The Publetariat Vault is coming, and the Vault FAQ and Terms of Use are up!
The Vault aims to give publishing pros and content producers a tool they’ve never had before: a complete picture of the commercial viability of a given literary work, including actual sales data and reader reviews, provided before rights to that literary work are secured.
Authors: If you’ve self-published in an effort to garner mainstream publisher or content producer attention you will definitely want to list your book, and we’re making it easy by providing a free listing period for the Vault’s grand opening.
The Vault will provide a searchable database of indie print and ebooks available for mainstream acquisition. Listings will include the usual book information (e.g., title, author name[s], brief description), as well as a synopsis, excerpt, keywords, links to reviews of the book on bookseller sites and book sharing sites (e.g. GoodReads, Shelfari), the ability for authors to select up to 4 genre assignments from among over 70 choices, and the ability to provide links to any or all of the following: current bookseller listings (including current sales rank, where reported on bookseller sites), author websites and blogs, author social media profiles, articles published by authors, reviews of the book, author interviews and more.
In other words, all the information publishing acquisions pros and content producers need to decide whether or not a book meets their needs, both in terms of content and marketing criteria.
The Vault is being built by indie authors with publisher input, so you can be sure it will enable you to showcase your book in the best possible light while providing the information publishing pros say matters most to them in deciding whether or not to pursue a given book. The Vault isn’t quite ready for you yet, but it will be soon and in the meantime, you can work on getting the following items ready for your free listing:
Brief Description – plain text passage, up to 1000 characters including spaces. If your book is listed on Amazon, the Vault can pull your description in directly from your book’s Amazon page. Editor’s correction: since tests have shown that Amazon can alter or reformat its data at any time without notice (remember #AmazonFail?), the Publetariat Vault has elected not to rely on the import of any data from Amazon in its listings.
Synopsis – a file in txt, rtf or pdf format, containing a beginning-to-end, concise summary of your book in 2 pages or less, maximum file size of 50k. Be sure to include author name(s) and book title, either at the beginning of the first page or in the header or footer of every page. If you’re not sure how to create a synopsis, Google "book synopsis" for more information and examples.
Excerpt – a file in txt, rtf or pdf format, containing up to the first 30pp of your book, maximum filesize of 1MB. Note that pdf is the only file format that will preserve your original fonts and formatting. Again, be sure to provide the name(s) of the author and the book, either in the form of a cover page, or in the header or footer of every page.
Author Website or Blog – Whether you need to create a new one or polish up an existing site or blog, it’s time to get started. There are plenty of free, online resources to help you with this. Several are available right here on Publetariat, in the Sell department, but you can find plenty more by Googling for "author blogs", "build a website" or "author platform".
Social Media Profiles – if you intend to share your Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social media profiles with publishing pros who check out your book listing, you’ll want to make sure those profiles reflect positively on you and your book. Remove any questionable material (photos, videos and written confessions of you partying down or badmouthing real and imagined enemies have got to go) and add more material of authorial merit. If your blog, site or social media profiles scream, "BUY MY BOOK!!!!", tone it down. You’ll also need to ensure your social media profiles are set to "public" on sites like Facebook or MySpace in order to allow people who aren’t members of the site(s) in question to view your profile(s).
Book Cover Image – a cover image with dimensions of 125×175, with a file type of gif, jpeg or jpg. If your book is listed on Amazon, the Vault can pull your book cover image directly from your book’s Amazon page. Editor’s correction: since tests have shown that Amazon can alter or reformat its data at any time without notice (remember #AmazonFail?), the Publetariat Vault has elected not to rely on the import of any data from Amazon in its listings.
We’re planning to open the Vault for listings by the end of June—sooner, if we can possibly manage it—, so if you want to be a part of this exciting new opportunity to bring indie books to the attention of publishers who are looking to buy, get ready NOW!