Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

Oooh, I like sci-fi. I don't have tons of time (and I despise reading books on the computer) however, authonomy is fun, and I put your book on my watchlist to read.

Here's mine... if you're interested: http://authonomy.com/books/51296/king...

Never heard of authonomy, but it looks interesting. If I start an account I will hit you both up.

Jenelle wrote: "Oooh, I like sci-fi. I don't have tons of time (and I despise reading books on the computer) however, authonomy is fun, and I put your book on my watchlist to read.

Here's mine... if you're intere..."
Right back at ya! ;)

Quick update:
After having been on authonomy for a few days, it is definitely nothing like goodreads. There seems to be so much negativity and drama there. The website seems to pit authors against each other for a chance to land their manuscript on the editor desk (it's actually an intern), which leads to so much in-fighting in the forums and the comments. Each friend request is followed up by a quid-pro-quo request to read your writing only if you read their book first (and some of them outright tell you that they don't want to read your book, even though they still request it of you). I've never seen people trash each other so much on a forum before outside of youtube. I should have read this first:
http://www.electricalphabet.net/2009/...

Hi Jeff,

I completely agree with you. Publishing a book is a tough business so us authors should support one another to make our dreams become a reality. I will always do my best to support other authors- we would also want the same.

I'll be more than happy to friend and back your back. Wishing you all the best. Don't stop believing!

Antonello

I signed up, figuring "eh, what can it hurt," and while SOME good came of it - a couple of folks caught some typo monsters that snuck up behind me and escaped my attention - from poking around and reading other's comments and the messages I get it really seems rather... depressing.

I honestly had very few expectations of it actually leading to a "real" publisher - Harper Collins is not the most reputable of organizations, in my opinion - but the level of insane backbiting going on there is so above and beyond what I could have ever contemplated, it's ridiculous. It's like someone said "You know what's missing? MySpace. Circa 2005. Let's bring THAT back... but turn it into a reality show and use authors as the contestants!"

Add in the number of individuals who seem to be using it as merely a preview and link stop to "go buy the full book!" I'm not against putting something that's already published up - Mine is, I'm sure others are as well - but I'd expect that to be because you're actually looking for an honest assessment, you're willing to upload the whole thing, and you were hoping it might take it somewhere. To use it as a slightly larger and more advertising-laden version of Amazon's "Look inside!" seems underhanded.

Add in the shrieking people do when someone points out a flaw, typo, unclear section or just disinterest or dissatisfaction - with or without assigning the book a rating - and the political scheming going on to end up in that top five, and it's just... ugly.

Anyway; I'll probably leave my account up for a while, since there do seem to be some sane folks there, and as noted, there have been a couple typos and good suggestions made, but really not digging the site as a whole.

Kaine wrote: "Harper Collins is not the most reputable of organizations, in my opinion - but the level of insane backbiting going on there is so above and beyond what I could have ever contemplated, it's ridiculous. It's like someone said "You know what's missing? MySpace. Circa 2005. Let's bring THAT back... but turn it into a reality show and use authors as the contestants!"
^^^ This. I've only been on there a few days and that has been my experience as well. Put aside the spam and condescension, the feel of the website is slow and clunky. Also, you made me LOL. Points to you sir, for that one.