AND: it's very useful for public relatioms PR and getting the word out
about your new book
by ''Leinad Moolb'' for the book industry worldwide: site: www.askdavid.com
So who is David? Well, first of all, David is not his real name, and
that photo you see on his
website is not a picture of him. It's a model's face, not Ewald. But still,
it's a cool book website and very useful for independent self-published authors
who need a boost in PR and advertising. Depending on your needs and pocketbook,
the use of "David's site" can be either FREE, or it might cost you ten dollars to get ahead
of the line. In either case, "David" is an honest businessman in Ausrtia, in his mid 30s,
and he has created a very useful site for indie self-pubbed authors. Over 4000 people have]
used it so far, and no complaints. Here is how it works and how "David" works.
His real name is Ewald Kicker and his lives in Vienna, Austria, and
the website is his own brainchild.
How does he make money from his website?
"It's the visitors to my
sitethat I bring to Amazon (not the writers)) where I make
some money from Amazon, which pays me for bringing traffic to their
site," Mr Kicker tells a blogger who asks.
"I understand thatsome people are skeptical when something is offered for
free. In my case, however, I offer my book PR service for free for
first-time and second-time writers because someone else
(Amazon) pays for my work."
It's a labor of love and it's all been hard work to get the site up and running.
"I have worked on this site for about two years now. Up until about
first 18 months there was not ''donate'' button, not even a
"donate"-button. At first it was easy for me to keep up
with the submissions. Then authors who liked my service told their
author friends about my site which resulted in a snowball effect: in
the last few months the number of daily book submissions grew and grew!"
"Most of the time, there were more books submitted than I could publish.
That's when the backlog started to grow to the size it is now. I
decided that it's best to be transparent about this. That's why I tell
writers about the current size of the queue BEFORE they submit their
book - so they can change their mind if they want.
" If you go to
http://askdavid.com/free-book-
name (or any other name) in the yellow box and click OK then you can
see this. Some authors do want to speed things up. I offer the
premium-service for them. Also the premium service includes additional
features. Of course, I am also interested to make some "extra money".
I think it's a fair offer."
And IT IS A FAIR OFFER. "DAVID" provides a very useful service for first time authors
and indepedent authors.
"That's what I have now: "highest priority: we work on all books you
submit as soon as possible (usually within 48 hours)" - that's a
pretty good guarantee...''
And it is a good guarantee.
What's in the future for Ewald's popular website?\
"I have every honest intention to add all books which where submitted
for the free service to my site. It's just a matter of time. I publish
as many books which where submitted for the free service as I can.
Also the number of new submissions descreased because of the long
waiting list. Therefore I believe that over the time I will be able to
decrease the number of books in the waiting list again."
"After you enter your name in the yellow box, the site tells
every writer the current statistics: How many books of how many
authors where already added to the site and how long the waiting list
is. By displaying this information before authors submit their book I
am being honest and forthright".
AS few more things you might want to know about how Ewald Kicker's website works.
But as many writers who have used his site will vouch, it's a great site for first time and\even veteran writers who need a PR and advertising platform boost.
"David" tells this blog:
1.) My waiting list is real and not made up. The pages I create e.g.
http://askdavid.com/reviews/
work by me. I don't just need to press the publish button. If that was
the case there would be not waiting list.
2.) I also work on the free submissions as best as I can.
3.) The "supporter pack" gives addtional features. Basically I have
what is called a "freemium" model
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
pack" for a reason: financial support enables me to spend more time
working on my site.
THE NAME GAME EXPLAINED HERE:
Is my name really David? No. Let me explain: David is in the last
years amongst the most popular names for newborn babies in Austria &
Germany. Of course it is pronounced differently in the German
language.
My real name is Ewald Kicker. You can find everything about me here:
http://askdavid.com/contact-
- including full name, address, phone number, vat registration
number, and more. Even my age.
QUESTION: ''So why do I call myself "David" then?''
ANSWER: ''When I started the site I had the idea of having a virtual character
on it. It was not meant to be a representation of me. I don't look
like the virtual character on my site. I started to look for a name
for my virtual character and wanted to use a name which was known
internationally and I wanted a domain name with this name. I ended up
with "David" and askDavid.com.
''So there was the virtual David on the
site and me using my real name for answering emails. However, I
noticed that this confused a lot of people. They addressed their
emails to David and they expected a reply by David. People expected a
"David" from askDavid.com and did not understand that David was just
the virtual character. That's why I started to use "David" for myself
when doing something related to askDavid.com
"There's no checkbox in the form which is used to submit books which
indicates if a writer wants the free or premium service. Writers
should be able to decide this whenever they want. That's why the email
which confirms that the submissions was successfull basically includes
the same information which is displayed in the yellow box right before
the submission form.
"For example some authors submit a book and then
watch the site for a few days to see if new books are added. Then, if
they like what they see, they might decide after a few days to go for
the paid service which costs a low fee of just ten dollars, US dollars, very
reasonable and an inexpensive way for writers to boost their PR appeal".
This blogger know a few people who have used the AskDavid site and they have
nothing but GOOD THINGS to say about the service, and the boost it gives to their
books. Another booik world star is born: Ewald Kicker!
His invention might even transform the independent and self-publishing book world
into something very very cool. Go, Ewald, go! You make Austria, and its creative energy,
proud.
Ewald has a degree in business informatics from the University of Vienna. When he lived in Vienna he used to work for one of the largest Austrian online newspapers (http://derstandard.at) as a technical project manager.
"I live in the Austrian countryside now," he tells this blog. " I am the father of two young kids and am currently a stay-at-home-dad".
He adds: "I'd certainly earn more money in an office job, but I like to work from home and be my own boss. And I like what I do now, which wasn't always true in my previous office job. I'd love to work on askDavid.com full-time (currently I work on it whenever I have time for it) but we'll just have to see what the future brings ;-)."
This is a man -- and a website -- to watch! I hope Publishers Weekly in New York, and Publishers Lunch as well, are taking notice of Ewald Kicker's revolution in book marketing. Free! And for a small extra premium freemium charge of just ten dollars, peanuts, it can bring an author much needed PR and advertising eyeballs.
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