Thanks for the links- it’s rather depressing how outdated a lot of the entires seem to be (Some of them don’t seem to have been updated in over a decade!)
Still, it’s given me some leads to follow up. Hopefully it will lead somewhere!
An update. Authonomy has become a place without responsible moderation. Anyone who gets the abuse button is warned or scrubbed, no evaluation of the dispute. Favored members seem immune to the hook, and they are a very vile lot, to the point where one has to believe that some of them are actually blackmailing the moderators.
Members use multiple accounts for backing the same book many times to try to get it a review from Harper Collins. Only certain kinds of books get there, and many of them are very poorly written.
The forum is filled with abusive and profane members who delight in finding someone who has expressed an unpopular opinion, then hounding them into hiding. There is a member called Tina Tyson who has long popular threads that consist of exchanging suggestive phrases and sycophantic praise for Tyson. She and her friends in early 2010 decided it would be fun if they could say they have stalkers. A man came along who objected to the sex talk and said it was a writer’s site. She called him a stalker and her whole crew spent the next year trying to get him banned, then arrested, then shot (seriously, they called for someone to kill him), but Authonomy refused to do anything at all about it.
In other words, if you go to Authonomy, stay out of the forums and only try to get comments and help with your writing by using the private messaging system. Be very sure you don’t reveal anything about yourself, even your sex or country, or you might become a target of abuse.
There have to be better places to post your work. I don’t even think it is safe to post it there. Many users complain about their work and ideas being stolen, and sold on Kindle.
A site that, with proper moderation, could be okay, but it really doesn’t serve much of a useful purpose. In three years, HC has never published a book that reached their ‘Editor’s Desk’.
At the time of this post, there was hope that Authonomy would turn out to be something worthwhile.
Authonomy is not set up to evaluate short stories and not many folks there take an interest in them. Some do. If you join, be sure to put up a thread and bump it for a week or two asking for people interested in sharing ideas about short story reviews and publishing.
since this post, authonomy is greatly improved. Most of the abusive members have been stood up to long enough that they crawled back into their holes. Autonomy has also published a few books now that made their way through their system validly. It still has no actual moderation, but…a brand new version of authonomy is just around the corner, one with moderators and many improved features.
recently, following disputes with a user there who calls himself ‘Baccus’, said user took it on himself to trawl the net looking for books for sale that had my real name on them. He found them and left negative reviews, containing just enough ‘opinion’ that the admin of those sites felt it best to leave them be. “I read a few pages of this book and threw it across the room” was one of the kinder remarks. I hope he didn’t damage his electronic reader when he threw it.
Baccus believes that I am cougar58 on this site, as well as crucible. We are different people who share at least one goal, to spotlight the problem of pit bulls and their ilk. he is trying to do harm to cougar58 because of his mistaken belief of a correspondence between the accounts.
Always, I have learned, always maintain privacy by never revealing your actual name or any other details about yourself on any site. If you write and publish, hesitate before putting a real name on the book, or in it. There are insane people out there who think themselves cyber forensic experts if they are able to find your home address, given already knowing the state in which you live and your name. When they begin encouraging people to use the information they dug out to ‘visit and confront’, you need to report them to authorities.
I was under the impression that users were discouraged from taking outside disputes onto these boards?
As Crucible knows full well, I would happily dispute all of this… and he also knows under precisely what terms I would do so.
However, I am constrained by the ‘Don’t be a jerk’ rule.
All I can do is report these posts given they seem to be infringing that very rule themselves, particularly given that Authonomy members have been named, one of them with her real name, and are not here to defend themselves against accusations I can assure people they would consider to be inaccurate to the point of outrageous.
Probably way too late for the OP, but
Australian Writers Marketplace online: http://www.awmonline.com.au
Speaking as someone who had a bunch of shorts on Authonomy, forget it from the point of view of publication itself. For some reason, major publishers and those in the trade have been talking this up as the age of the short story for some time, but when it comes to putting their money where their mouths are, they’re very backward coming forward. HarperCollins is no exception.
If you’re after crit, though, Authonomy is worth it. Most of those in there don’t tend to read more than a chapter of any one work, so a book of shorts can be particularly well received given that a chapter read is an entire work read - far more satisfying.
The feedback I had in there was worthwhile, but the desk probably isn’t worth aiming for. The effort you’d need to put in to get it that far wouldn’t be worth any reward at the end of it. What it’s best for is feedback from real-life readers in larger numbers than you may have had previously.
Take the site with a pinch of salt, though. There’s a bit too much back-patting in quest of support and, in the end, it’s a site for writers rather than readers, thus people far more interested in what they can get out of you for their work than what they can give you for yours.
That said, there are a lot of very decent bods in there who’ll give decent crit and solid, worthwhile responses.
Keep offboard disputes offboard, pls.
And pls. let sleeping dogs lie. I notice most of these posts date back months, if not years.
Keeping off-board disputes off-board was rather my point.
The person named in that post has been alerted, and the posts reproduced on the Authonomy site.
Where they belong.
If the Authonomy admin, the person named or anyone else wants to pop in and pass comment on what they think of these posts staying up, they’re welcome to do so.
As for me… well, it’s nice to know you give retarded monkeys like crucible a comfortable home but sorry, I’m not a retarded monkey. You can take this as a reason to moderate me off the board - save me the trouble of finding the retirement button.
