Comments for Carla Acheson

Comment on Is Authonomy just a Con-omy? by Nikki Ty Tomkins

Nikki Ty Tomkins — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:33:24 +0000

I joined Authonomy about three years ago. I was lured by the attractive site and the promise that perhaps my book would be seen by an editor at HC. But I learned VERY quickly that it was a pipe dream. A few opening sentences of the “chosen” books was enough to scare me away. And the deluge of requests to “read” and approve other people’s books made it evident that this is a popularity contest almost totally irrelevant to fine writing.

Just take a look at the top rated books. A paragraph is often enough to show what’s going on. I’m going to self-publish through a POD company. Meanwhile it’s nice to see an attractive layout on Authonomy and get a feeling of what my book will look like in print. That’s the single most worthwhile feature of Authonomy. And it’s a good one!

Comment on Is Authonomy just a Con-omy? by angelina norton

angelina norton — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 14:48:28 +0000

Sorry, few typos: I meant “your eyes after a while”.

Comment on Is Authonomy just a Con-omy? by angelina norton

angelina norton — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 14:47:46 +0000

I have only been on this website for a short time and find it a bit tedious. I don’t wish to read other people’s work, maybe I sound selfish. I read books, because I choose to and I find it ever so difficult to read stuff online as it hurts your eyes after a whilte.
I have found my inbox full of spam and no real genuine people as yet, maybe I’m not giving it a chance. Of course, I probably work long hours and feel too tired to bother, but maybe I should give it another go, not sure. But this spam thing is enough to put anyone off, why is it even entertained???

Comment on The Authonomy Experience by david

david — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 21:38:18 +0000

Hi Carla, this is a very useful article and I understand about all these websites that play on peoples wishes…

i heard someone say a good book will eventually find a good author….of course if you cant wait then you are half way there with a good blog and your own readership….i heard selling your own ebooks was more profitable than the normal publisher route…if you have the readers..good luck

Comment on Is Authonomy just a Con-omy? by Carla

Carla — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 09:24:18 +0000

Hi Richard, youwriteon.com has been recommended from previous comments. Also a good source of feedback are general writers forums. I once frequently visited http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/ which is an active forum for authors and writers. They have a writing lab where you can post excerpts of your work for critique. I also found http://www.writingforums.org/ another extremely active site, which was friendly and useful for general questions too. Best of luck with your writing, let us know how you get on!
Carla

Comment on Is Authonomy just a Con-omy? by Carla

Carla — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 09:20:08 +0000

Paul, thank you for your comment and sorry for my late reply. I have thought about youwriteon.com and have added it to my list of sites to check out. I do however have to say that Authonomy has positively changed very recently. It seems that Harper Collins have altered the ranking/commenting system to encourage fairer play. Mainly, a book must stay on a person’s virtual bookshelf for at least 48 hours before it benefits from the ranking system. Even though some might find this irritating, it does prevent the players from messing about quite as much. Anyway, thank you for your excellent feedback!
Carla

Comment on Is Authonomy just a Con-omy? by Richard

Richard — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:48:16 +0000

Thank you. This is really useful for helping me decide about authonomy. Are there any other sites you would recommend for budding authors looking for useful feedback?

Comment on Is Authonomy just a Con-omy? by Paul Samael

Paul Samael — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:00:33 +0000

Carla – thanks for this very helpful post, as I have been thinking about giving authonomy a go (along with half the rest of the world’s unpublished English language writers, it seems). Forewarned is forearmed….

I have been using another peer review site youwriteon.com, which seems to me to avoid some of the problems you highlight with authonomy – for example, it randomly assigns you material to review, which avoids the “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” problem (you can decline to review material if it sounds awful – although I think there may be a limit on how often you can do this). Once you’ve been assigned material to read, you also can’t see what other people have said about it, so you’re effectively forced to give your own view.

It is not without problems of its own. For example, not all reviewers will do as the site urges and put their prejudices/tastes aside when they review your work – see http://paulsamael.com/blog/my-secret-life-as-an-undercover-agent Another problem is the 7000 word limit – it’s a good thing in terms of preventing you having to read novel length pieces in your reviews, but it means that the site is full of beginnings of novels (so authonomy looks to be a better bet if you want some feedback on the whole thing).

But I think it is worth looking at as a possible alternative source of feedback – and they run their own equivalent of the Ed’s Desk (although like you, I am not pinning my hopes on getting there – it would require some very assiduous reviewing on my part to amass enough points….). Anyway, good luck with your efforts to get your novel to see the light of day !

Comment on The Rock Writers Group by Carla

Carla — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:33:20 +0000

Hi Conor, nice hearing from you again. Yep, we are still attending on Tuesday’s at 8.00 at the Elliot!
Regards
Carla

Comment on The Rock Writers Group by Conor McGahon

Conor McGahon — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:46:32 +0000

Hi Carla
I have freed up some time to hopefully complete a long overdue edit on my own work. Are the workshops at the same time and location as before ie. The Elliott Hotel every Tues at 8.00pm?
Cheers
Conor