Authonomy.com - HarperCollins finds a clever way to handle their slush pile
One of the tough things about being a publisher, so they say, is dealing with the slush pile. Countless would-be (or wanna-be) authors are constantly submitting manuscripts hoping to get their big break. This means that publishers end up with countless manuscripts which they must read, browse, consider, and/or throw out.
HarperCollins have come up with a clever way to lessen this workload. It’s called Authonomy. Authonomy is a website that allows unpublished or self-published authors to post their work online. Joe Average then has the chance to read the manuscript and vote for their favourites. This puts HarperCollins in the position of having the slush pile sorted into books that might be worth their editor’s time to read, and books that probably aren’t. They have also done a bit of a survey of reader reaction to the book before it is published.
Clever.
It also seems however, that other publishers can also take advantage of this. There is no signing over of rights to HarperCollins when you post a manuscript and nothing to stop you also sending it off to various other publishers as you would normally do.
So if you’re a budding author hoping to get published or looking for some feedback on your work, or a reader looking for something new to read, it might be worth your while to pop over and have a look.
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[...] couple of weeks ago I wrote about Authonomy, a sort of social writing and publishing site. WEbook is a similar enterprise although at first [...]