An Indie Book And Author Page

[simonroyle]

Just started this page.

I'd like to build this list so please do send me an email with:
126 pixel width thumb of your book cover. links to your web site or blog and where to get the book.

I'd also like a copy of the book. This is for to check that it is of a certain quality. I'm trying to help promote the crazy, wild idea that an individual with friends and professional acquaintances can put out a good quality book. I will not be checking grandma, punkchooation, or any of that fiddly stuff. I will be looking for typos, good solid formatting, and a professionally done cover. My email address is on my blog, which is listed on my signature below.

Over time I am hoping to get interaction between the Indie Reviewers List, and the Indie Books and Authors list.

Thanks.

[Steven Lake]

Simon, you are epic levels of awesomeness.

[simonroyle]

If I planned on getting buried, which I don't, mainly because that happens after you've died, most of the time, and except in Tahiti, I'd have that put on my gravestone.

Which technically would then have to read:

Below me are epic levels of awesomeness (I'd probably have to lose the emoticon - that might get me kicked out of the graveyard).

Sincerely, thanks, and send me your stuff dude, I'll put it up.

[simonroyle]

New Authors and their books added:

David Michael, Sean Reardon, Scott Nicholson, Steven Lake

[simonroyle]

I've updated the page to include: Genre and links to positive reviews. Why only positive reviews - because life is hard enough for all of us.

[simonroyle]

New books added.

[markuskane]

I tried clicking on the page link but got a 404 error.

[Steven Lake]

It looks like his host went boom somehow.

[simonroyle]

Back up and operational.

I changed Domains over the weekend and the gremlins came out to play.

This bit is for tech nerds:
The reason I changed domains was wordpress.com doesn't allow javascript. I want to expand the Reviewer's List, and the Indie Authors List to be more informative. I'd like for example for people to upload their own books directly to the site and fill in their own details. Yes, less work for me in the long run.

Meanwhile over the weekend we went into DNS purgatory.

Live Chat excerpt:
Me: So what you're saying is different from the last guy. He said nothing would be affected whilst I did the transfer. I'm staring at a 404 file on my domain right now. What's the solution?
Support: I note you've just changed DNS today.
Me: Yes. That's at the top this thread, right above the part where the other guy says NOTHING WILL BE AFFECTED WHILE YOU SWITCH
Support: You have to wait 24 - 72 hours for the DNS to propagate.
Me: So my site could be down for 3 days!!!
Support: Yes, but usually only 24 hours
Me: Can I edit the site in the meantime to put up a notice or something?
Support: Not really no, once the DNS has been changed you have to wait.
Me: OK I'll wait - in the meantime could you please tell your colleague to get educated about this process - thanks.

Anyway, site back up, new authors added and we're up to 86 on the Indie Reviewers List.

I've also hired an out of work grad student (doing my bit for global financial recovery) to find a whole bunch more Indie reviewers. Planning to expand that into something like a subscription service (free).

My idea is that an author can subscribe. Select his genre/s and then his novel will be pushed to reviewers who review that genre. If they accept to review author gets a notification. Something like that. What do you guys/gals think? Will it work? Sound interesting?

Markus your book is listed.

[Steven Lake]

Dude, I love your idea of a subscription review service. Hopefully this way everyone can get more reviews on their books, more feedback, and more attention, which is very important in this world.

[ficbot]

I think it will work as long as authors understand that the review might not be glowing If I might offer you a bit of constructive feedback, I am not sure how many authors who claim they want to be huge successes realize that this is actually a *business* (if making money is the goal, it must be) and that serving the *customer* is the most important thing. For example, you claim you only post positive reviews and that is great for author ego purposes, but it does make you a bit less trustworthy a source for a customer legitimately trying to evaluate a potential purchase. I know personally that I have seen books on Smashwords with only glowing reviews and then I read a sample and wonder what those people were smoking It makes me feel like the author had only their family members review it or something, and that's total amateur hour. I immediately cross that author off my list of authors to watch.

I think a review service like the one you suggest is a good idea, but I worry that in trying to serve authors in the way you are, you are not serving readers, and that will *hurt* the authors you claim to be supporting. If I am a reviewer and I participate in your service and my review does not get posted because I don't give the book five stars, that will be the last time I participate in it. Imho it is much better to post balanced reviews that help guide readers toward appropriate choices.

[simonroyle]

Absolutely agree with you Ficbot. I'm trying to figure out how to implement the whole thing.

Where I state that I only link to positive reviews refers to the Showcase Site for the authors and their books.

Where a book might be reviewed by a reviewer the review would link to the reviewers site and if the review is less than glowing; then that's for the author to address.

The coding that I am working on would "collect" the number of reviews a book has and then based on an algorithm that I have yet to write would come up with a Reviewer Rank.

The site would also rank reviewers.

Some ideas that I have gleefully purloined from MR comments, most particularly on your thread; which inspired the whole idea.

- The rankings should be divided into different sections i.e.

Amazing Book by Unknown Author
Cover
Formatting
Story
Grammar

Open to ideas (and programming help if anyone is interested). My overall concept is to promote good quality Self Published books. Within that concept provide authors with a place to upload their books into a showcase.

[simonroyle]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

Dude, I love your idea of a subscription review service. Hopefully this way everyone can get more reviews on their books, more feedback, and more attention, which is very important in this world.

Thanks Steve. Going from idea to execution will be the tricky bit. But I have a good idea of the structure.

