Do
you sell your book, autographed, from your website? If so, Autographed By Author
wants to send buyers to you.
As the internet's largest gathering of Autographing Authors, we attract buyers who appreciate the extra value of autographs and author contact. Within seconds, visitors transfer themselves into web sites of authors they'll enjoy.
Buyers get extra value at no extra cost, as authors earn several times the profit of other sales methods.
Because we don't handle your money or books, we only ask for 10% of the sales our referrals generate.
Sounds good! How do I join?
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Read the Author's FAQ below. It answers almost all questions that have ever been asked about the program.
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Press the "Register" link at the bottom of the page. It will transfer you to the registration forms.
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We will contact you within a few days to let you know if your website can fit into our program as described in the Author's FAQ. If not, we suggest changes. Because we work on commission, we require effective-selling sites. Our suggestions may seem like a professional marketing critique.
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If your website can integrate with ours, we request a sample copy of your title to check for bookstore quality, as defined in the Author's FAQ.
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After accepting your website and book, we invite you to join Autographed By Author. After paying a small registration fee, your title will be displayed to buyers at our "On-line Book-sign Party."
Special Offer
We are continuing our half-price registration offer until November 1, 2000. If you register before then, you will receive half off our regular $29.95 fee. Your total registration fee will only be $14.97.
AUTHOR'S FAQ
Got questions? You'll like our answers!
Click any question to read the answer.
The most frequently asked questions are bulleted
How can Autographed By Author help me?
Autographed By Author wants to make your web site your major source of book income, freeing you to do what you do best...Write Great Books!
It's a lot easier to obtain publicity for Autographed By Author than for a single book site...And webmaster, Rick Kamen, is your full time publicity and search engine geek.
As guests play on the "Party" page, they deliver themselves to websites of authors they'll enjoy reading. Will they buy? That's up to you.
We deliver hot leads. You sell the book. Make sure your website gives guests plenty of reasons and opportunities to buy your book.
All authors at Autographed By Author:
1. Sell bookstore quality books from their web site. (We require a sample copy of each title.)
2. Give us the address of a page or bookmark that features the title the guest is interested in.
3. Encourage visitors to request autographs (and preferably inscriptions) on the books they purchase.
4. Provide a link back to Autographed By Author from a page in their site within two hops from their index page.
5. Contribute 10% of the proceeds from the referred sales at the beginning of every month.
Q. What is a "bookstore quality" book?
A. A book that you might find in a large bookstore. They're professionally written and produced, and competitively priced. We don't accept pamphlets, chapbooks, pornography, or hate literature.
Q. Can a publisher list a title for an author?
A. Please do not register any titles that you didn't author. We promise visitors that they will purchase their books directly from the author.
We can only list titles that are sold from the author's own website, by the author.
Our agreement is with the author, not the publisher or marketing agent.
Q. What if I don't have a web site?
A. Visit our "Webbing it" page for specific instructions on free and low cost hosts, site building, and ways to accept payment. It shows how to set up a site that accepts credit card payment without setup or monthly fees.
A. A feature page concentrates on and effectively sells your book, then sends the buyer to an order page that encourages them to request autographs.
We can accept a "feature bookmark" instead of a feature page as long as there is an order button or link separating the end of the featured book's description from the rest of the page.
We can only accept feature pages which permit visitors to use their browser's "Back" button to return to Autographed By Author.
For an article about sites that sell books, click here.
Q. I can't give you an address to a page that features the book I'd like to register. Should I register it?
A. Please register with a URL that gets us close to where your feature page will be. After the URL, please include the date you expect the page to be working. We'll check it after that date.
Q. My order page doesn't encourage guests to request autographs. Should I register my books with Autographed By Author?
A. If you know when your order page will offer autographs, please register and include that date after your URL address. We will check your site after that date.
Q. How do I encourage visitors to request autographs?
A. One line on the order page is sufficient. It can say "All books ordered from the author will be autographed [with a personal inscription] if requested."
Make sure to provide a way for the guest to request autographs. [and suggest inscriptions if you offer that as well] An example is at http://heirloomstories.com/orderEmail.htm
If you are using a shopping cart with limited flexibility, you might want to send buyers to a new page in your web before sending them to your cart. It can be a form that collects autographing and referral information. The "send" button sends them to the cart as it sends the information to you by e-mail. An example is at http://heirloomstories.com/Order.htm
Q. Why won't you list good books with ineffective websites?
A. Because it wouldn't do any good. If the site doesn't make the guest want to buy, it doesn't matter how many guests we send. An ineffective site degrades the guest's experience and possibly alienates them from Autographed By Author.
