Simon & Schuster has unveiled Author Portal, a Web site that its authors (and illustrators) can use to access their sales information, as well as tools to build their online presence. The main feature of the portal is My Sales, through which authors can get both current, and lifelong, sales data on their titles, broken down by channel. S&S is also providing the same information in My Sales to agents, who will use a sub site called Agent Portal.
In addition to providing sales data--information which many in the industry say has become murkier as e-books sales increase but an outside player, like BookScan, has yet to release tracking information on e-books--Author Portal allows for the creation of everything from blogs to videos to news about books. The Web site also features tips on how authors can use things like Twitter and Facbook to gain more readers, and better interact with their existing readers.
S&S authors must register to use the service, which will continue to be built out. The publisher plans on adding new features to the site in the coming months and those who do register will receive a newsletter detailing, among other things, the latest features of Author Portal.
