After months of hard work on the authonomy community site - not to mention a flurry of publicity when we announced the idea in October - it's great to finally have a space to talk in a little more detail about what we've been up to.
Authonomy will be launching in phases throughout the first half of 2008, but in the meantime we've set up a temporary home here to keep you filled in on how things are going.
Here we'll be posting updates on the project, and discussing some of the issues and motivations that lie behind our initiative. But we also hope we can drum up some wider debate on these pages, so we'll be featuring selected articles from editors and from authors too, offering advice and opinion on writing, reading and the world of books at large.
Thanks for stopping by - we're grateful for your interest, and we'd love to hear your views. Please take a look around, and check back soon for more!
15 comments:
Hi,
Ive signed up and Im hoping that you can tackle a prickly issue that will probably have a number of others asking the same question.
If work is submitted, how do we, as the author of the piece, stand on a legal point if someone were to copy it and publish the piece in a book as thier own body of work?
Whilst I do realise that this is a tricky question I think its something that many other writers worry about.
Hello Drosdelnoch,
I wouldn't worry too much; as soon as your work appears in writing (or as a saved file on a computer), it is subject to UK copyright (although the rules are different for the US). To give yourself double protection, the 'Writers' and Artists' Year Book' recommends posting your work to yourself and leaving it in a sealed envelope (so proving the date). The thing to watch is having ideas pinched; you can't copyright ideas, you can only protect the way in which they are expressed.
Hope that helps a bit,
Carlie
PS. So, so excited about the new site...
Hello Drosdelnoch
This thought crossed my mind when I sent off a few chapters of my manuscript to agents. Nine rejections and several years later, I realise I was wading in my own vanity. No-one would want to copy it because, in a word it was: 'crap.' If your writing is good enough, then the agent or publisher will want more - and they'll want it from you. Everything is a leap of faith. Are your legs long enough?
An aspect that many other authors would be worried about is sending in the whole manuscript - for free read? Would a professional reader really spend that time? Wouldn't that devaluate it in other publishers' judgement? I think the synopsis and sample chapters, or with surprise me pages, as in Amazon, would do. That had always been what agents and publishers needed to see. If the work is voted for, the author can now send in the full for a complete critic.
I look forward to seeing how things develop on here.
I've added a link to my blog so I'm looking forward to seeing more on here to keep both my readers and me interested in what you have to tell us.
Good luck and Merry Christmas to you all.
Hi Authonomy! Really excited about this site and seeing it develop. After several rejections I actually thought about producing a similar site but I don't think I will be able to compete with the might of HC!
Good luck to you all
Lee
A quick word in response to Elvis's post. Editors are extremely unlikely to pursue a fiction manuscript on the basis of a synopsis and a couple of sample chapters alone. Many, many manuscripts are very good for several chapters, only to disappoint in the final half, or third, or quarter. Professional readers do take the time to read a full manuscript if it shows any potential, believe me - we all genuinely want to find something brilliant, and take much more pleasure in the discovery of something wonderful than in turning something down.
Non-fiction books, however, are generally bought on proposal - that is, an outline and a couple of sample chapters. This is because most non-fiction books require a degree of research and non-fiction authors therefore expect to sell a book on proposal and live off their advances while they research and write the books they've already sold.
All of which is to say, if you are submitting novels please don't send in only a couple of chapters - this won't be enough to convince anyone. And we do, honestly, want to be convinced.
Is everyone dead?
I think we're all waiting for lift off. When's it gonna happen?
Dee
If I was the 'owner' of authonomy.com, I would publish a few more articles on this blog. Just to keep the interest going...
'ello 'ello 'ello whats goin' on 'ere then?
Like many others, i'm waiting for blast off - i hope children's authors are going to be catered for here. Hopefully this will aleviate the catch 22 situation i always seem to find when submitting a work:
Publisher: we only accept work via an agent
Agent: we only take on people who have been previously published, unless you're famous.
I do seem that things are sorta flapping in the breeze here.
Hellooooooooooooo! Anybody from H/C there who can tell us the status of this Grand Experiment?
In the meantime, how about a nice musical interlude?
"Always look on the bright side of life...(insert perky whistling here)"
Geez, I coulda sworn I typed "It" and not just "I".
It's a conspiracy.
Oliver Stone has been notified.
Gotta love them word verification doo-hickeys.
So many other endevours, sporting, artistic and musical already have many avenues for new talent to be discovered so it's about time that the publishing industry caught up. If this lives up to its promise then I can imagine other publishing houses quickly geting in on the act. So let's hope that one of the writers here is able to capture the attention and imagintion of the powers that be.
while we're waiting, let's all sing the Lumberjack song
"Oh aaahm a lumberjack and i'm ok, i sleep all night and i work all day"
now you...
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