Interesting site for unpublished fiction authors...

[LordLucan]

http://iwritereadrate.com/

The above site is for unpublisher writers. It is due to be up and running this month, but it needs member so it can work properly . It is interesting because it essentially has member sof the site selling their stories as ebooks to other readers on the site, who also rate and review works on there.

It is free to upload stuff onto the site. Then basically, one sells stories (original works obviously, not fanfic, lest copyright law destroy you! ) on the site itself, and can also get direct feedback from the community. You'd get something like 64% of the profit of their story (you'd also choose how much you charge for your story). On the site, you have your story synopses, and samples for each piece. If people are hooked by the sample, they can dowload the story in PDF/mobi format or soemthing, and get the full book/short story.

I thought this'd be sometihng right up some forumites alley on here, as we essentially do a similar thing on here. Only in this case, potentially you'd get some money for your stuff too.

Have a look at the site either way, as I think it had some promise.

[Stuart000X]

This sounds like an excellent idea. I will look into this with greater depth of interest and reseach when the oppitunity arises. Thanks

[Mossy Toes]

...I may check this out.

[Eremite]

This looks very interesting indeed. Cheers, LL!

[Stuart000X]

I've registered.

[Jelboy]

There is something of an estory revolution occurring now, with some people (eg J A KONRATH) earning big bucks sidestepping agents and publishers and just self-publishing their novels. This revolution (evolution, whatever) works because people have cottoned onto the idea of marketing their products far below what traditional publishing houses feel comfortable with (say $2.99 for a full length novel instead of $8.99).

Undercutting the market was never practical in the old days of paper... but with Amazon giving something like 75% of all profits to the authors, such authors are now the mammals that eat the eggs of the Saurian old style publishers. Self published enovels sales is a booming and the traditional industry is a little worried.

However, for the average unpublished authorial punter even though they can go straight to amazon with their novel at $2.99 and still get greater royalties per a sale than through the traditional route (and the pittance offered by the publisher from the $8.99 sale), there is the small issue of marketing. Basically, people just wont know you're there, your novel is liable to get swallowed with all the other self-published works beneath the radar of the great reading public.

That's why, in this Devonian publishing epoch when new ways and methods are developing, LL's website link is interesting. (Ps sorry for all the mixed metaphors )

[Stuart000X]

Self published enovels sales is a booming and the traditional industry is a little worried.

Regardless of the times we live in, the "traditional industy" is as much a closed off and highly reserved place as it ever has been. Getting your foot through the door is difficult, getting the attention of publishers and agents is difficult, and quite cutting if your not up to the mark, providing they even send any feedback at all.

It has little to fear in the way of losing sales from its bookstores, i don't think everyone is going to be jumping onto the ebook bandwagon; me including, but it does little in the way of making it less difficult for would-be writers to get their work into the public domain.

Here lies a solution, a means for would-be writers to publish and sell their works. I find the idea quite inticing.

[Phalanx]

I have signed up. Happy to read and write on this. Looks like a really original, unique idea.

[Jelboy]

It has little to fear in the way of losing sales from its bookstores,

Borders has closed its doors for the last time, and apparently authorial advances throughout the industry are dropping. (Still, BL continues to do well, which is good).

[schaferwhat‽]

the benefit of the "traditional" industry is the advance, also the marketting that the publisher puts in. It may not be the most accessible but I still think the publishing industry is useful to have knocking around.

[Bloodsage]

the benefit of the "traditional" industry is the advance, also the marketting that the publisher puts in. It may not be the most accessible but I still think the publishing industry is useful to have knocking around.

IMNSHO, the real benefit of the publishing industry is quality control. While I see the attraction of e-publishing for aspiring writers, speaking as a reader I have to say the trend--and Amazon's support of it--is the greatest evil in the history of the universe. Used to be, when buying a book, I simply had to worry whether I'd like it. I could count on a certain high standard in terms of facility with the language. Now it's even money whether the writer can tell a subject from an object, a comma from a dishrag.