That’s ugly shit up there.
To those who’ve provided some good conversation, particularly on the China thread, my sincere thanks. Nice knowing you guys, albeit somewhat too briefly.
Okay, fair enough, it’s right that Crucible should be able to voice his opinion on the Authonomy site in such terms.
However, it being his right to do so, and given the posts are staying up, I guess it’s okay to put the refutation?
The refutation of this particular point of view, held by one individual and one individual alone to the best of my knowledge, is discussed here on the Authonomy site itself.
The only person holding to those views is an ex-member who has been banned - literally - hundreds of times now, but is so obsessed he keeps returning to make new IDs to pester the site to the extreme annoyance of everyone on it.
Unlike Crucible, I shan’t take off-site wrangles onto Straight Dope. The discussion is there.
On Authonomy.
Where it belongs.
Enjoy.
No, it’s not okay – posting the link the squabble elsewhere is just another bringing an offboard disagreement here.
Warning issued for ignoring moderator instructions.
Dramatic zombie is dramatic.
I’m beginning to note an interesting pattern of instability in multiply-resurrected zombie threads. If I wasn’t lazy, I’d totally do a paper on the phenomenon.
Ah! A warning. Here it is.
**Failure to follow a moderator’s instructions
Posting a link to an argument posted elsewhere is the same as posting the argument here. When I told you not to bring off-board arguments here, I meant it.
Warning issued for failure to follow a moderator’s instructions.
Warnings serve as a reminder to you of the forum’s rules, which you are expected to understand and follow.
All the best,
Straight Dope Message Board**
I do understand them. crucible gets to post bile because the bile, which even names individuals, doesn’t focus on individual users of this site.
But if you post a refutation of that bile, then it targets a user on this site.
So… if I were to post on another site with the same rules “Twickster [using your real name] on Straight Dope is a ****” that would be fine. But if one of your friends in here were to go on that site and say “No he isn’t”, then they would get booted off for taking an off-board debate onto the site.
It’s an odd rule, but not exactly unfathomable.
Anyway, I’ve stopped posting here thanks to that… odd… rule, so moderate away.
Goodbye everybody. Please, don’t forget to write now and then. At least send me a birthday card. Kiss Mary-Sue for me and tell her I’ll miss her. Make sure spot has his favourite blanket in his spot by the fireside and tell Uncle Sigmund to see to the hen coop if he doesn’t want to lose Bessie to the foxes. It breaks my heart to leave you all but I must be off to seek my fortune.
I will never forget you all. Please, never forget me, and though I don’t ask you to save me a place by the fireside, I ask you all to save me a place in your hearts.
Goodbye, everyone.
Goodbye.
[removed link]
Okay, there’s nothing more embarrassing than making your farewell speech, shedding tears, putting on your backpack, and finding yourself still in the living room ten hours later.
Oh well.
Since I’m still here, and since the topic of this thread is where to sell short stories, here:
[link removed]
This is where I sell them anyway. My first published work of fiction, out today.
Three short stories putting the realism back into romance.
The Big Toe - in the beginning: an amusing confusion.
Ruby - in the eye of the beholder.
Where Sunlight Strikes a Window and Splinters - an after image.
And all for less than the price of a Mars bar.
Given that the thread is not about selling photographs and other imagery as fine art prints, I won’t mention this site:
[link removed]
That would be naughty.
[link removed]
Just as we’re not here to serve as an audience for your squabbles elsewhere, we’re not here to read your advertising, either. If you wish to promote your work, buy a membership, which will give you the right to post an ad in our Marketplace forum.
twickster, Cafe Society moderator
… and yet the repellent, vindictive, dishonest shit up there from crucible stays.
See, Twickster, I want out of here. The idea is you stop smacking my bottom, wagging your finger, telling me I’m a naughty boy and delete me.
I told you, I can’t find the resign button. You may as well do it now and get me the hell out of your hair.
NEW BOOK OUT!!!
[link deleted]
There, see? I did it again.
Get on with it man.
(Honestly, some people just can’t take a hint :smack:)
“Beat me, beat me,” said the masochist.
“No,” said the sadist.
If you don’t want to post here, don’t.
It’s really a shame that those of us who truly do want to publish our works, preferably for money, and would benefit from a thread that posts resources and provides support are left with a derailed zombie.
OH!
STORY IDEA!
::: runs off to write about zombie railroads :::
No, but seriously, folks, if anyone has resources, preferably ones that don’t require you to pay money, for aspiring authors please post them.
Aw… you’re no fun.
And honest, it doesn’t hurt. That was rather my point.
You’ve got a piece of shit up there naming a person off-site - name in full - and misrepresenting her quite disgustingly for off-site stuff on the back of a pack of lies.
That can stay. Oh, no problem with that.
Someone comes in and says “That’s wrong” and you get into a lather about off-site being brought on-site.
That can’t stay. Go figure.
I’m seeking deletion because I would consider it an honour.
New book out.
See? I didn’t even flinch. Masochism doesn’t come into it.
…
Not on my part, anyway.
Follow the link above before it is - or before I am - deleted.
Ignore the book if you want, but check the publisher.
They’re not paying, not at 99c a copy, that doesn’t cover their costs. But it’s a publisher with a growing rep. Good publicity, in other words.
Contact them.
The last I heard they’ve not got enough contributors to this series of shorts, so get in there if it’s of interest.