I hope you’re all enjoying your summer (or staying warm if you’re like me and live in the Southern Hemisphere). I’m part of the Inspy Romance admin team, and we work behind the scenes to keep everything at Inspy Romance running smoothly.
I assist with Inspy Romance’s social media, and I’m interested in knowing how you, our readers, engage with us, or would like to engage and connect with us. I’ve put together a survey to gather information that will help us make informed decisions. We’ll collate and share the relevant survey data in an upcoming Sunday Edition.
Please take a few minutes to complete the survey and answer the bonus question at the end in a blog comment. A few of the questions will allow you to submit multiple answers.
The authors at Inspy Romance value your feedback. We’d like to know how you would prefer to connect and interact with us!
If you selected ‘Other’ in any of the above questions, please feel free to provide a more detailed answer in a blog comment.
Thank you for taking the time to answer our survey questions.
I have a bonus question you can all answer in the blog comments:
If you were talking with a friend who reads Contemporary Christian Romance and mentioned our Inspy Romance blog, what would you say? What do you like the most about our Inspy Romance blog?
Hi Narelle, it sure is cold hey?!
I would say that the Inspy Romance blog is a fantastic place to connect with authors and readers of quality Christian fiction. In my experience, Christian fiction is looked down on, so I love that there is place to celebrate quality fiction. I enjoy learning more about the process of crafting stories/covers/characters and sharing hope through stories:)
Blessings:)
Hi Narelle! Thanks for a delightful insightful interactive blog. Will be checking back later today to read comments. Question 1 my answer was other. As an avid reader after retiring, I was always looking for some fun clean books to read. Valerie Comer’s Raspberry and Vinegar was in a boxed set I purchased. Living in an agricultural community the Farm Fresh concept in a romance got me hooked. In the back of the book was a comment that she blogs on this website, so I checked it out and have been reading and commenting since 2015 (shortly after the blog started).
This site had me exploring new authors. As a German American, I enjoy the international aspect of this blog – Canada, Great Britain, Australia and South Africa. Travel the world without a passport. The blogs, as well as the stories, are so much more than just Contemporary Christian Romance, which could be shallow. (Boy meet girl and fall in love – all kept clean with no struggles.) Many deep topics are covered and as a retired pastor’s wife often the authors write better sermons or weave spiritual truths through scripture and song into the story. The characters face real life challenges – good, bad and the ugly with God intervening resolutions.
I have also enjoyed watching Inspy Romance expand through other aspects of Social Media – following on Facebook, not just the main page; but individual authors as well. Especially enjoyable, since I watch grandkids during the day and am often too tired to go out at night. Living in a tourist town, I stay away from the crowds and parking nightmares. Best wishes and stay warm. Just wish that more people would interact.
I would tell them they must subscribe to this blog because it is AWESOME! My favorite thing about the blog is getting to meet all these wonderful authors and learning more about them and their books!
Seriously, love this blog!!
I would say that Inspy Romance is the place to be for all things Christian fiction. Everyone has great recommendations for books and the attitude of everyone on the site and in the group is phenomenal. I love the variety of authors present here and how they constantly vouch for one another. In a world as competitive as book writing, a good team at your back is priceless.
I would say, I love the reviews and interviews with authors. You learn so much about the authors and their books.
Just started this but hope it is a place to meet Christian authors and hear about their books. JoAnn Durgin is my absolute favorite but I am open to new ones. No one will take her place though.
It honestly hadn’t occurred to me to look in other social media places. Now I’ll have to look!
I enjoy hearing about the authors’ lives, but my favorite part of the blog is getting links to pre-order or order e-version of books by the authors. I also love notifications of sales. I’m on email lists for several authors on here, but it’s nice having those things consolidated here.
I like the fact that I can win books.
If I win, the books are given to my church library.
Just getting to know about this spot.
This is a great place to find new authors. Good recommendations for clean, Christian books, and get to know the authors.
I have found most of my favorite authors by reading the blogs. You have all become like dear friends to me.
I voted on all, but not sure it went through and I’m still seeing that little loading circle thing. This is a place I can direct people to learn about a great bunch of author’s books to see if they’d like to give them a try. :)
I love hearing your story of how you came to IR!
My pastors are preaching through some of Jesus’ parables this summer, and it’s already making me think about the power of story in people’s lives. How a story can lay the truth on a topic out into the open without beating a listener/reader over the head with it, simply leaving it in the mind to take root if the soil is ready for it… speaking of parables!
Any ideas for encouraging more interaction? Everyone, authors/bloggers and readers alike, seem to be so busy!
