HarperCollins has just set up something called Authonomy. Previously, HC more or less disregarded its slush pile. Authonomy is an effort to outsource the sorting of its slushpile to writers themselves. Basically, you can:
- upload your own manuscript
- comment on other people's manuscripts
- vote Pop-Idol style on the ones you rate the best
The top 5 MSS to emerge from this process each month will be reviewed seriously by the appropriate HC editor. There's no guarantee of being taken on. There's no prize, or guaranteed advance or royalty structure. I assume contracts would be individually negotiated book by book.
But again: whaddaya reckon? A bold, imaginative & enterprising move that helps publishers reach beyond the normal suspects (agents, celebrities, journos)? Or a retrograde, web 2.0 ish, YouTubeish corrosion of all those values that we hold dear?
At all events, what does strike me is that publishers are recognising that being entirely dependent on agents for sourcing their raw material is both expensive, and one that limits the kinds of authors that might come their way. These new ventures, whether or not they ultimately succeed or not, certainly indicate that publishers are itching to find new directions. That in itself has to be a Good Thing.
3 comments:
It's a good idea.
One of the things that would put me off would be copyright/theft of idea concerns.
Another would be that if the full MS is put online for anyone to see, would that not constitute first publication? I thought that had negative implications.
I had a look. I think it's probably a good idea for the industry which has to drag itself into the 21st Century.
But as an unpublished author, I don't think it's for me. I wasted a good hour or two looking at a few stories, getting worried by just how much is actually out there and wondering how on earth I'd find the time to read everyone else's book and make the encouraging comments necessary to get a few votes myself...while writing my own stuff, doing my day job and getting on with my life the while.
It's like WriteWords or any of these writers' communities...you have to invest a lot of time in it to get anything out.
Me too.
It is intimidating to see just how much there is out there. I guess it reinforces what 'they' say: that if you write for the potential rewards you may as well not bother.
I like to write - but I don't have to.
It goes in phases. Sometimes I will write three thousand words a day for a week, then nothing for a month. I think I get easily distracted.
And of course real life gets in the way of being windswept and interesting: The kids, the job, the dogs, the mortgage, the lawns. It's bit hard to say to the world: 'Would you all mind leaving me alone for a few months? I'd like to write a story.'
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