Interview with Jim & Karen Baney
Founders of Christian eBooks Today.com
Welcome, Jim & Karen. Can you tell us what Christian eBooks Today.com is all about?
Jim: Christian eBooks Today.com is an eBook Discovery website that is for fans of Christian fiction and nonfiction. It is a safe place to browse and learn more about great Christian eBooks without worrying about coming across any racy or explicit content.
Why did you start Christian eBooks Today.com?
Karen: In August, Jim joined the ranks of the unemployed, so I asked him what he thought about helping me launch a site for Christian readers. It took some convincing, but he finally agreed to do it.
Jim: Hey! It didn’t really take much convincing. I like the idea of being self-employed.
Karen: Anyway, I’ve been an avid reader of Christian fiction since I was a young girl. But, over the past few years as I started publishing books, I noticed that it was getting harder and harder to browse for Christian eBooks online without coming across some pretty embarrassing and racy covers. I just wanted to find a good clean Christian romance book and find new authors, so the idea for Christian eBooks Today was born.
On your Vision and Mission page on the website, you mention edgy Christian fiction. Can you tell us more about this?
Karen: Sure. Over the past few years or even a decade, the Christian fiction market has been changing. Authors are writing more true-to-life characters that get thrown into some pretty tough circumstances, such as rape, abuse, abandonment, etc. In fact, some of my novels fall into that category.
Some readers don’t like the trend, while others prefer it. We wanted to mention that we accept those types of books on our site so readers are not surprised if they come across such books.
So, your site includes Christian nonfiction too?
Jim: Yes. We include a variety of nonfiction genres, too. Bible studies, devotionals, self-help, Christian living and much more. We’ve heard from several nonfiction Christian authors that many sites exclude their books. We really want Christian eBooks Today to be a place where readers can find any type of Christian eBooks.
Who runs the site, I mean really?
[Karen glances at Jim and giggles.]
Jim: We joke around. I’m the chief operations officer and Karen is the CEO. She has the vision and then I do all the hard work to make it happen.
Karen: [elbows Jim] I do some of the hard work, like marketing and writing content.
Jim: Okay, okay. I’ll give you that.
Is there anything else you would like to share with my readers?
Karen: Yes. We have a feature on our website under the “For Readers” menu called “Reader’s Choice”. This is where readers can fill out a form telling us about great Christian eBooks that they’ve read. Each week, we will select one submission to appear on our website. Then, once a month we will randomly choose a winner from all of the submissions (even if they don’t get featured). The winner receives a $25 gift card from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Readers can submit as many eBooks as they want.
Wow, that sounds great! So, where can we see this new website?
Jim: Visit ChristianEBooksToday.com. You can also follow us on Twitter (@cebtoday), Facebook, or Google+. Check our site daily for our list of free fiction and free nonfiction ebooks.
Karen: Remember to sign up for our newsletter too. Just click on the envelope icon in the upper right corner of our site. Each week we email readers a summary of our key weekly features including: guest blog posts, great reads, author of the week, and the reader’s choice selection for the week.
Thank you so much for hosting us!
Website: http://www.christianebookstoday.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/cebtoday
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ChristianEBooksToday
Google+: https://plus.google.com/111493938878400897607/posts
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2 comments
Rita Kroon
February 12, 2013 at 6:55 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
I enjoy Christian EBooks and am glad to have discovered your site! I not only read EBooks, I have written some. “Letters from the Past” is historical fiction and is a collection of personal letters from women of the O.T. who share their experiences with uncanny relevance to today’s woman. I also wrote a Bible study “Womanhood: Becoming a Woman of Virtue” which is also EBook. Be encouraged! Rita Kroon
Retha Groenewald
February 12, 2013 at 9:05 pm (UTC 2) Link to this comment
Hi Rita, thanks for stopping by. Your book Letters from the Past sounds interesting. I am currently posting a series on this blog about the women of the Bible.