Just a few points, (owner of Publishing House),
from a man who has been part of your social media group as an author, been
rejected, and has nothing to gain or lose from giving his opinion.
The idea of a social media website for readers to
read books and choose those to publish is a noble one. I commend you for taking
such a risk. The problem remains at this time that you simply have too few book
reviews to honestly determine the viability of any one book.
Before you pulled my work from your site it had
two official reviews and two ‘unofficial reviews’ as your fellow (Publisher Employee)
described the comments. I, the author, am left with some sparse ideas on how to
improve my work, and that quashes any means of my returning to your company to
publish a new draft.
Now some authors will be unhappy with anything but
publication, but some of us will be happy with a better understanding of our
work. You want authors to send you new drafts. You want them to feel like they
are better for experiencing how you do business. The last thing you want is for
an author to go to another company and then do well, because that means you
missed out on a profitable contract.
One idea, and maybe not a great one, would be to recruit
unpaid college interns to review books. English students often have an
internship requirement for graduation, they know something about books, and
would be happy to telecommute. These
interns would be required to read the whole book and write a solid and
professional review.
What this would do for your community would be to
increase the number and quality of your reviews. It would also get the word out
to perspective authors in English writing communities and bring more reading
enthusiasts to your company.
Another idea would be to add a step to
publication. This would be a ‘would you like to read more’ section like your
first fifteen forum. Both unofficial reviews of my book and one of the official
ones read only a small part near the beginning. Unfortunately, there were too few reviews to
see a consistent pattern of what was wrong.
If I were to take this small section and place it
on your site with a simple thumb up thumb down review and a minimum of ten
reviews a pattern should start to emerge by that point. Then I would be able to
say what was wrong with my work with some confidence. In fifteen to thirty pages an author will
express stylistic choices and in those pages a reader can find and mention what
they dislike. Too many thumbs down will mean rewrite and resubmit, enough
thumbs up will mean that the rest of the manuscript will be posted.
What this could do for your community would be to
increase the number of reviews and interaction with authors. It would save time
with books that just need more work, and give the author a path to come back.
One thing you may wish to think about is to put
ads on your site. If you need to pay for it then it can do some paying for
itself. You’re already involved in advertising on your site when you send out
group requests for published books. If you’re going to advertise for your own
company then you can advertise for other companies and offset the cost of
operations.
Another point, I believe an author interacting
with reviewers is a good thing, but I believe an author shouldn’t review when
his work is up for review. It will always be in the back of my mind that (Publisher
Employee) gave me a hard time, because I gave him a negative review. This
probably isn’t true. He just gave me an honest review, and I’m unhappy with
what he said, but that thought will stay with me. You may want to think about
having author accounts that expire if a book isn’t picked up and reader
accounts that expire after they have been inactive for long enough.
Finally, a rejection letter thanking the author
for their interest, apologizing for their rejection, and summarizing how they
can improve their work would only be polite. The author is a customer just like
someone who buys a book and the service you provide them is to screen their
work for profitability. I would never want my book published if it wouldn’t do
well, so you’re providing a superior service compared to competitors. A letter
making it clear to the author that there is hope would go a long way to
clarifying that fact.
Those are my two cents. Forty nine more of these
and you have a dollar.
Richard Leland Neal
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