If you’re an author looking to get published by a major publishing house, you may want to consider posting your book on Harper Collins’ Authonomy website. Here’s the scoop….
Harper Collins describes the website as follows:
authonomyTM is a brand new community site for writers, readers and publishers, conceived and developed by book editors at HarperCollins. We want to flush out the brightest, freshest new literature around – we’re glad you stopped by.
If you’re a writer, authonomy is the place to show your face – and show off your work on the web. Whether you’re unpublished, self-published or just getting started, all you need is a few chapters to start building your profile online, and start connecting with the authonomy community.
So basically, here’s how it works. Each month, a variety of authors hoping to get their book published by Harper Collins each create an author profile and upload a segment of their manuscript to the Authonomy website. Participants can then read books by other writers on the site, and rank/rate them. They are also encouraged to provide feedback.
At the end of each month, Harper Collins editors sit down and decide, based on some secret algorithm of the rankings, which five books will be reviewed. Within a month, the editors will then deliver critiques of those manuscripts to their respective authors. In an ideal world, those critiques would be simple suggestions about changes an author can make in order for Harper Collins to consider publishing their book.
Now, there is a lot of controversy about Authonomy, which has only been live for about six months. Not everyone believes it’s really a way to get published. In fact, according to Wikipedia, “Critics of authonomy have labelled it as a ‘do-it-yourself slush pile’ and argue that the recommendation mechanisms for a book making it to the top of this pile for editorial appraisal are problematic.” Read one author’s less-than-ideal story about her experience on Authonomy.
But no matter what you might think about Authonomy, it’s really a great idea. It’s the Web 2.0 meets publishing. It’s American Idol for authors. It’s just another way that authors are taking control of today’s book publishing market.
Did you post your manuscript on Authonomy? If so, share your experience with us!