What about book recommendations where it's clear that the authors of those books paid a premium to get their books listed, but you have no idea if they're actually any good?
I have started a new initiative to solve these problems. It's called Smashwords E-Books. Three times a week, I tweet links to great books available on Smashwords.com, from the official Smashwords E-Books Twitter Account. Once a week, I post those links, with covers and descriptions to the Smashwords E-Books blog. Then I send out an e-mail to all my subscribers with those links. This is a separate e-mail to my monthly newsletter, so even if you're already subscribed to that, you'll have to subscribe separately to the other list (click here).
The beauty of this system is that authors have no say whatsoever in what books get featured on Smashwords E-Books. Only books that I have personally read and vetted get posted there.
I make my money exclusively off of affiliate income at Smashwords, when people click on those links and buy books. If you'd also like to earn money in this way, you can, by the way. See this blog post, from back in February, for more information.
Sound like something you as a reader might be interested in? Then please, go check out the blog, and see what I've got. Then sign up for the mailing list, and finally, don't forget to follow the dedicated account on Twitter!
What do you think of this idea? Will you make use of it? Why or why not? Feel free to comment below, and let me know.
Note: The new service is not in any way endorsed by Smashwords.
To see the official press release about Smashwords E-Books, click here.
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