Priceless: I so agree!
We’re happy to have you here. A lot of our readers have one or two absolute favorites, and then a whole raft of other authors they also enjoy! JoAnn blogged here for several years. If you search her name, I’m sure you’ll find her posts!
Scroll to the top and look in the header for our social media links. :)
Welcome!
Hi! I have recommended this site to several people. I love the list of books that are being published each month. I have found many new authors from reading blog posts. This is my favorite place to find reading material ideas. You all do an amazing job keeping us updated on all things Christian Romance! Thanks for your dedication.
This was one of the very first blog posts I ever received. I love it and it’s always fun to connect with the authors. There are days I don’t either have time, or interest to read them, but I do try most days. I love the fact you all respond to what we write in the comments.
Thanks for taking the time to share a little bit more about yourselves. It seems like it could be very busy for many of you. So TRULY, THANKS!
I’m enjoying my time on here since I first heard about you. Even won a gift card once and spent all of it on your authors – getting to know ones I’ve never read.
I can’t remember how I got started – but it was probably through Carol Moncado or Val Comer. I MUCH prefer commenting and interacting here. When I comment on Facebook, I’m stuck with getting ALL the other comments in my inbox.
I’ve recommended InspyRomance as a place to interact with authors, win prizes, and find out about good books!
Valerie Comer! I prefer short blogs that ask a question. While I sometimes tend to be chatty, I think encouraging readers just for a brief response. Probably one reason we (Authors & readers) feel over whelmed is we have spread ourselves to thin. When I first became involved with Inspy Romance I only had the blog and a. Newsletter or two. Now here is a blog, newsletter, author Facebook pages, group Facebook page, Book Club Group Facebook page. We all want to join, but realize if we want to read or write there is only so much time. Do I read blogs or newsletters or interact on Facebook? Hope this helps.
Thank you for blessing us back!
Hi Wemble, Yes, it’s a frosty -3C outside this morning. We haven’t had any snow this year. I agree – one of the challenges authors and publishers and book sellers face in Australia is the attitude you’ve mentioned. At Inspy Romance we celebrate quality Christian Romance and our authors strive to write quality fiction with a message of hope. Blessings :)
It’s a great blog where the authors are engaging, fun, and honest. I love getting to know the authors better, opportunities for giveaways, and reading about behind-the-scenes of new releases.
Hi Renate, I’m glad you’ve enjoyed our survey post. I love hearing how readers discover new authors, and we’re all glad you discovered Valerie’s excellent books and followed her to Inspy Romance.
I appreciate your detailed comments. One of the reasons I put together this survey was to discern the most time efficient way that we, as a group blog, can meet and interact with our readers. Knowing the preferences of our blog readers and how they’d like to interact with us will help us to direct resources to the right areas.
In terms of how to encourage more readers to interact, I think there are a lot of variable involved. Different posts will engage different readers. Asking a relevant question at the end of the post is helpful. Succinct posts that aren’t too wordy will encourage our time poor readers to read the entire post. The Inspy Romance authors try to reply to the blog post comments in a timely manner, although life happens and sometimes that’s not possible. We see the blog as the centerpiece of what we do, and the Inspy Romance social media supports the activities taking place on the blog.
Hi Paula, I love your answer! We appreciate all our blog readers who share our posts on social media and tell their friends about Inspy Romance. Congrats on starting your new book blog – which I recently discovered via Twitter. :)
Hi Tabitha, I’m glad that our readers can see that the Inspy Romance authors collaborate and work together and support each other. Group blogs tend to attract the ‘team players’, and I love our community of authors and readers who connect here at Inspy Romance. :)
Hi Kathy, I enjoy the author interviews and reviews on our blog, too. It’s fun to learn more about the authors who write the books we enjoy reading. :)
Hi Cathy, Welcome. :) I always enjoyed JoAnn’s posts when she blogged with us. You’ll definitely hear about books and meet new-to-you Contemporary Christian Romance authors here at Inspy Romance.
I hope you enjoy exploring our social media. We’re happy for our readers to primarily connect with us here in the blog post comments. Whatever works for you. :)
Yes, definitely the blog is center. All roads lead to Rome… er, the blog…
Hi Melynda, The Sunday Edition is a great source of information on new and upcoming releases, and we have the ‘Books’ page that lists our new releases. I agree, it’s helpful to have all the information in one place. I’m a big fan of pre-ordering books. :)
That’s it, right? All of us, readers and writers, are busy people with lives outside of books. Balancing everything can get tricky.
