Spreading the AW Gospel

dgiharris said:

I feel like I have an obligation to any writer to let them know about this great site.

How about you?

Mel...

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I do the same. I infrequently frequent a number of writers' groups and always tell them about AW.

And I found AW by chance. The first time I installed the google bar on my laptop, it was there. I was very lucky. My computer realised I needed this and installed it for me!

I found the forums through the newsletter, but I honestly don't recall how I found the newsletter. Probably some random Google search for writing-related stuff.

I do tell folks about AW, though. Anyone who shows a genuine interest in writing and improving their craft. It is an invaluable resource.

I got a request for a full manuscript submission early on in my querying process and had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do. I googled it, found AW and the rest is history!

A friend of mine, who is no longer with us on AW, told me about the site. I lurked for a long time, using the resources available here and on Writer Beware! to negotiate my first attempts to get published. When I joined, I'd just had my first novel contracted and was looking for indications of what I was supposed to do next.

What did I find in response to that? *grin* Lots of great information, a core of outstanding people and writers who weren't afraid to share their hard-earned experience, and a bunch of smartalecs who perfectly fit into my scheduled down time in my busy schedule. In other words, total bliss.

I love this place.

I love this place and talk about it a lot in the real world. I'm recently discovered a friend of mine has started writing so I'm trying to recruit him. I have passed the URL onto several people.

I posted something similar to this a very long time ago in the Newbie forum, in a thread called "How'd you find this site?" I'll try to make this much more concise than my post there.

I didn't know a darned thing about the Internet. I knew that a friend had suggested the same house that Callalily mentioned, and I had submitted my manuscript to them. They slaughtered the book, with a horrible cover and an extravagantly high price. And to top it off, some anonymous people we at AW lovingly call "Guestbook Slimers," began to harass me about my being the biggest idiot to ever enter the publishing world, in part because of my having gone with that company.

One of those slimers, however, did me a favor in that it gave me links to two forums: one was Mindsight; the other was AbsoluteWrite's old Neverending PublishAmerica Thread. After having fought what I thought was the good fight over at PA, I realized that I had made a terrible mistake in going with that house, and though I had deleted the posts by the slimers, I found it rather easy to remember the URL AbsoluteWrite.com . So after feeling ashamed of myself for a few days, I finally dipped one toe into the waters here, and then after a couple more days of realizing I was not a piece of garbage to the people here at the time, I dove in.

I bounced in off Jamie Hall's site while doing some research on The Evils of Self Publishing (well, taking in the good side too) -- not because I was considering it, insert long story here -- and after reading Mac's intro I registered. If my post count is any indication, I must like it here. I post links whenever I can.

I found a thread, way back in December of '04, on Makinglight about a printer whose work I sorta knew; this thread.

And I made my first AW post in this old thread.

I can honestly say AW has changed my life.

I send people here, all the time, in person (writing the URL for them) and via links.

I've never sent anyone to this site before. Mostly because I don't know any writers.

I found this site through a crit site called Fanstory.com. One of the guys there (whom I used to admire) sent me the URL to the main site, and after that I eventually found my way into the forums. That was... *gasp* 3 years ago!! How time flies!!

I actually don't remember how I found AW. I think it was while I was googling, looking for information about agents.

I lurked for quite a while - I've never been much for internet chats or boards. AW is still the only place I frequent on a regular basis. I think my first post was in response to a question where I had some actual personal knowledge about the subject.

I originally wanted to remain anonymous, but then had the misfortune to get published and put up a website. It seemed foolish to have a website and not let anyone know who I was, so I quietly outed myself.

Having learned a lot here, (from people far more knowledgeable than myself) I felt it my obligation to post on subjects where had some knowledge, and hopefully help others along the way.

But eventually I discovered the politics forum, and that's been my downfall. I encourage anyone who has not yet discovered it to stay out -- it's a time stealer.

The most amazing thing to me is I actually have made some friends here, something I would never have thought possible in a cyber world.

And when I do have a question, no matter how obscure, I can always get an answer. (Hey, Lisa, do you remember my question about just how much a medieval scimitar would cost? You saved me from making a stupid mistake and ruining a story.)

I can't swear to it, but I have this vague recollection of reading something on Miss Snark about legitimate publishers vs vanity publishers - and probably followed a comment to a link and - ta da! - here I was! I lurked for months before joining, but then jumped in and - ta da! - here I am!

I found out about AW when someone on rec.arts.sf.composition (where some semifamous SF authors post, as well as others) mentioned it to me in response to a question I asked.

I've only mentioned AW to one person, someone I met a few months ago who wrote a sudoku instruction book and appears to be self-publishing it as an e-book. I think he could be helped a lot by the info and experience of others here, regardless of whether he continues down the self-publishing road or looks for a commercial publisher.

Okay, here's a free plug for "Sudoku Sam," the Sudoku-name he goes by:
http://www.rationalsudoku.com/

I found it long ago, when the internet was young. Somehow through a miracle of excessive Googling, I found THE PublishAmerica thread--no, I wasn't looking into self-pubbing--and read about 300 posts before lurking elsewhere on the boards.

Googled my publisher. More than a year and 15,000 posts ago. I love this place.

I found the website when it was briefly homeless after the Bauer fiasco. Many agents were blogging about the situation, and I was an avid blog reader. So I did a bit of looking into it, and then, shortly, the site was up and running again and I could check it out for myself!

I lurked for a while. And then just had to join. It's been magic ever since.

I recommend this site to all my writer friends. Not all of them visit, but it's their loss. But some have joined! Yay me!

I think I found this site while googling agents- I actually was a member long before the join date on my avatar, but under a different user name. I was very active here for years and then found another site (gasp!) became active there for almost two years and finally found my senses and came back home-This placed has very much changed my life-