Thing 59: AuthorsOnTheWeb

This discovery exercise has us looking at AuthorsOnTheWeb and its related sites published by TheBookReportNetwork.com.

I started my tour with the AuthorsOnTheWeb site itself. It is a website design and and Internet marketing service for authors and publishers. It shows featured, current and just launched websites and blogs of authors and Internet marketing campaigns. It even shows authors on tour and news articles featuring their books and authors.

AuthorYellowPages lets you browse authors alphabetically or by genre. It even lists the top ten authors searched for on the site.

The BookReportNetwork site lists all the separate sites that they publish on the network. These include: BookReporter, ReadingGroupGuides, GraphicNovelReporter, FaithfulReader, Teenreads, Kidsreads, AuthorsOnTheWeb, and AuthorYellowPages. I especially enjoyed discovering the GraphicNovelReporter. It has separate review areas for adult fiction, adult non-fiction, teens and kids. It also lists its Best Of Lists, Books into Movies, Coming Soon, Bestseller Lists, and Awards. Now I'll have a nice place to browse adult graphic novels that might be of intrest to our branch book club.

I have seen ReadingGroupGuides before. It is geared more to the mainstream bookclub fiction reader so I don't normally pull my reading guides and discussion questions from it. For the science fiction and fantasy titles our club reads, I normally go directly to the author or publisher website first, then I'll browse discussion boards geared towards the genre next. ReadingGroupGuides have guides grouped by everything imaginable--from Title, Author, and Genre, to Best of Favorites, Most Requested and Themed Reads. It does give tips for discussion questions when there is no guide available. But I like the Typical Discussion Questions by Canadian Book Clubs better for the genre we're reading. You can register your book club and the site gives you tips on starting and running your own book club. You can even get a book club makeover if your group has hit a rut.

BookReporter.com is the site that I think Sandra really wanted us to take a look at instead of AuthorsOnTheWeb. AuthorsOnTheWeb looks like it is more of a business to author/publisher site, not a business to reader website. BookReporter includes Reviews, Features (including a Fantasy Author Spotlight that I will certainly use), Author Profiles and Bibliographies, Books Into Movies, Awards, Coming Soon (which lists upcoming hardcover titles), Bestsellers, and New In Paperback. I am sure that I will read the Coming Soon, Bestsellers, and New In Paperback sections quite often for readers advisory and to keep up with the latest for our patrons.