So how is Erasmus bearing up on Authonomy? I have to say very well and he seems to like it. Every so often he turns from his picture on the wall of my computer room and smiles at me :-) This is the book cover of course. The Eye of Erasmus now stands at 986 in the ranking system. This has occured over the last couple of weeks since I went live. Considering I started out at "multi thousands" I'm very pleased with his progress.
"Storming it" as a colleague on http://struglingauthors.co.uk/ was heard to say.
In the young adult genre where I am pitched there are 860 books. This is 20 books to a page and I'm on page 4...........at the moment. Overall in all genres there are probably hundreds of thousands including one written by the American President (Shock horror !!!!Yes he's there to) So i'm in good company depending on your point of view.
So how does Authonomy work and should it be compared to vanity press? Nah is my honest opinion.

The idea is two fold.............

(1) you can take a stroll though the shelves of many books (think of a public library) and comment if you feel like it. Good or bad comments it's your choice. It may be you're particular type of book and you enjoyed it. You may read a page and consider it's not your sort of thing.

(2) you as a writer are hell bent on getting to the editors desk which is the difference between being published or not. This is my aim. Oh really? yes really.
So how do you get there? sheer bloody hard work is how. Mostly you have to get known. This can be done through the forum a "chatter board" that seems to have many annoying gliches. Here is where you can do a "shameless plug" of your writing. I did this and was quite successful with other writers wanting to read about my lovely friend Erasmus.

However - other writers can be brutally honest and critical about your little one. You just have to take it on the chin and move on. Sometimes they are quite right. We always think we have honed our work to perfection and someone spies glaring mistakes that you missed. Whether it is spelling or otherwise. Of course this is only one persons opinion and you don't have to change anything, unless of course 10 people in a row tell you the same thing. Then of course you need to consider the move or not.

So apart from sheer bloody hard work how did I manage to push myself up the rankings?
Good feedback from other writers helped, and the aim is to get on as many other writers shelves as possible. There is a massive flurry at first when new blood is suddenly noted but after a while it calms down a bit.
The other thing is swap reads. You need to approach another writer, if you like their work and see if they will swap a read of yours for theirs. This can work to your advantage and we live in hopes of getting good feeback. Do we reciprocate by given them magnificent reviews? Well if it's deserved yes we (I) do. However it isn't compulsary and some comments I've read about other books have been brutally honest with no holds barred. Again you have to take it on the chin, afterall it's only one persons view point.
Daily I need to review about 5 books to stay in the frame and push up my rankings. It's not easy when you've been at work all day and then come home to book reading. It all depends on how determined you are to get to the editors desk, --- and I intend to get there one way or another (as the song goes).
Some of my reviews of Erasmus have been critical but overall i'm pleased. Would I recommend Authonomy?
Yeah suck it and see. If you don't feel comfortable with it after a few weeks just delete your book from the system.
Actually I decided to update mine and through my own fault I lost all my book shelving and watchlistings. Fortunately I retained my ranking in the system memory. Was I gutted? too right I was but I got back on the horse and rode back into the sunset again.
Once again I'm storming up the trail to review more books.
Oh and by the way don't forget to take a look at Reg's and Richards websites.

Reg: http://divisionofthedamned/ (Book Title)
Richard: http://strugglingauthors.co.uk/