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.
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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 Authonomy is a website that allows unpublished or self-published authors to post their work online.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.
