A Brand New Website Offers a Social Media Take On Getting Published

Online, December 10, 2011 (Newswire.com) - A brand new website hopes to take a new, interactive approach to connecting publishers and agents with new authors who are looking for representation or publishing.

'The Next Big Book is a site that uses an almost social networking style of platform to make it easy for new authors to promote their work to publishers and agents.' Says a representative of the company.

'Authors who want to get their books in front of publishers, editors and agents can create a page for their book, including a synopsis, author bio, sample chapters and contact details. Those details are freely available, so anyone who is interested in publishing the book, or discussing the project can contact the author directly.'

It's a service that's designed to streamline the publishing process for everyone involved.

For authors, it offers the opportunity to market to a mass audience of industry insiders, without having to send out 'blind' proposals and manuscript submissions.

For publishers, editors and agents, it offers the opportunity to browse new books anonymously, and to only contact the authors whose work they are interested in hearing more about.

'For a long time, there's been talk of paperless offices. Publishing has also become much more competitive, thanks to services like Kindle, Createspace and Lulu, that are eating into the traditional book market. We want to make sure that great books make it onto the shelves of bookstores, and that publishers can find the next big book quickly and easily.'

The site is in the development stage, and as a special introductory offer, authors who sign up for the service before 1 January 2012 will get a one month listing free. Thereafter, the charge per page per month will be $5, payable on a month to month basis, so there's no risk to authors who want publicity for their book ideas.

The site owners are setting up forums for aspiring authors, as well as mailing lists for both authors and industry insiders, so the site will be fully interactive. It features an easy to navigate interface, that makes it easy for authors to list their book in the right genre and for agents and publishers to find what they're looking for.

'It's about time we merged the ideas behind social media, and the publishing business. We think it will be a marriage made in heaven.' Says The Next Big Novel's rep. It sure sounds like it.