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Providing email address on novel's cover page

Switch Blayde 🚫

I was working on the copyright part of my cover page and came across the following:

…without the prior written permission of the publisher,…

I'm the publisher so they would have to contact me. But they don't know my email. As an ebook, I can create a "mailto:" hyperlink and make the word "publisher" clickable to bring up their email app with my email address in it. So "publisher" would be underlined and they could click on it to send me an email.

The email is not my personal email. It's my author email. Any comments on whether doing that is a good or bad idea?

Replies:   Keet  REP  awnlee jawking
Keet 🚫

@Switch Blayde

I can only advise to use an email address from a domain you own. If you own the domain you can ensure that the email address will remain valid for a long time. You shouldn't use any public providers like hotmail, gmail, or your own internet provider. That would look really unprofessional and the service could be gone by next year.
That leaves the question if it's wise to publish an email address. It would be better if you had a website where people could contact you. Then you could publish the URL and not a direct email address.

REP 🚫
Updated:

@Switch Blayde

The way I see it, your author account is for you to exchange email with your readers. I don't see a negative to that other than the number of messages may increase, which is not a bad thing for an author.

Websites have multiple purposes and seem less personal than an email address. It depends on the relationship you want with your reader.

Of course the above is based on your book's author name being the same as that of your email account or that used with your webpage. Otherwise, you have linked the 2 names, which would not be a good thing if you want to keep the names separate.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Any comments on whether doing that is a good or bad idea?

I foresee a lot of spam in your future. What I don't know is whether people will be able to see the contents of the hyperlink without buying the book.

AJ

Replies:   Switch Blayde
Switch Blayde 🚫

@awnlee jawking

What I don't know is whether people will be able to see the contents of the hyperlink without buying the book.

They will. The cover page comes right after the image of the cover. So when you do a "Look Inside," you see it. But the link would be to contact the publisher, not the author. Who even reads the copyright notice?

I'm now thinking the "Other Links" section on the cover page should be moved to the end of the book. It has links to (1) contact the author (email), (2) a link to the Amazon Author's Page, and (3) the link to join the email group for future notices and discussions. The last one is used to discuss SOL stories as well so that might be confusing to someone.

By putting the "Other Links" at the end, only people who buy the book will see them. And they might even check them out if they enjoyed the book rather than skip over it to get to the first chapter.

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