Books on Board

Now this is a good idea!

No Names, No Jackets is a news(ish) e-book discovery site I saw referenced in several places today (including in a comment to my post from yesterday). I had to check it out, and I like it.

The idea is simple. The site is a list of sample chapters. No author names, no titles, no book jackets, no marketing blurbs or anything else. Just pure text. Because it’s a WordPress site, it displays perfectly on my tablet. (I know what I’ll be doing most evenings now.) You can specify genre or just browse through the archive. You can even select a random pick.

The selection is still limited, with only about 700 works so far, but I expect that to change as word gets around.

And word will get around. Uploading your own sample is easy. Cut-and-paste a chapter (following a few easy formatting rules), specify a genre, and provide a link to buy the book. Guess what I’ll be doing later today? 🙂

There’s no recommendations, friending or anything else to get between you and trying out some sample chapters. I really like that. As soon as those features are added, some works will rise and others will fall. While that’s not a bad thing, I like that there’s a site where I can just try something without worrying what other people think about it. After all, if I don’t like the sample, I can just move on.

Give it a look and let me know if you agree.

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