The real damage is to the author whose website the guest didn't visit. That author could have sold a book.
For an article on sites that sell books, click here.
Q. What is an "effective website?"
A. An effective website concentrates on converting an interested visitor into a buyer.
Effective sites tersely suggest many reasons why the visitor might need, want, or benefit from the book. They leave out anything that doesn't focus on the goal of selling the book.
Effective sites make it easy for the visitor to buy the book and difficult to leave without buying.
For examples, visit some bookselling sites linked to the Party page.
For an article on sites that sell books, click here.
Q. I don't see an appropriate category for my title. Should I register?
A. Yes! When you register, you will suggest categories for your book. We may start a new category to accommodate your title. We expect to add dozens of categories that authors suggest in the coming months.
Q. Can I list my title in more than one category?
A. We offer each title a listing in one category at no charge. We may list it in a category you suggest, or another appropriate category.
Once titles are accepted into the program, authors may upgrade their accounts to include listings in additional categories at reasonable fees.
Q. Why would I want my title to be listed as a Gift Book?
A. We make special efforts to attract visitors who want to buy gift books. If your title qualifies as a gift book, we will be able to send more visitors to your web site.
Q. What qualifies a title to be listed as a gift book?
A. All titles in the Gift Books Category are sold for less than $20, delivered anywhere in the U.S. Their web sites encourage the buyer to suggest an inscription.
Q. When should I send the sample copy of my book?
A. After we view your website.
Shortly after receiving your registration information, we'll visit your site. If we feel the combination of our marketing and your website is likely to produce sales, we'll request a sample book.
Q. Why do you need a sample copy of my book?
A. The first reason is to confirm that it exists. Some people try strange things to increase their web traffic.
Second: We need to convince ourselves the book is really as good as the website says it is. We check for bookstore quality.
Third: Some of our listed books get reviewed and distributed in our newsletter and press releases.
Fourth: As long as books are listed at Autographed By Author, We need access to them. At first, for their initial placement in their categories. Later, as the categories grow and divide, to determine their new categories.
Q. Will my sample copy be reviewed?
A. Maybe. That's the best answer we can give you. While gifts are appreciated, they won't change the chances of having your title reviewed.
We look for well-written, professionally produced books with websites that make the guest want to buy the book.
The reviews will be offered to webmasters and e-zine editors as free articles, but their real purpose is to lure readers to Autographed By Author.
We'd love to review your book. Just produce a great one with an irresistible website.
Q. Where do I send the sample copy of my book?
A. After confirming that your web site will integrate with ours, we will request you to send a sample copy of your book to:
Autographed By Author attn: Rick Kamen
3474 Elsinore Place #203
San Diego, CA 92117
Q. Will you return my sample book to me?
A. If we accept your title into our program we need to keep your sample copy.
If we don't accept your title, we may give it away or donate it, but we won't do either for at least 30 days after notifying you that we can't list your title. During that period, if we receive a self-addressed shipping envelope from you, we will return it to you with your sample book inside.
Q. How do I determine my monthly contribution to Autographed By Author?
A. We ask for 10% of the proceeds from our referrals during the previous month, excluding taxes and shipping. This includes sales of all items from all pages accessible to the guest.
The amount the author contributes is determined by the author. We offer suggestions in the following paragraphs of ways to determine 10% of sales.
Q. How do I exclude sales that are not to Autographed By Author referrals?
A. You can use your site statistics to "track" sales. Your host saves each guest's computer number (also called IP number) along with other information, such as the time and the visitor's previous location. If you're hosting with Freeservers, the "Webbing it" page shows how to access those files.
You can tell who referred a sale by looking at your entry page statistics for the few minutes previous to that sale. Find the IP number, and note the previous location. If it was an autographedbyauthor.com/ page, it came from us.
We encourage you to check your stats. Hopefully, we'll refer such a large percentage of your sales that you'll eventually decide to not bother looking for the odd sale that wasn't referred by us.
