The Story of "Shelf Candy Saturday"

We all know that the blogosphere is not static; blogs appear, are active for some time, and then, either disappear or become inactive.  There used to be a wonderful blog, Five Alarm Book Reviews, run by a great blogger named Stephanie.  I loved visiting and commenting on this blog, and especially, participating in a meme titled "Shelf Candy Saturday", which was dedicated to showcasing beautiful book covers.  

One of the things I enjoyed the most about this meme was reading information about the very talented artists who had created the gorgeous covers Steph presented every week.  I also enjoyed visiting the participating blogs to admire the covers those bloggers had posted, and reading the information they had discovered about the cover artists.  Including such information in an SCS post was optional, however.  Some participants didn't include it, but simply wrote about why they loved the cover they had selected.

Unfortunately, this wonderful state of affairs was not to last...Steph decided to stop blogging.  Sadly, she not only did that, but deleted her entire blog, and it's no longer to be found on the Internet, as far as I know.  She emailed me to let me know of her decision, which was motivated by personal reasons I can't divulge.  She added that she had to delete the entire blog because it was self-hosted, and therefore, had she simply stopped blogging but left it up, she would have had to continue paying for an inactive blog.  In her email, she also asked me if I would be interested in taking over her meme.  Of course, I  immediately agreed, since I loved it so much. 

This was the original meme logo.

When I took over the meme, I decided to continue with the idea of providing information about the artists who created the amazing covers I selected.  I invited hop participants to do the same, although I emphasized that it was purely optional.

At first, participation was not too bad.  Steph usually got seven, and sometimes nine or ten, blogs participating.  However, as time went on, the bloggers who had originally joined her blog hop and continued to participate when I took over, just disappeared.  I did get a couple of new ones, but in time, they, too, disappeared.  I bravely continued, however, because I love this meme! 

Many of my readers may not know that I have two jobs -- a full-time, and a part-time.  Obviously, this basically limits me to blogging on the weekends, although I sometimes stay up as late as 1:00 AM during the week, in order to post "Waiting On Wednesday", plus anything else I might have going.  This means that, on Friday evenings, I am often very tired, so I go to bed early, instead of working on my "Shelf Candy Saturday" post in order to be able to put it up by midnight.  This is fatal to a blog hop, unfortunately, if you happen to be the host.  Participants need to link up to the hosting post through a Linky widget.  If that post is not up early, they obviously won't be motivated to put up their own posts. 

Perhaps it's due to this irregularity that I have seen participants to this meme gradually dwindle, and then disappear altogether.   However, even when I've had my own post up by midnight, I haven't seen anyone linking up.  I have gone to a couple of blogs that were participating recently, and commented on their posts, only to find that they neither linked up to my post, nor did they comment back.

So I have come to a decision about this meme.  I will continue to post it, because I simply can't give it up!  However, it will no longer be a blog hop, since no one seems to be interested in participating.  This, of course, saddens me.  Paradoxically, however, it will at the same time take the pressure off.  I will no longer feel obligated to put my post up by midnight on Saturdays.

Of course, I will always welcome comments!  I will also continue to provide information on cover artists, if I'm able to find it.  Steph told me once that she usually contacted publishers way ahead of her posts, in order to get inside information on the cover artists.  I don't have the time to do that, given my work situation.  So I can only get this information if I own the book whose cover I'm featuring, or if the book's author provides information on the artist on their blog or website. The Amazon reader will sometimes provide this information, if a book is available for preview on Amazon. If none of these options are available, I will then use trusty ol' Google. If that fails to yield any results, then I can only state that I was unable to get any information on the artist whose cover I'm featuring in the SCS post.

Those who have enjoyed this meme so far can continue to do so every Saturday.  For me, it's a work of love.  Although I'm disappointed that I can't seem to get any participants, I will go on with the meme, as a personal one only.  So, starting next Saturday, there will no longer be a Linky widget at the bottom of the post. 

See you next Saturday!   

Here are three of my favorite 

"Shelf Candy Saturday" posts,

done when Steph hosted the meme:

Shelf Candy Saturday #17

National Velvet, by Enid Bagnold

Shelf Candy Saturday #19

Nightspell, by Leah Cypess

Shelf Candy Saturday #20

The Robe, by Lloyd C. Douglas