[GraceKrispy]

Originally Posted by ficbot

I think it will work as long as authors understand that the review might not be glowing <snip> For example, you claim you only post positive reviews and that is great for author ego purposes, but it does make you a bit less trustworthy a source for a customer legitimately trying to evaluate a potential purchase. I know personally that I have seen books on Smashwords with only glowing reviews and then I read a sample and wonder what those people were smoking It makes me feel like the author had only their family members review it or something, and that's total amateur hour. I immediately cross that author off my list of authors to watch.

I think a review service like the one you suggest is a good idea, but I worry that in trying to serve authors in the way you are, you are not serving readers, and that will *hurt* the authors you claim to be supporting. If I am a reviewer and I participate in your service and my review does not get posted because I don't give the book five stars, that will be the last time I participate in it. Imho it is much better to post balanced reviews that help guide readers toward appropriate choices.

I totally agree with what ficbot's posted. I think she hit the nail on the head.

I have read several books recently that were seriously in need of editing. When I read the reviews posted, most were glowing (some ridiculously so), with no mention of any errors anywhere. Of course, when I delve a bit further, I see that the reviewers have just a few reviews to their names (all of the same author, all disgustingly amorous) or have a bunch of reviews, all 5-star and glowing (and several books of their own the reviewers are trying to sell). It reeks of "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."

How exactly would the reviewers be ranked? I can see that backfiring as well- who does the ranking? Authors whose books may or may not have been reviewed highly? It seems that would actually go the way ficbot is suggesting, where authors figure out who writes the glowing reviews and moves those reviewers to the top. I might be reading that part wrong, but I'd like to hear some clarification on that part.

I've said it before, I really get nothing extra out of reviewing books. It would be a heck of a lot faster to just read the book and then move on to the next book instead of putting time in to write a thoughtful and, hopefully, constructive review. My main purpose in reviewing is to help the cream of the crop of indie authors rise to the top. Perhaps the feedback I give is helpful to those who really want to improve their books, perhaps it's seen by some as nitpicky. I'm not looking to be rated popular reviewer or anything, but I am looking to help promote those authors whose talent speaks for itself. I'm also not looking to rip anyone apart. I try to be as constructive and respectful as possible, while still remaining completely honest. Some authors may value that, some may not.

Currently, authors can find my name in several lists, check out my blog, see my reviews, and choose whether they want me to review the books. I don't want to push my reviews on any author who doesn't want them (although I will review books of my own choosing, even if not requested). Anyone checking out my blog can see that I really look at the writing style and the grammar as well as the entire storyline. It's important to me that books I rate highly have high quality writing and are as error-free as possible, in addition to having a gripping tale to tell. Maybe that's not what every author wants.

Hmm. In my "it's too late to still be awake, so I'm rambling" thought process tonight, I'm also thinking it shifts the workload the way you suggest. Currently, authors generally seek out reviewers, send out an email and go from there. Your suggestion puts the work on the reviewer. Now the reviewer needs to search out the books from the list, find information and decide whether to review. Am I understanding that correctly? I guess I think of it as the reviewer being the one providing the service that the authors desire, so....

What do the rest of the authors think?

(very interesting thread, Simon!)

[simonroyle]

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

I totally agree with what ficbot's posted. I think she hit the nail on the head.

How exactly would the reviewers be ranked? I can see that backfiring as well- who does the ranking? Authors whose books may or may not have been reviewed highly? It seems that would actually go the way ficbot is suggesting, where authors figure out who writes the glowing reviews and moves those reviewers to the top. I might be reading that part wrong, but I'd like to hear some clarification on that part.

I don't want to push my reviews on any author who doesn't want them (although I will review books of my own choosing, even if not requested).

I'm also thinking it shifts the workload the way you suggest. Currently, authors generally seek out reviewers, send out an email and go from there. Your suggestion puts the work on the reviewer. Now the reviewer needs to search out the books from the list, find information and decide whether to review. Am I understanding that correctly? I guess I think of it as the reviewer being the one providing the service that the authors desire, so....

Yes I agree with Ficbot too.

Good questions and they should help to clarify my idea a little. Taking them in order:

1. Reviewers could only be ranked by readers. This is tough to control (for instance Amazon don't have this "fixed"), and it may or may not be fixable. One idea I have is that there would be "moderators", perhaps people such as yourself and ficbot, for example, but providing a balanced view. Where a Reviewer's rank is disproportionate: High or Low, the mods could take a look. As you've pointed out, whilst gaming the system is possible it is also very obvious in most instances (for example a book at Amazon with four 5 star reviews and the reviewers have collectively only ever posted 4 reviews).

2. In the system I am thinking of; authors don't get to choose who does the review. A book belonging to a genre is "pushed" to those who review in that genre - no obligations either way.

3. On the work flowing in the right direction actually this should be less work for reviewers because the books will come to them in email. Unless the author fills the form properly the book won't go out for review. If author does fill out information correctly (PG rating, genre, title, word count etc) then the book goes to a queue. Reviewers would be able to turn on/off a button saying Accepting Submissions or not (this button only on the reviewers side).

Grace, partly this idea was inspired by your post Author's Reviewing their own books, Ficbots and JA Konrath's success (largely review driven) around his book Dracula. I had the idea from "blind wine tasting".

An author might be able to "game" a reviewer or two in the system, but not all - and truth will out. Part of the "penalty for gaming" - The Banned Forever List (that might be a bit harsh but it appeals in its simplicity).

It would take time, but imagine a site where indie authors upload their books, have them reviewed, get a ranking AND the site has the credibility of a reputation for being fair but honest.