Fantastic Fiction - Website of the month July 2012

Fantastic Fiction is a UK based website containing information on over 30,000 authors and over 350,000 books.

Why is Fantastic Fiction the website of the month?

We have selected Fantastic Fiction to be our website of the month because it is an excellent and accessible resource of reference for all people with an interest in reading.

You can search authors alphabetically, browse books by their genre/category, and you can also search for a book or an author by typing in a name or a keyword.

You are also able to search various different awards and books that have been nominated/won prizes. As well as this the website provides a list of 'most awarded novels', which may help to expand your reading list somewhat!

The website can be a useful resource help to place works by the same author into the order of which they are released.

The website also gives you the option to purchase books in a range of formats including: Hardback, Paperback, Audio books as well as books for the Kindle.

Dave Wands from Fantastic Fiction says:

We're a small company, with a handful of employees, based in rural Lancashire, and Fantastic Fiction was borne out of our love of books. We've always strived to catalogue as many authors and their bibliographies as possible, and provide a one-stop reference point for our visitors. We're delighted that the RNIB has decided to feature us as their web site of the month.

User Comment

Steve Bingham talks to us about his experiences of accessing Fantastic Fiction:

The site is a very good resource for anyone interested in books and authors. It contains details of over 30,000 authors and all their books. I use it quite regularly for finding out who wrote what and for getting books in series into the right order.

I suppose that primarily it is a site for selling books and that appears to be where the finances come from but for the information alone it is worth getting to know your way around it.

There are a lot of links at the top of the page including an alphabet to help with browsing authors by name. However once you know about this it is easy to ignore and get to the author and book searches. The information about each author is well laid out and easy to follow.

I have not explored the whole site but so far I have had no problems with it using JAWS. The only down side to the site is that it becomes very frustrating because it often highlights just how little material is available in accessible formats when compared to the number of published books.

Tips and Tricks

Try these to help you access Fantastic Fiction:

• The website has a 'preferences' page which allows you to change the size of the text from as little as 80% to a maximum of 200%.
• This page also contains an option to display search results for visitors from other countries including: Canada, Germany, USA, Australia and France.
• You can also "like" Fantastic Fiction on Facebook.
• View the About Fantastic Fiction page.

Got a suggestion?

We want to hear from you, our users. Which apps and websites should we be writing about on the TechKnowMore blog? Is there an app you can no longer live without? What website is at the top of your favourites list? Drop us an email on DigitalAccess@rnib.org.uk to let us know, and your favourite service could be featured in the very near future!