Monday, August 13, 2012

Let's Help Restore LendInk

I support this effort and have already made a small contribution. Like many authors, I'm not rich but every little bit will add up.

What's more I am ashamed of the indie author community and what has been done to the LendInk owner, Dale Porter. There is no excuse for it and an "I'm sorry" from the people -- mainly indie authors -- who did the damage is not enough. This gives all of us a chance to make things right.

No, I did not take part in the attacks; in fact, on several forums I said that the site was NOT pirating. But I also feel that I didn't speak out strongly enough. Largely because I wasn't paying attention, I stood by silent while much of this happened.

So I apologize to Dale Porter, and I urge those who are concerned with righting a wrong to contribute to restoring LendInk on Fundrazr.

Here is Dale Porter's message discussing his plans for the site and what he needs to restore it:

Lendink.com is an online community created to help readers discovery new authors and books by way of facilitating the legal lending of eBooks via the Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble lending programs. The site was recently shutdown by a group of angry authors who thought Lendink was pirating their books. This was the result of misinformation being spread via numerous online portals and by the time word got out that Lendink was a legit service, the damages had been done and the site taken down due to threats to Lendink and their web hosting company.

We have had hundreds of people write us and offer their support to bring Lendink.com back but in order to do this, we must transfer to a web host capable of handling the increase demands the recent exposure has brought. We also want to have the site worked on in order to better explain the book lending process and ensure that authors and readers alike understand how the site works.

We would also like to have some additional features built into the site such as "Meet the Author" and "Book of the Week".

Unfortunately, we also anticipate further issues from some of the misguided authors that still do not fully understand how the site operates. To this end, we also need to setup a legal fund to hire legal representation.

The success of Lendink is dependent on your donations. If you like Lendink and would like to see the site back online, please consider helping us.

Breakdown of funds needed:

Legal Retainer: $3,000
Hosting (12 months): $1,000
Website Redesign: $6,000
 I sincerely believe this is the right thing to do.

2 comments:

Moissanite Jewel said...

I donated what I could. I wish more would donate. I am going to be making a post on my own site in a couple of days, where I will be giving away my ebooks free with a custom message inside of each one if my website visitors send proof they donated.

I don't have many fans, but every bit counts!:)

J. R. Tomlin said...

My donation was small as well, but as you say, every bit helps. It's great that you did what you could.
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