I love discovering good websites for authors and book lovers. I found Overbooked.org a few days ago while browsing–a favorite pastime of mine–and I’m still exploring it. Whenever I visit this quirky site I find a new little gem. It’s a cool website for authors and book lovers alike and features both fiction and nonfiction titles as well as old and new titles. It’s got special sections for Christian Fiction, Romance, African-American Fiction, Historical Fiction, Young Adult Fiction and more.
One of the more interesting features for authors–although any book lover can get into this–is Author Connections, where you can list your own book titles with descriptions and post a link to your website or blog. I listed Jewels: 50 Phenomenal Black Women Over 50 (my latest book) and it worked like a charm. This section is shaping into an interesting database and you can even download it. Yep, for free. The database is small now but could be really cool as more people add to it. I haven’t tried to download yet so I can’t say how well that part works. If anyone does try it out, let us know how it goes.
At times, Overbooked seems a bit clunky and outdated, and the navigation can get downright confusing (part of its charm?). Some of the links don’t work properly–for example the link to the “form” that you reach from the Author Connections link in the left-hand menu. Fortunately there’s another way to reach Author Connections, which I posted below.
To its credit, Overbooked does say that the site is under development and that parts of it are experimental–and I gather that you–the visitor–are a part of the experiment. What will you like? What will you avoid like the plague? How will you use it all? To me, Overbooked is an example of both the beauty and the curse of the web. You get to help shape the content but you gotta put up with something a little less than polished–usable certainly but… well, experimental.
Fortunately, there are some really nice features that make it worth the time and a little frustration–such as the many interactive areas, one of which takes you to Yahoo Groups, where you can post comments about books, although most of the comments at present seem to be authors hawking their latest titles. Another interactive area is the Overbooked Wiki, where anyone can post book related info. Again, this is just getting started and few items are listed now but it looks interesting so get on over there and add to it if you’ve got something to share.
A third interactive area looks especially promising and is called a “social network” or “social site.” This is billed as “a new social space for the chronically overbooked” and seems like a place where you can create your own book related group and comment and add photos and videos. How rich is that? I’ll definitely be digging more deeply into this area as it appears to be rather well done.
Overbooked is a volunteer project run by a librarian and it shows. The site was obviously created by someone with a love of books, and it’s a fun site to browse. I’d get in on some of its features now while it’s still young and growing, especially if you’re an author.
1 comment so far ↓
Awesome find! Especially for a self-published writer since we are always looking for more ways to sell our books.
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