WEbook collaborative publishing

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Authonomy, a sort of social writing and publishing site. WEbook is a similar enterprise although at first glance, there are at least two key differences.

WEbook has a strong emphasis on collaborative writing, rather than just individual writers submitting works to be voted up or down (as with Authonomy), although you can choose to write solo.

It is also a publishing company. While Authonomy is run by HarperCollins, they do not necessarily publish any of the works submitted, and there is nothing to stop the works being submitted to another publisher. WEbook will actually publish the “best books” and “you and your collaborators share in royalties on book sales”. Any work submitted however, does remain yours and you are free to decline a publishing offer if your story wins the vote.

I’d be interested to see how the collaborative side of things works out and good on them for trying it, but I really don’t know if I can be bothered reading their first published collaborative work, Pandora.

If nothing else, I’m slightly put off by a company that markets itself as “a revolutionary online book publishing company, which does for the industry what American Idol did for music”. Maybe that inspires some people. But sorry, it doesn’t do much for me.