Thursday, September 8, 2011

BestsellerBound is 1 year old!...

You can do a lot of damage by writing a book and tossing it out for the world to consume. Think of all the people you will bother by doing it...

Rather, think of all the fun you will have when lots of other people help out; Tweeting, and Facebooking, and interviewing, and sharing and reading and Kindleboarding and tagging and reviewing and laughing and all that other stuff you really won't have the least amount of time to do....

Courtesy of Jaleta Clegg
BestsellerBound.com is 1 year old! To celebrate, we have given away a ton of stuff. Being one year old now is a small marvel. (lots of startup forums die on the web somewhat quickly. That's sad...) Anyway! There is a group of authors and readers at BsB, who are just silly enough to get involved in your efforts, whatever they are.  Some of us won't have the common sense to stay out of it, in fact. We are shameless.

What do we like best? Readers. (readers are a who, not a what.) Writers who read. Writers who have questions. Writers with a sense of humor, and even some grumpy ones, like me...as long as they continue to Tweet.

You don't really want to be doing this alone?...do you? People will think you are anti-social....

Don't ask what BestsellerBound.com is, you already know. Ask what it does.......

 1. Allows self-promotion.
 2. Allows sharing - for any reason.
 3. Allows people like me to join. :)
 4. Allows anyone to suggest anything that might help sell books.
 5. Bands together to beat the Holy Crap out of poor reviewers.
     (Not really...but we might write some nasty stories about them.)
 6. Write some really nasty stories about poor reviewers.
 1. Throws you kicking and screaming into self-promotion. (That suddenly hit me as a new No. 1)
 7. Cry, when you are feeling blue.
 8. Put your stuff into books sometimes, and offer them all over the world for free.
 9. Shares stories about pets - but they have a special section for those posts, to keep the other ones clean and fresh smelling.
10. Scoff at any suggestion that none of us know a thing about what we are doing, because we are going to learn, dammit.
11. Did I say "Allow self-promotion"?
12. Blog. We blog like mad.
13. Fix stuff that's broken... book tech support. Some of us are good at that sort of thing, because we are always breaking things...
14. Defend self-publishing, with pitchforks... That's my idea :)






BestsellerBound.com is more than a forum, though it began as a place where Darcia, Stacy and Maria could play and be queens of the sandbox. Now, BsB has a massive group on Goodreads - a Facebook page for the free anthologies - a Twitter presence - a channel on YouTube for book trailers - BsB has won web awards ...






What has it been like, being a member there?
Fun.


What will it be like, being a member there?
Fun.





Who's already there? (You've been wondering, right?)
Deep breath -  -  -



Darcia Helle, Stacy Juba, Maria Savva, Jason C. McIntyre, Mark Paul Jacobs, Al Boudreau, Heather Paye, Jaleta Clegg, Jenny Hilborne, Charlie Courtland, Susan Helene Gottfried, Jen Knox, Magnolia Belle, J. Michael Radcliffe - these are five star masters, folks... Danielle Bourdon, Ami Blackwelder, Amy Saunders, Alexander M. Zoltai, Saffina Desforges, Anjuelle FloydAnn Mauren, Pavarti Devi, Anne Whitfield, Dan Schwartz, Cliff Ball,  Dan L. Hays, Sibel Hodge, Debra L. Martin, Doug DePewGail M. Baugniet, Gareth Lewis, Heather Hildenbrand, Paul Mansfield Keefe, J. Guevara, J.T. CumminsJaime McDougall, James EveringtonSandra MacKay, Jemima Valentino, Stephen Goldin, Jennifer Swan, Jerry Schwartz, Jess C. Scott, Valerie J. Long - big list, huh? Julie Elizabeth PowellKate M. George, Kelli Sue Landon, Keta DiabloKristie Cook, KT Banks, Lainey BancroftMalika Bourne, Margaret Duarte, Markee Anderson, Mark McKenna, Marty Beaudet, Cynthia Meyers-Hanson, Michael Scott Miller, Monica Brinkman, Neil Schiller, Nurture Your Books, P.I BarringtonRaven Corinn Carluk, R.J. McDonnell, Ryne Douglas Pearson, Jennifer Lane, S.C. Pennington, Valerie Maarten,  Simon Royle, Jinx SchwartzSharon E. Cathcart, Shaun JeffreyChristopher C. PayneShelley StoutSteven SymesStuart JaffeSue Ann Bowling, Susan Schreyer, Tom Gahan, William T. PrinceTy Johnston, Lynne Stevie, Valerie J. Long, Valerie Ormond, Belinda Kroll, Will Granger, J.W. Coffey I know I've missed someone, but will put their name in if they call me on it....

