Quote from letter received by parchment:
"The Arts Council funds a distinct part of YouWriteOn's activities, specifically the peer-critique section where writers can upload and receive feedback on their work."
And this has cost the British public how much so far?
I'm preparing another blog post on exactly this issue, Qwerty, following several email requests from interested parties: it should appear on Thursday morning. I'll provide all appropriate links in that post, but for now, here's a summary.
While the funding that YWO has received from the Arts Council doesn't represent all of YWO's income, it's a substantial part of it: and I was amazed when I added it all together. Here's a breakdown:
June 2005: £29,896
February 2007: £24,000
2007/2009: £10,000
February 2008: £10,000
October 2008: £11,000
Total: £84,896
If you add the £11,000 or so that YWO has also received as payments for ISBNs from this latest venture, it works out to a turnover of roughly £27,400 every year, which is a very decent wage. I certainly wouldn't say no to it.
It probably won't do much good complaining about this to the Arts Council alone: it would be more effective to also complain to the Government department to which the Arts Council reports (I've posted contact details for that department earlier in this thread); and to make your message strike home, make it clear that you've copied your complaint to all of the national press, TV and radio stations, and to consumer protection organisations. The longer your list the better.
My problem with YWO is not that it's running a vanity press--although I think that's bad enough: it's that it's doing so while in receipt of funding from the Arts Council; and it's misleading its members into believing that it's offering them a real chance of success.
Meanwhile, I've been trying to find out if Ted Smith has any background in publishing but the only reference I've found to his past career was
in this PDF from the Arts Council, which states:
In terms of user experience, the site is clunky, full of broken links and difficult to navigate, with forums that mysteriously open at particular hours only. Nonetheless, YouWriteOn.com has 6,000 members, and receives millions of page views a month. There is clearly a hunger for these services. (Edward used to work in a Citizens Advice Bureau and sees his work as being about information and empowerment.)
My bold. I found it ironic that he used to work for the CAB, bearing in mind all the complaints that he must be getting now.