Authonomy’s Open Beta went live last week, and is looking to be a pretty exciting opportunity for aspiring writers.
Authonomy looks to be heavily inspired by Zoetrope: It allows authors to post their work in the hope that it generates community buzz. If it does HarperCollins, the site’s owner, will review it for possible publication.
Authors upload at least 10,000 words from an unpublished work. They do basic Promotional work on the text, such as crreating an image/cover and a short blurb. The work is then posted on Authonomy and other users can critique and comment on it. Users are limited to 5 books at a time, so you van’t just grab a bunch of free reading.
Authors can control the comments on their works by “Cherry Picking.” While they can’t erase or delete user comments, they can feature those they like at the top of their work’s comments.
Then once a month, HarperCollins’ Editors will take the top rated books and review them for possible publication.
Your Work is safe: Authonomy will disable cut and paste functions, and they’re pretty open about the rights you’re giving up. according to the FAQ: Not much. You continue to own your work and they only take the right to post it on Authonomy and you can remove your work at any time.
So.. Build an audience, get read, own rights. Sounds good Doesn’t it?
When I think of great free office applications I think of Open Office, Google Apps and now….IBM Lotus.
IBM? FREE?
Yes, it’s out of beta, and thank you for the million testers. IBM Lotus Symphony, based on Open Office and re-engineered by Big Blue, is available HERE.
What does this mean? I don’t know. But it’s interesting to have another competitor in the open source app field.
The big problem with the internet is that it seems like it’s designed to make you feel like an idiot on purpose.
I don’t mean the fact that every question you post on Yahoo!Answers is answered by some snotty 12-year-old. I don’t mean that every time you try to do research you have your choice of either an impenetrable thesis or incorrect wiki.
I Mean the fact that even though you try to stay abreast of news and features, even though you subscribe to dozens of feeds, constantly google, search Technorati and have alerts automatically sent to your cell phone, you still come across a nifty, cool, useful and entertaining site after millions of other people already know about it. On the Internets, you’re always a Noob somewhere.
Hulu is a free TV and movie Streaming site. Yes Free. As in , Get-your-fix-of-the-A-Team-right-now. As in no money down. Not $1.99. Not $.99. Free.
There’s a catch- The number of shows is inversely proportional to the age and DVD availability. A show airing today might only have the last couple episodes. A classic on DVD might have the entire first season. A show which is no longer selling might have nearly it’s entire run.
And, Of course they’re ad supported.
But this closes the deal: Embeddable content. That’s right. Embed your favorite show in your blog.
So, For Your viewing pleasure, here’s a classic Writer’s movie for Memorial Day Weekend:
Social Networks are here to stay. No one who’s reading this blog can deny the power of developing a network of enthusiastic, loyal readers. Most of us, whether we’re trying to make a blogging career, or using our blogs to promote other works, are constantly trying to build our audience. ( Hi BlogCatalog readers and fans!)
So now we have Ning.com, a social networking site built out of social networking sites.
Like myspace, registering for a free account gives you a personal page that you can invite other users to join. There’s lots of customization options, from colors and themes to widgets and gadgets. It literally takes about two minutes to set up a profile and a page.
However, Ning pages are different. each one is a social networking site in it’s own right. Other members can seek you out and join your site as a member, giving them rights to add content. You can develop a community of fans or an online writing group. Post your writing. Use it as a message board for your Blog.
It’s part Myspace, Part blog, part community. and really neat. Check out Ning.com
This New service is meant to be a Flickr killer. We’ll see. so far, both the feature and file limits are pretty small, but I bet once it’s up and running it’ll be competitive.
Get Instant Access to Hundreds of Work-at-Home Jobs
Want exclusive access to the hottest freelance jobs online today? Signing up for trial membership of Go Freelance gives you access to cool projects like these:
Fire your boss and set your work-at-home career off to a cracking start. Click here to get instant access for just $7.00.
