Site feels quiet. Could it be freshers' week somewhere else?

I STILL think this site has the best set-up for developing writers.

Flash

I had a quick look at the Authonomy site and recognised quite a few names and titles from YWO.
I presume books rise and fall on the Authonomy chart according to how many reviews they get. I'm unsure how books are assigned or get noticed by reviewers. Are points awarded? It seems unstructured and dependent on "networking" or perhaps I've not understood the site properly.
Back to YWO. Ted mentioned on the August Top Ten that "Scoring levels this month were very high, with stories in the Top 20 which would have made the Top Ten in the site's earlier days." I'm sure one of the Top Ten writers mentioned on a thread that she was towards the middle of the chart with an average of 4.6.
Does that mean that to get into the YWO Top Ten a writer needs to get all 4s and 5s with about a 50:50 mix?

Hmmm ... I think some are uploading complete novels. The implications for 'first publishing rights' as demanded by most publishers - and therefore agents - seems questionable to me.

Flash

I agree with you, Richie. It isn't a site to receive feedback, but it's good for my ego to see Vlad riding high. The ABC Checklist for New Writers

Visit my website: Lorraine Mace

Hi,

The Bestseller stories are archived with the ratings they had when transferred from the main site chart.

As new stories are added each month to the Bestseller genre charts they fit in around the ones already there. But due to the higher scores now required for the Top 10, they tend to be more highly placed than earlier Bestsellers. 2008 Bestseller stories will dominate over 2007 stories, with the lower ranked Bestseller stories tending to come from 2006.

Cheers, Flash

I think it's good to have different writer sites as this means more choice for writers. If there are different sites this means we will all want writers onboard which means working harder at trying to offer writers different things and choice, which sometimes doesn't happen if there is no 'competition'. Authonomy's digitial head joined youwriteon as a member early in 2007 and we discussed peer review sites and YouWriteOn, so it's been interesting to see their progress.

Different systems will have different pros and cons. For example, we've had feedback that Authonomy doesn't really have 'negative' feedback as you go to another members 'bookshelf' and just pick the stories you like to put on your bookshelf and that leads to books being rated depending on if it has been put on a lot of other members bookshelves (if I've got it right). We heard from various feedback that this led to some book complaints about books being rated by friends or self rated into their Top Ten and Authonomy took action and removed reviews and the forum topics related to this. This is why we personally have the random assignment mechanism and also separate reader from writer reviews, so that any minority of members or their friends can't self rate. Their site is still in beta though, it is a learning curve so I'm sure they will adapt like we did to solve these problems. The danger as mentioned is that the present format is about how well you network rather than the writing, and that peer groups will develop. Personally I think it will be good for there to be different sites raising their game to offer writers different opportunities and choice, as long as the systems work well.

There is a high preponderance of YouWriteOn members in their Top Ten, writers that are rightly highly rated here. My concern, which Richie mentions is that an ethos of quid pro quo doesn't grow on Authonomy, ie you put your book on my shelf and I'll do the same, which devalues stories including the good ones in the chart. In contrast, YouWriteOn can be a hard path, with diverse feedback from random readers. We'd say however from experience that the real book selling and book reader world is much harder, and that for all the issues about diverse feedback that it is how a variety of people feel about your writing that is important rather than network exchange. This inevitably will be popular too though, as networking sites are. It's hard for any system to keep a good story down, but as we say, for all the mention here about diverse and at times tough feedback, you will find what random readers think about your work.

I've got 4.3 at the moment and my story has been bobbing up and down between #10 and #12 since the start of the month. So it looks like you need to have at least 4.4 to be guaranteed a top ten place.

Tom

Well, as a result of my networking skills at Authonomy my book now has less backers than yesterday!

Must learn to stop these fingers typing rubbish all over message boards.