We want to be as transparent as we can be with how we rank and evaluate the ebook fairs both prior to release as well as after the event. The idea is to help all of us know what is working best for us so we can work together to optimize the system for all authors and ultimately all readers.
Prior to the Fair
As the author is putting together their fair we want to help them put together the best possible combination of books that will make the carnival the most meaningful for readers. It is our belief that if we help authors do a great job of curating books, the fairs will get liked and shared more leading to significantly better results. These are some of the factors we consider:
- Previous Likes: We aggregate likes from previous fairs for each of the books and can use that information as needed.
- Previous Participation: We can aggregate the past participation from prior fairs for each author in the current fair.
- Network Strength: We can evaluate the size and strength of all the author networks involved in the fair.
During the Fair
While our fair listings are permanent the voting is only available during the first week of the fair. So it is important to rally your fans leading up to the fair and then to ask them to act quickly to help you win. We have several measures in place to stop vote manipulation and if you are caught there will have to be a penalty. Our fairs must be as fair as possible. Here is what you need to do to perform well at the fair.
- Share Assets: We email you some assets that you can share on social media when you invite people to vote.
- Custom Links We provide you with a custom link that when used gives you a vote that counts as an anonymous vote (reduced value).
- Book Vote Button When readers or authors with an account come to the fair they have a vote button that they can use (rate limited). The rate limiting means they can vote multiple times within varying time periods but once they are blocked they are blocked for all fairs. We would encourage everyone to use their votes wisely. In addition down the road there could be a random bonus/penalty applied when voting consecutively to make it more of challenge and hopefully more fun for everyone.
After the Fair
We do additional reviews after the fair is completed to determine participation from all authors and the overall satisfaction we see from readers in traffic and our concept of votes.
- Author Participation: We verify that all authors in the fair participated and send notices to any authors that do not participate.
- Data Analytics: We analyze the traffic and the votes for the fair to see how closely it matched our expectations.
Everything we do is centered around making sure we provide value across the whole network to authors and readers as we know that is the only way to make sure that ebook fairs work for all of us in the long run. If authors want to contest our analysis of any given fair, they are more than welcome to contact us. Anything we can do to make ebook fairs better, will be considered.