Industry roundup

Two pieces of industry news especially caught my eye this week.

The Booksellers Association has launched batchconnect, a curiously-titled new service considering that its purpose is for the exchange of promotional information between publishers, authors and booksellers. (From BookBrunch)

And Harper Collins has announced that three authors have been picked from the virtual slushpile that is their project called Authonomy. There has been some debate over whether authors are wasting their time reading other people’s unpublished (possibly unpublishable) work when they should be writing. I’d suggest writers write the best novel they possibly can, but when the time does come to emerge from the cave, peer critique can be very valuable, whether from a critique partner, writing circle or a virtual forum like Authonomy. I agree that learning to give a good writing critque is a skill in itself but any writer, however novice, can respond to a work as a reader and let the writer know whether or not it grabs them and whether they want to read on.

So I’ve joined Authonomy to check it out, and see if anyone would like to give me some feedback on my crime-novel-in-progress. And if I see something fantastic on there I really want to see more of… perhaps it might be useful for me as a agent too.