Authonomy

[j_cheney]

I've been doing housecleaning tasks (writerly ones) and updated my stuff at BU, checked the Webboard at Baen's, formatted a couple of stories for Anthology Builder, and prepped a query.

And I spent some time looking over Authonomy. This is Harper Collin's equivalent of an open slush pile.

Has anyone tried this out? Any thoughts?

Comments

[satimaflavell.livejournal.com]

It's a numbers game. You get lots of people to read your work and comment on it, and the ones with the most positive comments get looked at by the HC editors. I signed up for the sole purpose of voting for a friend who did, in fact, eventually make it to the editors' desk. But there are literally thousands of members (and the standard is generally quite high) and the ones who make it are the ones who spend *a lot* of time networking - doing the rounds, commenting on others' work etc. You would have to make a project of it and take time out from other activities to do it justice.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Aha--that makes sense. Hadn't read the FAQ closely enough to notice that not all the things get read, but of course they couldn't all get read.

This mechanism seems flawed to me, in that there's a conflict of interest--presumably most people who sign up do so because they have a project they'd like the editors to review... so you're competing, aren't you, with all the other people who are reading and commenting. If your friend eventually made it to the editors' desk, it means that at least people do give positive comments and ratings, but, yeah, seems like a lot of effort. It's one thing if it's just to read and be read, but when you add in the element of a chance at editors' interest... somehow it skews everything.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

And that's why there are so many "The best evar!" reviews, I'll bet. They want you to go review theirs in turn....

Bad system.

[satimaflavell.livejournal.com]

Yeah - the odds are better than winning the lottery, but it's still luck and networking that count, given that the standard is very high and most of the books are on a par with each other in terms of quality. It's helping HC keep their slushpile down, I guess:-)

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're probably right about that...

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Doesn't sound like it's an avenue I want to pursue....