That is just a smattering, believe me. (And, I bet those folks haven't been called a smatter all week.)
At the least, its a good group of those I could snatch links for easily... BestsellerBound has 461 members, some who've been at this for years and sell thousands of books; who have been downloaded tens of thousands of times. Mr. McIntyre has reached the milestone of more than a hundred thousand downloads... We are a family of writers who design covers; who edit - professionally and for bizarre fun; who blog and interview; who review. Some of us have only one book in print, others have impressive catalogs of work available. One of our members - Mr. Pearson - has even had two books made into movies... We have IT gurus in our midst, eBook formatting experts...and chefs; short story writers, and a few who don't seem able to type the words The End....even one old curmudgeon who works in traditional publishing, if you can imagine that! (Two, actually, but the other one is a sweetheart.)  BestsellerBound also has members who are highly respected bloggers, who have organized their own online communities and web shows for Indie  book promotion.

Here is the point - I always leave that for the bottom - BestsellerBound is a family of authors and readers who love books. We love working with them, talking about them, sharing them. In the vast expanse of the World Wide Web, there are not many places who just say, "Come join us. Now, what would you like to do?" Conversely, there are plenty of places asking for your money first, then they make some attempt to like you.
Not so, that crap, at BestsellerBound.com I found them early in their first weeks, and fell in love instantly.   You will too.





Here are links to the BestsellerBound products - always free to read or download:

 http://www.darciahelle.com/ebooks/bsbssanthology.pdf
 http://www.darciahelle.com/ebooks/bsbanthology2.pdf
 http://www.darciahelle.com/ebooks/bsbanthologyvolone.pdf
 http://www.darciahelle.com/ebooks/bsbanthologyvoltwo.pdf
 http://www.darciahelle.com/ebooks/bsbanthologyvolthree.pdf
http://stacyjuba.com/blog/2011/09/10/win-book-prizes-during-bestseller-bound-birthday-bash/

Here are links to other blogs about this anniversary:

Darcia: http://quietfurybooks.com/blog/2011/09/bestsellerbound-giveaway
Cindy: http://mchanson714.blogspot.com/2011/09/year-anniversary-celebration.html
Maria: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/1521185-bestsellerbound-is-1-year-old
Jaime: http://www.inkyblots.com/bestseller-bound-turns-one-giveaway/
Susan: http://westofmars.com/2011/09/06/its-the-bestseller-bound-birthday/
Jaleta: http://jaletaclegg.blogspot.com/2011/09/best-hang-out-ive-found-online.html


Here is the list of prizes: (Giveaway is closed. Winners have been notified. )

 1. 1 coupon code for a free ebook copy of The Dream by Maria Savva from Smashwords.
 2. 1 coupon code from Smashwords for free ebook copy of any one title by Darcia Helle.
 3. 1 coupon code for The Choice by Sydney S. Song from Smashwords.
 4. 1 coupon code from Smashwords for free ebook copy of Echo Falls by Jaime McDougall.
 5. 1 coupon code from Smashwords for free ebook copy of any one title by Gareth Lewis.
 6. 1 coupon code from Smashwords for free ebook copy of The Other Room by James Everington
 7. 1 coupon code from Smashwords for free ebook copy of any one title by Susan Helene Gottfried
 8. 1 coupon code from Smashwords for free ebook copy of Nexus Point by Jaleta Clegg
 9. 1 coupon code from Smashwords for a free eBook copy of 2010 Hindsight: A Year of Personal Growth, In Spite of Myself by Sharon E. Cathcart
10. 1 coupon code from Smashwords for a free eBook copy of Caraliza and also Breathing into Stone by Joel Kirkpatrick (That's me!)
11. 1 free hardbound, signed copy of Joel’s secret 5th novel, shipped the week it is released.
12. 1 coupon code for a free ebook copy of Sink or Swim by Stacy Juba.


Please come join us for all the fun there. We would love to get to know you, learn more about what you write. BestsellerBound.com wants you to reach your dream, and be read by someone who never knew you had written a book. That's like getting a hug from Mama. 
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