After chatting with many of you about Authonomy quite a bit this week, I decided to give it a go. With regards to the potential pitfalls of posting a work in its entirety there, I elected to post only a few chapters, with the idea being that i'll only post a few more, though I'm happy to give private reviews to those who want to read more (and have commented on my work). My initial impressions -
Holy lord is this thing frantic. I wasn't too bad about it, but it can be a total timesink if you aren't careful. My book got a fair amount of backers, whom I suspect are mostly spam-type people trying to get me to back them in return; I've resisted the urge to do so. I'd like to try and play it honest, where I back something only if I enjoy it. I've been sending short, polite thank-yous to all my backers, with an "I hope you continue to enjoy the book, and I'd appreciate any comments, positive or negative, if you have the time."
I've definitely been reading more work and critting a lot in the past few days; basically all the spare time I'm not at work (I'm away from home on business at the moment, so this is a little more possible than it would ordinarily be).
I've had some good conversations with the more honest members that I've come across, and been politely thanked for my crits when I've given them. I'm not holding out for a top ranking or anything; I don't have the time to spend more than an hour or two each day on there, and volume is the name of the game if you really want to rise (the top echelons require talent too, but you can move up quite a bit just based on being a chatty cathy or spam-backer).
No final judgment yet; I'll see how much I like it after about two weeks. It'll be interesting to see by that point whether or not I feel like the kernel of truth in the crowdsourcing is enough to drown out the back-me-and-i'll-back-you social media effect. If nothing else, it's been interesting and fun. For now.
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