/pseudonym! After you hit that submit button you’ll be able to see what team you’re on!
Form not appearing? CLICK HERE!
How else can you get involved?
#HASHTAG it UP!
Sharing your progress on social media? Use #BeatTheBacklist with your updates! You can also tag @BeatTheBacklist on Twitter
Join the BTB #Bookstagram Challenge!
Every Thursday we have a new prompt! Show your backlist books some love by posting each week and using the #BeatTheBacklist tag!
Stay in the Know!
Sign up for the BTB Newsletter. This will go out periodically with announcements and check-ins to keep you motivated to read! (Promise not to spam your inbox too!)
Looking forward to reading with y’all this coming year!
I’m glad to see btb back in 2018. I’ll be making my sign up post soon. 😀
Yes! It’s too good a challenge not to bring back (IMO haha). Hoping it runs a bit smoother this year!
Just added my link! So excited about this challenge!
Great!! So glad you’re excited!!
I like the changes to the challenge. I’m not always good about linking up reviews. I primarily review on goodreads these days, but I always like to try.
Yeah the linking up last year got way out of hand in terms of managing it all. Hoping the Rafflecopters this year are a bit easier to manage! 🙂
ok youre gonna pull my arm and ill attempt this
It’ll be great! Even if you just read one book that’s one more off your TBR! 😉
i did it, i signed up!!
Hopefully I can stick to my challenge this time
Good luck! You can totally do it!
YAY! Just added my link, proud to be a Book Bard! 😉
Woo!!! Good luck to you and your team!!
Back again!
Awesome! Glad you decided to give it another go!
So excited for this challenge! Yay Book Bards!
I’m excited that YOU’RE excited!! Good luck!
Where can I find the Rafflecopter for my team? Or will you put those up in January?
P.S. I signed up with my book blog here.
Those will be posted closer to the beginning of January!
Is there a deadline for the sign up to this challenge?
No deadline! You can sign up at any time from now until the end of 2018!
joined!
This will be my first time I am doing this challenge, so hopefully I am not making too many mistakes *smile*
Best wishes
Vi @Inkvotary
Oh, great! 😃 I wanted to read all these books left behind on my bookshelf and perhaps a few series I left aside this year, this challenge might be what I need to do it!
Until when can I sign up?
Sign-ups stay open until the end of 2018 (so Dec. 31, 2018)