FiledBy - Online Marketing Platform for Authors

Chances are you haven't heard of FiledBy. When I read the email from the company, my first thought was - 'It's "Facebook for Writers!"', a site where published and unpublished writers can socialize, network and share non-plagiarizable ideas. FiledBy, Inc is a "digital marketing company providing membership sites, web tools and community building solutions to content Creators - authors, writers, illustrators and photographers – and their fans." Here authors can create profiles, put up book signing dates, book reading dates and venues, blog and bookseller links and even promote their upcoming books. It's a pleasant concept.

If you search for big name authors like Stephen King, JK Rowling and John Grisham, a profile page with a biography, a list of their titles with "Buy It" links next to them comes up. Sometimes there's a picture. There's a readers list, which is to FiledBy what followers is to Blogger, and there's also a "Rate this Person" box. You're probably wondering if the profile pages of these big names were created by the authors themselves or if they are as fictitious as those celebrity accounts we find on social networking sites. That's why on the right hand side of the page there's a tab with "Are you this Author?" written on it. That eliminates the question of members of the public creating fake profiles.

If you search for big name authors from the African continent such as Chinua Achebe, Chimamanda Adichie, Wole Soyinka, Sefi Atta, Chris Abani and Jude Dibia, a corresponding profile page opens. There's no photo and no biography. In it's place there's a tiny paragraph that begins with "Are you this person? If so, join now to enhance your books and much more. Merge you listings into one account, update this bio, manage your books, add links and much more." Their books are then listed below with a "Buy It" link next to each one.

FiledBy's homepage reminds me of the iPod software, iTunes while some of its features remind me of Shelfari. The site has that "air" of one desperately in need of traffic which might be because it restricts itself to authors published in the U.S.A and Canada. Facebook isn't what it is today because Zuckerberg restricted it to Harvard students. The name should be reviewed because FiledBy sounds like something you'd christen a networking site for secretaries. It's site design isn't appealing and its content and provision for its members can be better refined. That's enough to make internet users hop other sites. True, anything too flashy or busy will repel older authors and make FiledBy seem less business-like but there are ways those two can be made to go together to make FiledBy come alive. In the meantime I'll keep my fingers crossed for a "Facebook for Writers".