A Place On-Line for Authors to Recommend Books by Andrew Crofts

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Ben Fox is a young tech-entrepreneur and book lover, who has made enough money to invest heavily in a passion project – pretty much a definition of “living the dream”, I would say. Because he has always enjoyed the experience of browsing in bookshops, he decided there was a need for something on-line which would offer the same experience. 

When he delved a little further into the way the publishing industry worked, he was shocked, as are most business people, by the difficulties that face authors and publishers when it comes to marketing. We all know exactly what he means, and we also all know that the best sort of recommendations are carried via word-of-mouth.

 After a great deal of thought he has come up with a site where authors recommend the five best books within their particular areas of expertise. Imagine, for instance, that you wanted to find a good book on climate change and you could ask David Attenborough for five recommendations, or Barak Obama for five good books on American politics, or Julia Donaldson for five books that would make good birthday presents for a six-year-old …. You get the idea.

 The result, now launched, is Shepherd.com

 I was made aware of the project when Ben asked me to submit a page of my five favourite books about ghost writing. My reward is that my own book on the subject is featured heavily at the top of the page, in order to establish my credibility as an authority on the subject.

 Isn’t that just an absolutely brilliant idea?

 https://shepherd.com/best-books/ghostwriting

 

Comments

Peter Leyland said…
A good idea Andrew. You could come to me right now for five good African novels! Happy Xmas
27 December 2021 at 16:10
Griselda Heppel said…
Thanks very much for spreading the word about Shepherd.com. You inspired me to have a look and I think it's a brilliant site - getting 5 well-thought through suggestions for books on any topic is really helpful. I've contributed my own, themed on my new book, The Fall of a Sparrow. The 5 Best Children's Books that are Ghost Stories should appear soon!
16 January 2022 at 18:16
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