Q. Can I track referrals with a special entry page?
A. This would be a copy of your book's feature page that only Autographed By Author uses. The feature page convinces the guest to buy the book they came to see. (Please contact us to make sure you copy the correct page.)
If you include a form on that page to collect any information, you can have it e-mailed to you with a unique subject line, like "Autographed byAuthor referral."
It can also send you the buyer's IP number and time of entry into your order page. That information may help you track on-line orders.
Q. Can I track referrals from Autographed By Author by using the special offer?
A. When you register your title, make a unique offer to Autographed By Author referrals. You can enter something like "Mention Autographed By Author for a $1 discount." or "Mention Autographed By Author for free shipping." Something like, "Mention Autographed By Author for a free bookmark" probably wouldn't work.
Make sure there is no better offer listed at your site so the guest has an incentive to mention Autographed By Author.
Q. Can I track referrals from Autographed By Author by asking the guest for their referral source?
A. A large percentage of visitors ignore those type of questions, so the default answer's count becomes inflated.
We think it's fine to track that way as long as the default answer is "Autographed By Author." :-)
Q. How can I use a mirror site to track sales?
A. Publish a copy of your site at an address that you give to no one but Autographed By Author. All sales made through that site will be to our referrals.
Q. How do I make my monthly contribution?
A. We will send you an e-mail at the end of every month with a link to our contribution page. The form will ask about your sales and give you the opportunity to purchase additional category listings.
Q. What if I make no sales one month?
A. We'll do everything we can to prevent that. If it happens, visit us anyway after receiving your monthly e-mail. Enter $0 for your sales, but press the button that sends us the completed form. That way we know you want to maintain your membership.
Q. What determines which titles are listed near the beginning of each category?
A. The guests decide which titles are listed first. The titles they buy most have the highest contributions remitted. Those are displayed closer to the top of their categories during the next month.
Authors who remit their contributions early in the month receive the greatest benefit from their sales figure.
Q. Why should I make a special offer?
A. It makes you look generous.
It's also an easy way of tracking referrals. Branson's Best Daytrips tracks with the offer "Mention Autographed By Author and get a 20% discount, AND we'll pay shipping. Total price $11.96."
You don't have to be this generous to assure a response, but don't count on anyone being motivated by a free bookmark.
Q. Why should I consider offering "Free Shipping" as a special offer?
A. It makes you look generous.
It's also fairer to the buyers. They can buy your book from their local bookstore and not pay shipping. You're earning several times the profit when they buy from you. Why make them pay more?
On-line book buyers are used to paying $3.95 for shipping, although no one likes it. Book rate postage anywhere in the U.S. is only $1.13 for most books. If you pay the $1.13, it looks like you're giving a $3.95 discount.
I allow buyers of my book to upgrade to First Class or Priority anywhere in the U.S. or Canada for $2. It sounds generous, but it covers the cost.
Autographed By Author will have special "Free Shipping Sales" periodically. They will be advertised on-line and to our visitor invitation list. Be included in that category by offering free shipping as a special offer.
Q. How often can I change a special offer?
A. We prefer that your offer be permanent, but you may change it as often as you wish. To discourage changing the special offer we charge $5 for each change.
Q. Can I make a time-limited special offer?
A. If you do, it indicates the offer will be changed in the future. We require prepayment of the $5 change fee before we will list a time-limited special offer.
Before your offer expires, be sure to contact us with the text of your new special offer. Otherwise, we will change it to a blank offer on expiration.
Changing a blank offer to another special offer will incur another $5 change fee.
A. This is the agreement. If you foresee a potential problem, please contact us about it. If we need to formulate a policy, we'll add it to this agreement, and inform the rest of the members at the next monthly e-mail.
Q. What is the length of our agreement?
A. The agreement starts when we approve your sample book and web site. We will notify you by e-mail when your title is included in the program.
The agreement can be terminated by either of us at any time. No explanations are required.
If we terminate the agreement we will refund your registration fee, reduced by $5 per month your title was listed.
Q. This sounds like an offer I can't refuse. How do I sign up?
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Copyright © 1999 Autographed By Author. All rights reserved.
Revised: October 14, 2000.
We're searching for useful tracking programs for participating authors. HitBox includes a good counter, but it doesn't always give the referring domain names for visitors, and it never gives IP numbers.
We'll let you know when we find a more appropriate one. HitBox is free if you display the link below.