Shorts
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Response to “Needs a Little More Elaboration”
I think there was a disconnect in the aspects of Book Country that caught Tim’s attention and ones that caught mine. Tim saw it as a medium allowing writers to self-publish; I saw it as an an easy peer-review system. It is both those things, but I think it’ll be used more as one than the other.
Looking at the Book Country’s format, it looks tailor made to make discovery of smaller and less well-known writers possible. Of course, big-name writers will not use it, they have their review system already established. But the Book Country is essentially a crowd-sourced peer-review system. At least that’s my understanding of it. And one can choose not to publish a book through it—using it only to get reviews from volunteers to fix their manuscripts—if they think they will get a better deal somewhere else.
Blogs and e-book stores like iBooks, Kindle, Nook etc. aren’t too helpful because they have that discovery problem which the Book Country is trying to fix. Blogs have an inherent problem with discovery unless you go around calling attention to them, and as a budding writer, one really should be focusing on the writing instead of things like that. Similarly, e-book stores are for established writers and completed books. One doesn’t go to a store to read and review unfinished material, even if you give them out for free.
I have never written a book. I did plan to write one at one point of time, but getting a hint of the amount of work and level of commitment it would take, I stopped before I really got started. As a potential writer, something like the Book Country sounds appealing to me as a source for objective criticism over getting my manuscript checked by friends and family if someday I do start writing that book again. And objectivity in subjective things is always good to have.
~ This is a response to Tim Ricchuiti’s piece responding to my question regarding his comment.
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