This document gives advice on how to get the most out of your Kindred Readers membership. Please be certain to review our Author Terms, which describes our relationship with Author members.
Creating author and book profiles
All Authors members create an author profile. Under that profile you may create as many pen name profiles as you'd like. Each book is linked to the pen name under which it was written. If you wish to reveal that you write under one or more pen names, simply include the information in the biography section of your profile(s).
Be certain to keep your profiles up to date and accurate. Test all links, and pay close attention to the suggested file specifications (particularly for images).
We strongly recommend you make your book available in .mobi, .epub and .pdf formats. We encourage the submission of pdf samples for all books except erotica.To restrict access of potentially harmful material to minors, we do not publish samples of books categorized as erotica or with an erotica Readers' Advisory.
We want to encourage visitors to purchase your book through our site using "Buy Now" links to your book on major vendor sites. To keep our subscription fees as low as possible, we use affiliate links to augment our income. When creating a book profile, please provide direct links to your book on as many sites listed in the pulldown menu as possible. Our system will include our affiliate code in the link prior to publication.
Take your time in creating your book profile. Be sure to add all relevant classifications and keywords, and review any service providers who worked with you on the book in the Team Member section.
We strongly encourage Author members to comment on their experiences with a given service provider, as it gives other Author members valuable guidance on whether to consider working with that provider. You have the option of associating your review with your pen name or your pen ID (which is known only to you and is, therefore, anonymous).
Your profile(s) remain on our site and in our Service regardless of whether you are a current Author member.
- To temporarily or permanently remove a book profile from our Book Directory, select "unpublish" from your Author dashboard. You may republish the book when desired.
- To temporarily or permanently remove a pen name profile, select "unpublish" from your "My Author/Pen Names" table. To associate a book with a pen name profile, the profile must be published.
Editing book profiles
One of the advantages and challenges of digital publishing is that it is easy to revise content. Please read the following carefully so you understand our edit categories and their impact on edition numbers.
At Kindred Readers, we track editions in a manner similar to software updates. Minor revisions (e.g., a new cover or revised book files in which you've corrected formatting, spelling or grammatical errors only) are considered intermediate updates to the current version (e.g., from edition 1.0 to edition 1.1). Major revisions (i.e., anything more than a new cover or corrections to formatting, spelling or grammatical errors) are considered a new edition (e.g., from 1.1 to 2.0).
You may upload new editions of your book in your Book Manager via the Upload Your Files tab.
You must select PUBLISH for your book to be found in our Directory. We recommend you select PREVIEW after making any edits to your profile (to ensure that the profile looks as intended). Then select PUBLISH to take it live.
Please note that you are solely responsible for retaining copies of your content.
Reviews
You request a review of your book via the Review Requests tab on your Dashboard. In so doing, you authorize us to distribute your book to a qualified reader for review purposes. The reader must agree to review your book before we distribute a copy of the book to them.
Occasionally a reader who has agreed to review and has received a copy of your book may fail to review. Kindred Readers is not required to notify you of this failure, although we will make every attempt to keep you fully informed of any possible delays in obtaining a requested review. In requesting the review you authorize Kindred Readers to repeat the review assignment cycle until the requested review is obtained from a qualified reader.
To ensure all Author members have fair access to the reviewer pool, Kindred Readers may limit the number of reviews you may request in a given time period.
Please note that publishing or promoting your content in our Service does not imply any endorsement of your work or affiliation with you. All content and your participation in Kindred Readers is subject to our Terms of Service and Member Guidelines.