By Krissy Hawkins
FiledBy.com is the flagship site of FiledBy, Inc. and one of the most comprehensive online marketing platforms and directory of published author web pages on the Internet.
Company co-founders Peter Clifton, former Ingram executive, and Mike Shatzkin, industry analyst, developed the site to provide authors with an inexpensive way to create a Web presence in an environment where publishers are looking to cut costs.
FiledBy hosts the site for free and member pages feature a brief biography and a list of works. More options such as media postings, event listings and online press kits are available for users willing to pay a fee.
The site was intentionally designed to highlight authors rather than books. “It helps make authors discoverable,” says Clifton. The site provides a medium for authors to connect with fans and peers. But in addition to the social networking aspects the site includes links which enable users to purchase the book.
Just recently FiledBy expanded its online author directory, adding and linking together sites for illustrators, coauthors, editors, photographers, artists, translators and others who contribute to the publication of a book.
Since its launch in March 2009 the site has accumulated 1.8 million author sites in its directory, with this latest expansion it adds more than 1 million contributors. Contributors to published works can now enhance their own profile with photographs, a biography, links and multimedia.
The site is now in Beta so users can manage and enhance their pages, promote their books, check for accuracy, provide corrections, and more.
FiledBy is not preclusive to those who contribute to the production of a book, but also available to those who enjoy the finished product. Readers are free to login and write reviews or make comments about their favorite authors and titles. www.FiledBy.com
Editor’s Note — FiledBy is evidently downloading book data from Bowker as a spot check suggests Stephens Press titles are already in place but missing covers and/or author’s photos and information about the author. Authors are encouraged to add material to their listing. Remember, you can always find emailable and uploadable copies of your book cover and author photo on your book’s web sites. Contact Krissy if you need help. CHU
Hmm. Well it IS in beta. I signed up, but the way the site works it only finds books based on the author name, or ISBN and when you search by ISBN to add them to your page it assumes you claim you are the author. So for me as a contributor it doesn’t work. I have emailed them to see if there is a work around for that. The author listings so far predominate with DEAD authors. But again it is in BETA. I can’t recommend this just yet, but I’m willing to wait an see.
What we REALLY need is an end to the chaos that is “social networking” on the web. It’s almost easier to just surrender to the Google and Amazon deities.