I have been using on-line writing sites since late 2009, anything from fanfiction.net, Authonomy, Booksie, Mibba, Webook, Quizilla and most recently Wattpad. People have been asking me which I would recommend and why... here goes nothing. This is my opinion, based on my personal experiences.
Booksie and The Next Big Writer are one in the same as they are run by the same person. Big writer is a 'paid' service 'not free' like Booksie. I was fortunate to receive a publishing offer from them in relation to KISMET but declined as I would like a more established publisher. The offer was made due to the books popularity on the site so it is well worth you using them.
Having said that, Booksie falls way behind its competitors, as it fails to keep up to date. It has been over a year since they had issues with uploading images, this is still not resolved and the server has lost work, reads, comments etc which they couldn't retrieve. It has really fell behind these past two years and I fear that it will just disappear off the internet at some point and writers who have work on there will be freaking out, so I have recommended to all my friends to save their work, if not on their computer then use Google+ or something similar. Don't expect help from the helpdesk as 'Booksie Guy' as he calls himself goes awol all the time. His attitude to users has made my jaw drop and was a huge reason I rarely use the site now.
Authonomy is a great site but when I used it two years ago it was full of 'literacy snobs' who took great delight in telling me in over worded flowery comments that I am not a professional writer and never will be. I never professed to be and reminded them that they weren't either.
It was a bit of culture shock as I was used to other sites like Booksie where people either commented to say they liked your work or don't bother. I found people on this site a bit too short and curt in their critique and over keen with the red pen and 'CAPS LOCK'. If I had stayed on the site I would never have continued writing as they had me convinced I was totally shit and had no chance of developing my skills, let alone someone wanting to read my 'made up stories'.
If there is a 'typo' in your work, they claim you have no editing skills or because you didn't describe a tree over the space of four paragraphs you are nor descriptive. If I wanted to write about a tree for a few paragraphs I would be writing a gardening book not a pirate series and since when are there trees in the sea? Not forgetting the comments berating me for writing a historical piece of fiction using modern day colloquialisms intermingled with historical essence, which is apparently against the writers guild law... who?
The fact that is it marked as 'Very draft novel' was no safeguard to the sting in the tail of most wordsmiths on there, who are just waiting on Harper Collins to give them a book deal, as Harper give feedback to competition winners. I was told in no uncertain terms via comments from users that I would never win the feedback from them.
Within my first month on there, they were proven wrong. I had some brilliant feedback on the first book in the Pirate series 'Stowaway' from an 'Editor at Harper Collins'. She said it was a truly original piece and stopped her from reading other work, she didn't care it was draft as she had seen far worse submitted as finished pieces. She was drawn to my work after reading a negative comment from a 'jumped up twat' who berated every ones work in the hope of raising his own profile. I hadn't won feedback but I was being given it as she liked my story. She told me I had a gift for storytelling, it was refreshing to read, emotional and readers could relate to my characters even though they were from another time. I was to carry on as she would like to read the finished piece someday. It spurred me on and I left the site to save my pride getting battered by over inflated egos.
In hindsight I was far too amateur for Authonomy, and looking back two years later, I am grateful to that lady from Harper (Julie, Janet or Jessica, sorry I can't remember the name) for telling me to continue with my hobby and ignore the literacy snobs as publishing and writing changes everyday along with peoples taste. Today one pirate book has turned into a four book series which is loved by all who read it, even in draft form. I had forgotten about her email until recently when Harper Voyager called for submissions and a 'professional author' told me about it. The lady at Harper probably doesn't even work there now and I can't find the email as I closed my account. >:O( but I know one day she will read the finished item and think 'ahhhh the pirate girl good on her for retreating, coming back stronger and proving them wrong'.
The other sites I mentioned like Quizilla just didn't grab me as a user, they were very teen or not offering me anything new.
Mibba for instance was poorly managed and they even removed the close account button as everyone was leaving. You have to put a job on the helpdesk asking them to close your account!
WeBook was just not suitable and I kept forgetting I had it. I wasn't getting any feedback or reads so decided to jack it in.
FanFiction.net was the site where I read 'Master of the Universe' which is now 'Fifty Shades of Grey', along side lots of other Twilight fan fiction. I found it as I wanted more Twilight and there wasn't any so I read about Fan Fiction and checked it out. There are some very talented fan fiction writers out there. it was very basic as a site, cut and paste and looks like a forum. I didn't stay on for long but I got to read, comment and chat back and forth via comments with people like Erica James about writing so when I see them getting a publishing deal I raise a glass of wine with pride as I know the journey they had getting there. They also remember me and are now nagging me to get a publishing deal.