[schaferwhat‽]

That is a very good point, although I would say there is still allot of very bad stuff being published there is that quality for the fiction buyer for sure (although how much quality are people expecting for 99c novels?). I was thinking mostly with regards aspiring authors especially in light of some of the scammier ends of publishing where you're expected to pay for the first printing or get an amount of sales from the website before the book gets distributed to stores (apparently) which are ways to squander the first publication rights for no real gain the e-book revoloution/evoloution is a good thing although it does leave sales and marketting and managing to gleam any sort of monetary reward for the work put in solely on the shoulders of the author.

[Jelboy]

Yes - good points.

At the moment you are throwing a dice when purchasing enovels from unknown authors/publishing houses (although taking something from Amazon's top 100 for the month helps with judging quality). In time I imagine the market will need to adapt. Respected weblists of reputable new enovels, crowd-voted enovels etc. We're in the Devonian period of epublishing - lots of different e-creatures out there that should be weeded out by the monetary forces of commercial evolution - and LL's website looks like a promising new e-phylum.

As for epublishing scams, those exist too, mostly for those not conducting research into possibilities. However, If you have a buddy for editing and enough graphic skills to create a decent cover - you can publish direct to Amazon without the need for outside help - but you still have to market the thing, and again LL's link is interesting: it brings readers and writers together (or - worst case - it brings a lot of writers together, who crit works from a writer's POV (rather than a reader's [example: readers love J K Rowling, whereas other writers might have critted her to death, and writers love 'life of Pi' whilst readers.... hmmm...]) and who prefer to submit works than purchase them).

[Athelassan]

I do think there's a danger in cutting publishers out of the loop, because it removes the necessity of someone else having a look at the work and forcing you to make edits before it's published. Take a look at the fanfic forum- there's no story on there that couldn't be improved by a good edit. Not to say that everything publishers contribute is always worthwhile, but I think it's still an important stage in the "publishing" process.

I don't think the true danger in universal self-publishing is the vast deluge of turgid, illiterate crap that will doubtless ensue, either. Bad books are with us right now, and have been pretty much forever. The real tragedy is the books that could have been great if they'd been properly edited, but are in fact merely quite good.

Ath

[LordLucan]

Note: I'm not advocating cutting the publishers out, but rather this site is about giving aspiring authors a break and easing them into the publishing market. The site is intended to function as a site which rates and reviews their own writers' stories, and the collective feedback would hopefully improve the skills of the writers. How often do you get a publisher telling you where you may have gone wrong? Yes they edit and polish accepted stories, but the rejects get notihng, and may end up simply making the same mistakes again. The site also is about synopsis-making and organising samples, which is another skill which is essential for new writers.

[Bloodsage]

I agree the intent is noble, but it ends up being a bit of a self-licking ice cream cone. How many people are actually willing--or, let's face it--even able, to provide good-quality critique, not only of grammar, but style?

[shadowhawk2008]

I would think that is indeed the point. The critiques don't have to be ace-level. A few authors give their views on how they would have written a piece of the sample. Some vehemently critique. So on and on. Very soon, the good critics and the bad critics and the community as a whole, with a few outliers obviously, learns how to do it better.

[LordLucan]

The key thing is the amount of contibutors. As long as there are lots of stories and lots of reviwers, the site should work really well imo, which is why I thought I'd spread the links here (since us lot do this sort of thing anyway on these boards).

[Bloodsage]

Sorry if I seem overly negative--comes from being a very busy person and only having time to write a sentence or two at a go. Hard to capture the nuances & "yeah, buts."

I've no issues with crit sites, though, as you point out, they're only as good as the quality of the crit.

My main philosophical issue is the self-publishing craze, which has littered the literary landscape with poorly executed wannabes and seriously dragged down the e-book scene. I learned the hard way on Amazon (and now iBooks) not to consider anything that didn't come from a major publishing house. While this has been mitigated a bit by the ability to download a sample, one still has to wade through ridiculous numbers of self-published works to find the ones by professionals. I think we all need to get over the idea that it's the publishers keeping good writers down--I think you'd find, almost to a person, they're all desperately searching for real talent to publish.

Which brings us obliquely back to the discussion about what makes useful crit for those serious about improving their skills.

[Squiggle]

Trouble is, I barely have time to read the books I want to read and even less time to write the book I want to write.

If I ever actually finished it, then I'm going to try and get it properly published. There is no way I've the time, money or inclination for this type of dabbling!