A recent blog post that appeared in the Los Angeles Times questions whether filedbyauthor created its site without permission and the motives for creating our website. We believe it’s important to clarify the facts.

The story did not include the source of the data in question because the blogger did not ask. We want to make it clear that the data used to create filedbyauthor is licensed from reputable book industry sources and consists of author and publisher supplied data. It is the same data that is used by thousands of booksellers and bookselling websites around the world every day to support and encourage the promotion and sale of books and authors. The data is not perfect, and filedbyauthor has created a mechanism for authors to register, claim their pages, and even address inaccuracies that are reflected in this data – for free.

The blog post further implies that filedbyauthor is trying to replace online communities created by authors. Again, this is far from the truth. Filedbyauthor will complement not replace. Online communities thrive when people have more opportunities and multiple ways to connect with them. Filedbyauthor encourages linking to author sites, blogs and other communities. Our goal is to create yet another way for readers to find established author communities, which will help them to grow, and to give authors who don’t already have a community an affordable, simple way to begin building one.

The blogger asked me, “What inspired you to fill the void you saw for authors on the internet?” My response was not included, so I want to share it. Co-founder Mike Shatzkin and I have been involved in publishing for many years, we believe in authors and their work. We saw an opportunity to help many authors, especially those who struggle with assembling an online marketing platform, given the enormity of the Internet. We built a single place that encompasses all categories so that readers can locate, discover, and connect with authors and their work whether on filedbyauthor or elsewhere. And, we see an opportunity to help publishers fulfill the online marketing needs of authors who may not be at the top of their list. These are the reasons filedbyauthor exists today.

Here are some additional examples of how we are supporting authors and readers:

1. FiledBy takes copyright very seriously. We are a pro-author, pro-bookselling site where authors and readers can participate. Our primary mission is to help authors more effectively market themselves on the web or enhance their existing online presence. We make marketing tools available to individual authors for free and additional tools at low costs made possible through the scale of our website.
    
2. Any author can engage with the site at no charge. This is free publicity. We are adding authors daily who are not listed in the industry data for some reason and want to be. Additional paid services for authors are optional. We plan to offer more tools on the website. We believe these tools will deliver great value, especially to authors who do not have large marketing budgets.
    
3. Our website takes a novel approach of organizing online communities around the author rather than around the individual books. We also offer the author the ability to control how the data is presented. We believe that authors who understand our approach will see it as a complement to their existing online presence rather than a competitor. We will work in good faith to reach a resolution with those who do not wish to have their books or profile listed on filedbyauthor.
    
4. Many authors are visiting our site, registering, and setting up their pages. They understand that readers may choose to find them in different communities, that there is no single way to discover and interact with an author on the Internet, and they have expressed thanks for providing them with tools to manage and enhance their profiles on filedbyauthor. Many of these authors already have web sites but they see the value of also being included in additional communities that connect them with their readers.
    
5. An important element of our value proposition is being a comprehensive resource for people interested in authors and their work and making it easy for authors to update their information and link to other communities.

We are pleased with the overall response in the earliest days of the site, continue to refine it and have added several new features for authors to use at no charge, including the ability to upload their own cover images and choosing the order of how books appear on their pages. We have enhancements planned for both authors and readers in order to provide the greatest value possible and look forward to introducing them.

Peter Clifton
Founder, President & CEO
FiledBy, Inc.

FiledBy – Connecting Authors and Readers by P. Bradley Robb, used under its Creative Commons license:

The number of Internet users, 1.5 billion, surpasses the combined populations of North America and Europe, and that number is growing. Estimates put the total number of websites currently online at over 162 million. Facebook, the web’s dominate social network, marked it’s 200 millionth registered user a scant eight months after it’s 100 millionth user joined, and a measly five years after it was founded. Twitter, which recently reported a year-to-year increase of over 1300%, has helped to take the internet mobile, creating a constant flurry of short communications which is nothing short than a global realization of Hemingway’s Movable Feast. The Internet is the largest audience in the history of the world, reachable anywhere, anytime, through myriad channels and a plethora of devices. The Internet has become a way of life.

This is the reality that faces the modern author: with numbers that large, and a reach that broad, many of the tried-and-true marketing techniques have been rendered obsolete. Competition is just too fierce. The attentions of readers today are split between books, movies, music, and video games. Their means for gathering information is split between traditional, new, and social media. Today’s author needs to know how to navigate through not one, but multiple levels of communication and competition. After all, reaching even a statistically small percentage of that global audience can turn an unknown author into the next big thing.

Filedbyauthor: Q&A with cofounders Peter Clifton and Mike Shatzkin by David Rothman, used under its Creative Commons license:

Complete with listings for F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe, Filedbyauthor has started up with 1.8 million name-related pages waiting to be claimed.

So far the most viewed writers are Stephanie Meyer, J.K. Rowling, former PW editor Sara Nelson (claimed page), Sylvia Day (claimed) and Sharon Lee (claimed, albeit not enthusiastically). More than 1,600 writers have “filed.”

We’ve already shared basic impression of the site. Now, from Fileby CEO Peter Clifton and his cofounder, Mike Shatzkin, here are replies to TeleRead’s e-mailed questions. Peter is a former executive at such companies as Ingram and Wiley, while Mike—he of the Einsteinian hair—runs the Idea Logical consulting firm. Mike’s also the author of baseball books. imageimageWritten late last week, questions and answers are slightly edited.

DR: What are Filedby’s main benefits to readers and writers, as you see them?

PC: To writers: First, discoverability through a single location. Second, a pre-assembled, search engine-optimized web platform that can be easily expanded. Third, an easy way to manage author activities that many times are fragmented across the Web. Fourth, a mechanism to let people know that they are the person who wrote a work vs. perhaps another person with a similar or even sometimes the same name but the author of another work.

To readers: First, a site that encourages connectivity with authors. Second, an author centric site the provides the means to interact with other readers across all subject categories. Third, a central place to discover authors and their work and activities in many many categories. Fourth, a way to discover links to other sites that authors think are meaningful or that we’ve added to Classic Author pages. Fifth, we’ve organized our pages around the people who create content vs. the content itself. I think that’s unique and meaningful to discovery of people and what they want to say about themselves. Sixth, some pretty interesting pages for more than 900 Classic Authors—these are worth browsing.

FiledbyAuthor co-founder Peter Clifton reminds authors, “Once information is posted on the Web, it is largely difficult to control. We wanted to put some of that control in the author’s hands, so that they could determine what they wanted readers, the media and others to know about them.”

The new comprehensive online directory of authors and their works launches this week.

 

 Peter Clifton Beyond the Book podcast [18:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download