I had initially joined in late 2010 but my work is 'Adult' and as such was not supported, which mean no reads or comments and defeated the objective. I started using Wattpad again in March 2012, as fans advised me it developed an RRated category where you could post your work. That is true but it is still not searchable or available to the public. RRated work is not allowed to enter the Watty Awards (their book awards and charts as only PG13 and below can enter). Any chapters that are considered too risqué are marked private by Wattpad and not the user, people have to become a fan to read your 'private work' as Wattpad have put a padlock on it. Literally a little gold padlock appears on it. :O(
Life as an 'Adult' writer is not easy on Wattpad but their users base is mainly age 13 and up, no one wants to corrupt young minds... well I don't. There have been petitions to ask for the work to be searchable as users D.O.B. is used to create an account so it was suggested they could use that as a way to allow over 18's to access mature content but Wattpad are a Canadian based company and apparently Canadian law means that is not going to happen. Many writers either edit it down to PG13 or leave it RRated and get less reads. Wattpad have implemented a 'mature' button with it is no good unless you know the name of the book or author you are looking for, otherwise it comes up blank. I am sure they will improve it but for now RRated writers are at a disadvantage from others, not searchable, work marked private so people have to be fans to read it, can't enter awards and there is no other recognition for RRated writers on there.
Being an RRated writer isn't so bad.... I've still had more reads, votes and comments on Wattpad since March than I have in two or three years on the other sites. It is far more advanced and is like Facebook for writers. The team behind it are lovely, human and have a great moral compass which was lacking on other sites where I was concerned that young users were accessing material which I found shocking. Wattpad have wonderful user engagement and even arrange meetups around the world so readers and writers can meet each other and them. They have over 5 million users, 2.5 billion minutes are used on Wattpad a month which proves they are the worlds largest community for sharing and discovering stories.
As such I recommend Wattpad for all round general writing from G to PG13, Poetry, Short Stories and Novels. There are so many talented people on there making book covers, book trailers, let alone the readers and writers who make it worthwhile logging on everyday to escape into a world of imagination. You can even share between facebook, twitter etc and the helpdesk actually 'help' which is a godsend.
If you are an adult writer e.g. Erotica I would recommend Booksie as Wattpad don't allow pornographic content.
Having said that, Booksie falls way behind its competitors, as it fails to keep up to date. It has been over a year since they had issues with uploading images, this is still not resolved and the server has lost work, reads, comments etc which they couldn't retrieve. It has really fell behind these past two years and I fear that it will just disappear off the internet at some point and writers who have work on there will be freaking out, so I have recommended to all my friends to save their work, if not on their computer then use Google+ or something similar. Don't expect help from the helpdesk as 'Booksie Guy' as he calls himself goes awol all the time. His attitude to users has made my jaw drop and was a huge reason I rarely use the site now. 
Authonomy is a great site but when I used it two years ago it was full of 'literacy snobs' who took great delight in telling me in over worded flowery comments that I am not a professional writer and never will be. I never professed to be and reminded them that they weren't either.It was a bit of culture shock as I was used to other sites like Booksie where people either commented to say they liked your work or don't bother. I found people on this site a bit too short and curt in their critique and over keen with the red pen and 'CAPS LOCK'. If I had stayed on the site I would never have continued writing as they had me convinced I was totally shit and had no chance of developing my skills, let alone someone wanting to read my 'made up stories'.
If there is a 'typo' in your work, they claim you have no editing skills or because you didn't describe a tree over the space of four paragraphs you are nor descriptive. If I wanted to write about a tree for a few paragraphs I would be writing a gardening book not a pirate series and since when are there trees in the sea? Not forgetting the comments berating me for writing a historical piece of fiction using modern day colloquialisms intermingled with historical essence, which is apparently against the writers guild law... who?
The fact that is it marked as 'Very draft novel' was no safeguard to the sting in the tail of most wordsmiths on there, who are just waiting on Harper Collins to give them a book deal, as Harper give feedback to competition winners. I was told in no uncertain terms via comments from users that I would never win the feedback from them.
