You ask, we answer! This is our new weekly feature where we pick one or more questions from our readers, open the Cuddlebuggery Vault of Secrets and share the goodies with you. Or something. These questions can range from completely random oddities to semi-personal. We promise to try to answer them all while staying within our comfy bubbles. Pinky swear! If you’d like to ask a question ask them in the comments.
This week comes from Shanelle of The Art of Escapism.
Who’s the real boss around here? Yeah, yeah, you’re co-bloggers and all but who manages and coordinates with everybody? And how does she go about doing that?
Steph:
Immediately when we saw this question, Meg and Kat laughed and said, “Steph.” But it’s not so much that I’m the boss, because I don’t think of myself as such. I’m just the most bossy of us, something that I’m sure annoys both Kat and Meg. Bossing people around gives me supreme enjoyment like no other. Allow me to explain.
Kat or Meg will come up with an idea. Maybe I might not think it’s awesome, so I’ll veto it. Is there a blog tour coming up that no one wants to volunteer to do? I assign it and it better be done right. Oh, is it midnight and your post isn’t formatted correctly? Kiss your sleep goodbye. Meg and Kat usually indulge my every whim. Okay, I lied. I’m totally the boss.
I will say that I think who’s in charge depends on what we are doing. If we are talking about design work of any kind, Meg and Kat are the go-to bloggers for that. My job in that sense is to just nod my head and allow them to work it out. Meg will quickly let me know that I have no sense of color or style in the nicest possible way.
If Kat feels like we are slacking on posting and getting less creative with our posts, she call a meeting at odd hours of the night and squeeze us until creativity oozes from our eyeballs. They’re super helpful and she’s really great at organizing us. This is me after a meeting:
(I’m so inspired!)
She also is really great at taking my half-baked schemes and turning it into something that’s actually worth posting. She polishes and primes like no other.
I’ll let the others go in-depth about their other responsibilities, but here is a rough sketch of mine. I’m in charge of our social media accounts, technical related things, advertisements and accounts, most of our giveaways, our contributing reviewers and post format. I also mainly run Little Blogger, Big Ambitions (which was all Kat’s brilliant idea, she has quite a few of those) and help Kat coordinate blog tours. By “coordinate” I mean, I sign us up for a bunch and leave the rest of the work for Kat. This is all in addition to posting, which I do the least amount of compared to Kat and Meg. But I do manage to *usually* do Hot New Titles unless life gets in my way. I used to help write Buzz Worthy News, but I just don’t have the time. So I help edit whenever Kat asks.
Managing the reviewers is probably the biggest job I have next to the social media accounts. Most of our review books get sent to me, so it’s my job to send them to the right reviewer and keep track of sending review links to publicists. I do this by having lots and lots of lists, about a million Goodreads shelves, and my handy, dandy Coschedule plugin.
Here’s something a little more behind the scenes: I am really, really anal about post format. I’m a control freak and I’ve been known to lovingly piss Kat off over it. I’m trying to work on that, but no promises. Sorry, Kat and Meg, I guess you’ll have to take me as I am, flaws and all.
(My milkshake also bring all the boys to the yard. #hairflip)
Kat:
Steph is the boss. The bossiest person ever. She wanted the focus of this post to be about how we’re each the boss in our own way, but she’s bossy, not necessarily realistic! YOU’RE THE BOSS, STEPH! DEAL WITH IT.
First thing in the morning will be her saying to me:
“Kat, did you do the XYZ?”
Yes, Steph.
“What about the ABC?”
I’ll do it right away.
“But you did the LMN wrong.”
*Dies*
It used to be the other way. I used to be the boss and Steph used to do my bidding, but I had to shirk a lot of my responsibilities in the last 8 months and, with that, Steph’s taken almost complete control. There’s no stopping her now. There’s no help for any of us.
My job is to organise the girls and the content, which I do badly. I also do most of the admin work, which Steph bugs me about to no end. And I order Meg around with graphics work because she’s still innocent and naive enough to listen to me. The rest of the stuff I do is listed around here somewhere on the blog. But if you’re asking who really keeps the blog running, then that answer is definitely and likely always will be Steph.
