Agonies of a Young Author

I debated between calling it the Vortex and the Black Hole, but since I've been saying the Vortex around my roomie The Long-Suffering One, the name kinda stuck.

Oh, what am I talking about?

I'm talking about FanStory.com, my newest obsession and writerly procrastination tool.

It's a web service (yes, unfortunately you have to pay for it; will discuss this later in the post) that provides a site to post your written works (of any kind) and get reviews on what you've posted by other members.

It's a fairly easy interface to use, although the certificate system is a little confusing. I still don't really understand that myself, so I won't confuse you with my half-assertions.

The basic premise is that you earn "money" by reviewing other members' work, for such-and-such value (based on rankings among other posted works of a similar genre) and then use that money to promote your own work (by buying advertisements, and buying a higher ranking for greater visibility.)

I've used Fanstory.com for about 3 weeks now, and I do like it. I feel that it was false advertisement for the member fee- they say it's 2.90 a month, but you have to pay in a lump sum fee of $67 for two years. So I don't like that of course- I took the option of a month membership for 6.95. Which is a little exorbitant, so I'm not sure that I'll renew next month, but we'll see.

The biggest benefit is the forced review of other members. Being able to to recognize the issues in other's work allows to you to be a better self-editor as well. Of course, emotional distance is always the kicker, but getting some of the experience on fanstory.com does help.

So in conclusion, I would say at least go and check out the website. There's a one week free trial (that I didn't take advantage of, unfortunately) that you can use to poke around a while.

And if you need a reason to avoid work without feeling guilty, well then....

=)

Right now:
What I want most: food!!!
What I'm listening to: n/a