Within my first month on there, they were proven wrong. I had some brilliant feedback on the first book in the Pirate series 'Stowaway' from an 'Editor at Harper Collins'. She said it was a truly original piece and stopped her from reading other work, she didn't care it was draft as she had seen far worse submitted as finished pieces. She was drawn to my work after reading a negative comment from a 'jumped up twat' who berated every ones work in the hope of raising his own profile. I hadn't won feedback but I was being given it as she liked my story. She told me I had a gift for storytelling, it was refreshing to read, emotional and readers could relate to my characters even though they were from another time. I was to carry on as she would like to read the finished piece someday. It spurred me on and I left the site to save my pride getting battered by over inflated egos.
In hindsight I was far too amateur for Authonomy, and looking back two years later, I am grateful to that lady from Harper (Julie, Janet or Jessica, sorry I can't remember the name) for telling me to continue with my hobby and ignore the literacy snobs as publishing and writing changes everyday along with peoples taste. Today one pirate book has turned into a four book series which is loved by all who read it, even in draft form. I had forgotten about her email until recently when Harper Voyager called for submissions and a 'professional author' told me about it. The lady at Harper probably doesn't even work there now and I can't find the email as I closed my account. >:O( but I know one day she will read the finished item and think 'ahhhh the pirate girl good on her for retreating, coming back stronger and proving them wrong'.
The other sites I mentioned like Quizilla just didn't grab me as a user, they were very teen or not offering me anything new.
Mibba for instance was poorly managed and they even removed the close account button as everyone was leaving. You have to put a job on the helpdesk asking them to close your account!
WeBook was just not suitable and I kept forgetting I had it. I wasn't getting any feedback or reads so decided to jack it in.
I had initially joined in late 2010 but my work is 'Adult' and as such was not supported, which mean no reads or comments and defeated the objective. I started using Wattpad again in March 2012, as fans advised me it developed an RRated category where you could post your work. That is true but it is still not searchable or available to the public. RRated work is not allowed to enter the Watty Awards (their book awards and charts as only PG13 and below can enter). Any chapters that are considered too risqué are marked private by Wattpad and not the user, people have to become a fan to read your 'private work' as Wattpad have put a padlock on it. Literally a little gold padlock appears on it. :O(Life as an 'Adult' writer is not easy on Wattpad but their users base is mainly age 13 and up, no one wants to corrupt young minds... well I don't. There have been petitions to ask for the work to be searchable as users D.O.B. is used to create an account so it was suggested they could use that as a way to allow over 18's to access mature content but Wattpad are a Canadian based company and apparently Canadian law means that is not going to happen. Many writers either edit it down to PG13 or leave it RRated and get less reads. Wattpad have implemented a 'mature' button with it is no good unless you know the name of the book or author you are looking for, otherwise it comes up blank. I am sure they will improve it but for now RRated writers are at a disadvantage from others, not searchable, work marked private so people have to be fans to read it, can't enter awards and there is no other recognition for RRated writers on there.
Being an RRated writer isn't so bad.... I've still had more reads, votes and comments on Wattpad since March than I have in two or three years on the other sites. It is far more advanced and is like Facebook for writers. The team behind it are lovely, human and have a great moral compass which was lacking on other sites where I was concerned that young users were accessing material which I found shocking. Wattpad have wonderful user engagement and even arrange meetups around the world so readers and writers can meet each other and them. They have over 5 million users, 2.5 billion minutes are used on Wattpad a month which proves they are the worlds largest community for sharing and discovering stories.
As such I recommend Wattpad for all round general writing from G to PG13, Poetry, Short Stories and Novels. There are so many talented people on there making book covers, book trailers, let alone the readers and writers who make it worthwhile logging on everyday to escape into a world of imagination. You can even share between facebook, twitter etc and the helpdesk actually 'help' which is a godsend.
If you are an adult writer e.g. Erotica I would recommend Booksie as Wattpad don't allow pornographic content.
I hope this has helped and I will do a follow up piece of Wattpad to show why I chose it but this should help get you creating a free account. Why use Wattpad? It is a brilliant writing site, since March 2012 my work has received 732,317 reads, 11,065 votes, 2,446 comments, 1,388 fans! What you waiting for.... http://www.wattpad.com
Came across your Blog as I was searching for a site where I could get reviews for my book. Good article and thank you for sharing your experience. I was concerned about Booksie but after reading your post I think I'll give them a try. AS you know, getting an agent and published is no easy task.
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful day.