Meg:
Cuddlebuggery is kind of like a triumvirate, a crafty division of power that perfectly plays to our strengths. Steph keeps the blog functioning and talks to people on social media. Kat comes up with brilliant ideas and runs meetings and talks to people via email. I make graphics, promise to make graphics that I never deliver and other very important things that are downright crucial to making the blog function.
(VERY important things)
As far as evil overlords go, Steph and Kat are pretty fantastic, they generally don’t make demands I can’t fulfill. I mean, okay, sure, the one time I had to catch a last minute redeye to Australia to do Kat’s laundry was a little intense, but it was a good learning experience for all sorts of life stuff like why it’s important to keep your passport current and kangeroos are mean, don’t try to pet them.
Graphic stuff and gentle, loving, indentured servitude aside, I try and be as clever and useful as possible, pitching in with blog tours, interviews, editing posts, having reviews ready to go, etc so the blog is as contentlicious as possible for you, our wonderful readers.
(It is)
Behind the Scenes Pic:
http://instagram.com/p/rE4p0LnHth
(See! I’m not the only boss in this kitchen! -Steph)
Bieke @ Istyria book blog
Hahaha XD If I had a co-blogger, I’d most likely be like Steph, hah. 😛
Chyna @ Lite-Rate-Ture
This is simply adorable! I kept on laughing! Hahaha I kinda agree that Steph kinda represents the blog more dominantly…well, it mostly depends on the situation. I love you all equally anyway HAHA
realitygreene
The real question should be “Who’s in charge of the GIF folder??”
Kate Copeseeley
Having seen how all the stuff runs, I still think Steph is the BIG boss. But Kat and Meg are definitely good associate bosses. 🙂 You guys do such a great job at keeping this place running and you really step in to help each other out when someone has to take a short leave for whatever reason. Like that time Kat was sick and both of you totally stepped up to help with Buzz. It was great and in my opinion, a perfect picture of how this place works so well.
Natalie Monroe
Cuddlebuggery Gets Personal is rapidly becoming my favorite thing on this blog. You answer in such cute and creative ways. The conversation between Kat and Steph is priceless.
Stephanie @ No BS Book Reviews
I don’t care who’s boss. Y’all run like a well-oiled machine! Love this post. 🙂
Holly U
I always wonder how co-blogs work and what everyone does and how they separate tasks and organize everything. And I’m loving these Get Personal posts. Keep ’em up! 🙂
Renee
Awww! You guys sound like you have virtual sleepovers ha ha! Great job, loved this post! ^_^
Shannelle C.
This was my question! 😀 *does a little happy dance because I’m happy* (And sing the last part in your head.)
And I loved reading this; I’ve always been interested in how co-bloggers operate because I can’t imagine what’s it like! And I can definitely feel a Steph in all the things that you mentioned, and Kat does show up on a lot of blog posts. And Steph’s GIFs are perfect!
Jennifer @ The Bawdy Book Blog
I KNEW there was a reason why Steph and I get along so well. I, too, am a format Nazi. It actually bugs the hell out of me that my Author box is mis-formatted and it’s the plugin’s fault. I’ve tried fixing it so many times!
Mawa Mahima
Hahaha, this was a hilarious post! Thanks! And ooh, that’s really cool how ALL THREE OF YOU manage this book. I mean that’s really amazing, it is. There’s three of you. THREE. So glad you guys have got this blog working to such an amazing standard! 😀
Roro
Awe __^
Retrospectively Reading (5) | The Reading Shelf
[…] “Cuddlebuggery Gets Personal: Who’s the Boss? (3)” @ Cuddlebuggery – it’s interesting to see the dynamics behind blogs that have more than one person operating them […]
Weekly Recap| Jul 27 – Aug 2, 2014 | Oh, the Books!
[…] Steph, Kat, and Meg discuss who’s the boss. […]
Christina (A Reader of Fictions)
You girls are so cute. Also, I can totally hear this in each of your voices and was basically cracking up.
And now I noticed the spam comment above me and am trolololing more. I have learned much to advance my study andd knowledge as well.
Mariya @ Mystifying Paranormal Reviews
Lolz! This whole post was hilarious! =)))
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I must say that you’ve done a amazing job with this.
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