Heads up, Kindle authors. A new Kindle forum has arrived on the scene with its doors wide open to welcome new members. Kindle Chat is the brainchild of author and Book Chatter host Stacey Cochran, and you’re probably wondering about the need for another Kindle forum when sites like kindleboards are so popular. I wondered the same thing, so I contacted Stacey with some questions about why he decided to start the site:

“I started the kindlechat.org site largely because I used to enjoy kindleboards.com but that site has become an unwelcome place, with moderators who frequently resort to bullying members and treating patrons like they’re scum and are not welcome there. Every time I posted on their site I would get some interference from a moderator, told that I was doing something wrong, made to feel unwelcome, etc. I noticed the same kind of bullying behavior on the main Kindle Discussion forum on Amazon.com, too. Basically, I wanted a place to hang out online with other eBook authors, and everywhere I turned I was seeing authors being bullied or harassed for being themselves, and I said to myself, ‘This is wrong. Someone needs to create a place where authors are welcome and nurtured.'”

As for what will set it apart from the rest, he had this to say:

Kindlechat.org is different for these very reasons. I will not tolerate abusive, bullying behavior on the site… let alone facilitate it, as is the case at KindleBoards.com. Our moderators are all professionally published authors or literary agents, and the site is designed to be author friendly. It is such a simple thing to just let people be themselves, but it’s amazing how many online chat sites have a difficult time doing so.

I signed up for the site upon hearing about it several weeks ago, and while I haven’t been entirely active (I’m what you might consider a “lurker”), I can vouch for Stacey’s last point. All the conversations I’ve seen on the site have been incredibly friendly. Conversations I’ve seen on other Kindle forums are generally messy and confrontational.

So, if you’d like to head for less turbulent waters and converse with fellow writers about your craft, publishing, and whatever else strikes your fancy, head over to Kindle Chat and sign up.

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