[Display Site] Bookpitch.com

The manuscript "display site" became very popular in the late 1990's, but its supposed promise for authors (to provide easier access to agents and editors) never materialized, since its supposed attraction for publishing professionals (to spare them the tedious chore of wading through paper submissions) didn't turn out to be all that attractive. Most of the display sites that popped up during that initial period no longer exist. About the only survivor is Authorlink.

Ann Crispin and I wrote an article about display sites (it appeared in the October 2000 issue of Writer's Digest) and did some pretty in-depth research. Of the several dozen sites we investigated, only a handful made any effort to market the site to agents and editors; and though these few were able to get at least some agents and editors to visit, for the most part the agents and editors weren't top-notch (also, all the sites were regularly trolled by scam and amateur agents and publishers). We also talked with a number of successful agents, all of whom told us that the quality of the work on display was so unpredictable that they didn't feel it was worth their while to visit the sites. What's the attraction of an electronic slush pile when you already have a paper one?

The Internet moves faster than real life, which I suppose means that Internet memory is shorter than real memory. Display sites seem to be undergoing a revival--I've run across hype-ish announcements for a number of new ones in the past few months, all of them presented as if they were a brand-new idea. They aren't. Not to fault the good intentions of some of the new display site organizers, but I don't expect they'll be any more successful this time around.

- Victoria

www.PublishersMarketplace.com has a similar feature where agents, author, bloggers, and publishers can create web pages in their tool to advertise themselves. It is quite legitmate and very professionally done. The subscription is $15 per month. The subscription covers more than just the web pages. It also includes a New Deals page, Best Seller Lists, searchable markets, job listings, and so forth. What's more, this site is used daily by real publishing professionals.

I created a web page there to advertise my unpublished novel. The only responses I have received have been from vanity presses (in one guise or another).

My take is that even in an organization as thoroughly respectable and legitimate as Publishers Marketplace, this function is not used by professionals to find new work.

I have noticed that AW does not tout the "Share Your Work" thread as a place to showcase one's talents. Why is that, I wonder? Certainly, AW could do something like that; after all many people in the publishing industry post here and I am sure lurk here as well. AW could even charge a little monthly fee for those who post work there. So why not? Maybe its because of things like honesty, integrity, character, etc. But I'm just guessing...what do I know.

Rob

YADS

Spam from BookPitch

Oh, ho. So now I know where that spam (univited email) from BookPitch came from. From them collecting email addies here.

BookPitch, that's not very nice. Your email indicated that if I wanted to stay an active subscriber to your emails, I had to opt-in. Well, I never was an active subscriber. Please don't do that. It's misleading, and trolling for email addies is just wrong. It doesn't make your business look good, either.

Lack of ethics is usually a bad sign.

Susan G.

They spammed you? Gads. Throw 'em in the can with zirdland.com, Yet Another Display Site whose proponents went to a place where newbie writers could be found (http://www.nanowrimo.com/) and harvested emails to spam the residents with invites.

Stephanie R said:

I am not sure if it is the same thing as the publishing pool you are talking about, but I have noticed in the Christian publishing industry, many publishers want you to join a "screening" service such as "First Edition". (http://www.ecpa.org then see the green link at the top)

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It's not exactly the same thing, but it's a similar concept. And from what I understand, similarly ineffective. I've seen the catalog one of these services sends out, and the entries are very brief, less informative than what you'd put in a cover letter. It's very unlikely that editors, who have agented submissions on their desks, are going to spare even a minute to go through something like this.

Even Zondervan (Harper Collins) encourages submissions to be sent through that site (though, at least Zondervan will still let you submit to them directly.)

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Many publishers attempt to steer writers to these services. IMO, this is irresponsible--in their desire to diminish the size of the slush pile, they're encouraging writers to shell out cash for a service of dubious value.

Is this the direction "agenting" is going?

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No. Submission services of this kind have been around for a long time, targeted at mainstream writers, and publishers have always pretty much ignored them. ECPA and its ilk are a new version of a venerable scheme.

- Victoria

bookpitch.com

Anyone seen this site? Another experiment in the writing economy. I didn't register as I'm a long way from ready to write a book...

Doesn't look all that appealing to me right now. Just like Publish America, their website is full of stuff about how the publishing world is falling apart due to the advent of the internet, self publishing, and POD. However I cannot find anything on their site where they show that they have actually connected an author with a publisher of any sort.

After reading 2 pages of stuff talking about how traditional publishers are on the ropes, I click on the link that shows the top 15 best sellers across various categories. None of them were POD or self-published titles as far as I could tell.

They want you to pay $10 a month to do basically nothing but post your resume or manuscripts on their site so that a publisher or agent could IN THEORY also come to their site, search for a manuscript, see yours, and maybe publish it.

This is better than querying an editor/agent how?

I don't know much about querying for book publishing yet, but wouldn't it be better to save your $10.00's a month and query when you're ready via e-mail or $0.37 stamp?

Moved because I thought you'd get better responses to your inquiry here.

And here's another discussion about bookpitch.

Birol - ooohhh yeah. I didn't even realize that they were charging, just thought that it seemed like a tired idea at this phase of the game - and that there was no-one actually signing up when you look at what was listed. I didn't want to color my inquiry because I thought maybe I was wrong.

The comment in the thread you reference about the short memory of the internet is spot-on! It reminds me of a launch party I went to for a website in the nineties where I overhead one of the investors saying, "What do you mean, there are OTHER portals already?"

Trust your instincts in this game. The only time I've ever been stiffed was when I ignored mine.

A moment of silence, please, for the fallen...