Graeme posted some very interesting information.

http://www.gayauthors.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=20647

The British publisher Harper Collins has just opened a networking web site for aspiring authors. It is called Authonomy. It gives them an opportunity to post their writing for peer review. The writers who receive the most recommendations will be brought to the attention of publishers and literary agents. This is an experiment and nobody can be sure just how useful it will turn out to be. However, it seems like an interesting development.

Kit has decided to post some of his work there. I am making this post to ask those of you who have enjoyed his work here and elsewhere on the net to go and resister at Authonomy and support his work. The way the site works is that the books which appear on users' booklists and watchlist are ranked on various lists. The higher up the list you get, the more likely you are to come to people's attention.

First go to:

http://www.authonomy.com/

and register.

Then navigate to:

http://www.authonomy.com/ViewBook.aspx?bookid=2674

This is Tapping. Please click "back the book" to place it on your booklist and then click "add to watch list".

Thanks everyone for your help and support.

I will be making additional posts to this thread as more of Kit's work is added.

Richard

Done deal.

Good luck Kit!

Good luck, Kit! Let me know how thing go.

So far, since I uploaded it yesterday, it's got to number 7 in the list of 19 in the gay genre and to number 275 out of about 870 in all genres.

I did it since I truly like your stories. Good luck!

Thank yoooo!

Did you put it on your authonomy book shelf as well?
If so, you've helped push Tapping up to joint 6th out of 19 in the gay genre and number 266 out of about 870 in all genres.

Oh yes, I did

Thank you very much to all those who supported Tapping on Authonomy.

In the 10 days since it was uploaded, the novel reached a high of 5th (out of 26) in gay-30day (standard) ratings, where some secret weighted formula is used, and it got to 4th out of 26 when rated by most 'bookshelves'. It also managed to get to 176 out of abut 900 books of all genres.

Having spent the last 10 days exploring Authonomy and how it works, I now realise that it's not really the place for me, not least because I don't have the stomach for sucking up to influential reviewers. Because I feel a little guilty about leaving Authonomy after many of you made an effort to back Tapping on the site, I feel that you deserve an explanation for my departure.

The the vote-weighting system is deliberately made obscure, so there will always be real or perceived unfairness. The fact that only part of the 'bookshelf' information is revealed makes it look stupid, crazy, and fixed, even if it isn't.

Take two books in the same genre. One has three times as many 'shelves' and about the same number of 'watchlists' as the other. Yet the one with far fewer shelves is higher up the rankings. Furthermore, the book with far fewer shelves made a huge jump upward immediately after just one reviewer (obviously with huge weighting!) gave it a good review.

Now if one high-ranked reviewer can be equivalent to around ten of us 'ordinary' folk in the weighting of his/her vote, then there is little point in us ordinary people taking part at all. So why bother having the site open for public comments and voting? If books have to rely on 'reviewers with influence', authors may as well approach someone wth real influence (an agent) directly.

Surely if a book is popular with lots of us ordinary folk, it's likely to sell more if it is published? So why give such a HUGE weighting to a few influential reviewers?

Personally, I have a gut feeling the whole site is some sort of con trick, but I've not yet been able to work out exactly what the con is. Suffice it to say that I find it hard to believe that the aims as stated by HC would justify the time and resources that this site must have cost. It will be interesting to find out their real, hidden agenda!

Anyway, as soon as I work out how to get my profile deleted, I will be leaving Authonomy.

Thank you again to those who backed Tapping. I apologise if you now feel that your efforts have been wasted because I'm now leaving Authonomy.

Kit

Sorry to hear the site wasn't all you thought it would be Kit, did you manage to get your profile deleted? I have to admit I didn't get a chance to explore the place thoroughly, I went to give your story the support it deserved and then placed the site in my bookmarks as somewhere to check out later.