Hi Janet, We offer some great giveaways here at Inspy Romance, and Ginger works very hard behind the scenes to put together our two big annual giveaways – the Birthday Bash giveaway in February-March and the Back to School giveaway in August-September. It’s lovely to hear that you donate books you’ve won to your church library. :)
Hi Robin, Welcome! We’re glad you’ve joined in the conversation. :)
Hi Paula, I’m glad you’ve found new authors and books to read here at Inspy Romance. We appreciate our readers spreading the word about our blog. :)
Hi Linda, I’m so glad you’ve found favorite authors in our Inspy Romance community. We love interacting and chatting in the blog comments and getting to know our reader friends. :)
Hi Andrea, Thank you for voting. Hopefully your responses did register at our end. We appreciate readers recommending our blog and recommending other readers try our books. :)
Hi Mandy, Thank you for recommending Inspy Romance. It’s lovely to hear that our blog is your go-to place to find books. We appreciate your feedback and support. :)
Hi! At Inspy Romance we believe that it’s important to reply to all the blog comments. We’re not perfect and sometimes things will slip past us, but the expectation is that all the Inspy Romance authors will interact with readers in the blog comments. Life is busy and we do our best. It’s fun to connect with authors and readers on our blog. :)
Hi Pat, I love that we can reward our loyal readers with the monthly gift cards giveaway. It’s lovely to hear that you’ve used a gift card to read books by Inspy Romance authors. Thank you! :)
Hi Margaret, I agree, there are definitely advantages to commenting here on the blog rather than Facebook. I currently have a long list of unread Facebook notifications that will have to wait until I have time to look at them later. Thanks for recommending Inspy Romance yo your friends. We appreciate your support. :)
Hi! I love your answer because it really defines what we’re trying to do and it means we are reaching our readers with relevant content. We appreciate your support of Inspy Romance and our authors. :)
Definitely! The blog is the reason we exist. :)
I love the interaction with the authors on this site! I also like the giveaways and learning about new releases and new-to-me authors. :)
Aw, thank you! The main reason I started the blog is to help introduce all of you wonderful authors to new readers!!
I have been blessed by all of your stories and want to pass that on to others!
Not sure what I would say but that its a blog with like minded authors who write Christian contemporary fiction. They share about their love for books and writing and enjoy interacting with their readers. Also unlike some blogs most do respond if you leave a comment which makes you more likely to post.
I love that the blog has introduced me to new authors and given me a sense of their styles, after I initially ‘stumbled across’ one of the authors and got hooked on her series. Afraid I don’t recall if that happy circumstance was from a random Amazon search or another ebook newsletter.
It’s hard to have a conversation when only one person is talking, isn’t it! Some days life is extra busy – you know how it is! – but the authors do make it a priority to check in at least several times throughout the day.
Hi Ellie, I love your answer. :) It’s great to hear you’re enjoying our Inspy Romance community.
Hi Jenny, I agree, and it makes sense that blog readers are more likely to leave comments on blog posts when they know the blog post author is likely to reply and continue the conversation. Thanks for stopping by. :)
Hi Amy, It’s great to hear that you heard about us from following one of our authors. I love finding a great series that hooks me in. :)
I know here most authors do check in even if its later in the day or later even just a thanks for commenting to all is nice. Its blogs where the blog poster only responds to some of the comments that can be a little upsetting.
I follow Krista Phillip’s blog and she posted that she was going to be part of this new blog that was starting, Inspy Romance. I’ve been here ever since. I love the inside look at each author’s process and journey. Being able to see behind-the-scenes in just about any area is always really interesting to me.
Hi Jessica, It’s fun hearing how our readers discovered our blog, and knowing how many of you have journeyed with us from the beginning. :)
Hi Jenny, I understand why it can be a little upsetting. I’m assuming you’re talking about comments being ignored where you’ve written an email-style comment rather than ‘Enter me in the giveaway’ one-liner comments that we sometimes see on giveaway posts. I’ve always used the rule of 3 – the first time a comment is ignored is likely an accidental oversight, the second time catches my attention. and the third time it happens is likely to be a snub (assuming the blog author is replying and chatting to everyone else who has commented). It’s kind of like being at a party and standing with a group of people who ignore what you say and keep talking to each other. That’s not fun.
yes. I don’t consider enter me comments to need a reply and they also frustrate me cos often the commenter hasn’t even read the post. But when you write a comment to an author and sometimes even answer a question or ask a question and your comment is not responded to or if you look at the comments and only a few out of say 25 or so are replied to is annoying.