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[Display/critique] FanStory

mdin

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I don't really know anything about fanstory except one thing: they thought a partnership with PublishAmerica was a good idea. I know that has nothing to do with the quality of your peer critiques, but that fact alone is enough to turn me off of them forever.

If you write scifi/fantasy/horror, I suggest critters. It's free, and the critiques can be very, very good.
 

eqb

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I would second the recommendation for Critters. Aside from being free, Critters also password-protects your submissions so you don't use up first publication rights. While Fanstory offers a "closed workshop" option, the option costs extra and you have to "invite" specific readers, which means you won't get as many critiques.
 

Bastinadoe

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Thirding critters and updating the thread.

While no longer partnered with PA, the same company operates Publishersbid.com which seems to work with vanity and self publishing companies. (I am not going to give them my physical address to register and find out, and then get tons of self-pub junk mail. But they advertise "affordable" quotes from publishers and not ones which, y'know, pay the author.)

Posting as recommended by fanstory results in loss of first publication rights, and the site now advertises the content writers submit to readers, and lots of them. The site supports sharing sites like digg, which could bring in enough readers to not only lose the first pub rights, but any chance of publication.

When these options were first released, the default setting for all work posted was to give up pub rights by making the work publicly viewable, visible to search engines, and to be posted with form links to submit work to sharing sites like digg. The default setting was switched to off after some complaints by the few remaining serious writers, but its revealing to see what the site originally wanted.

Work that is posted in the semi private workshop receives almost no feedback. There are still pieces over a year old waiting for their reviews.

The actual private workshop requires additional time spent reviewing or more real cash to use, and you have to personally invite the members you want to review it. You could do the same thing for free and faster by just making friends and emailing them, but the site prohibits sharing any contact info, email addresses, or urls, and seems to monitor private messages to catch people attempting to do this.

Reviews are mostly done on the honor system, and dishonorable people with half a brain can get away with copy/pasting prewritten reviews forever, as long as they don't do so too rapidly or directly insult someone. As such, many reviews are merely vague sycophancy stretched out to exceed the site's very lenient minimum length requirement.
 

CaoPaux

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Publishers Bid didn't last much past '08. FanStory continues.
 

NicoleJLeBoeuf

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FanStory does indeed continue; apparently Women On Writing is pushing their latest contests, which are free for FanStory members ("upgraded membership is as little as $2.80 per month") but ...apparently not for nonmembers? Clicking through to the latest contest, I see "Entry fee: 5.00 Member Dollars." Oddly enough, the prize pool is also 5.00 member dollars. You appear to earn Member Dollars by doing critiques.

The look of the front page is off-putting for me, I have to say. Something to do with the stock photograph and "Call us toll-free" at the upper-left of the main content.

As stated before, beware of giving away your first publication rights by posting on a display site. FanStory's FAQ says...

Q: Is it safe to post my writing online?
A: Yes. FanStory has unique protections in place for authors that plan on being published. You keep your copyright and retain full rights. You are free, and encouraged, to sell your work to others, publish it with others or do whatever you wish.

Some stories -- the ones accessible through the "Read" menu item -- are only readable by members, though anyone can become a member for free. (I suppose it's as well protected as our own SYW forums.)

But stories submitted to contests and ready for review will display for me just fine, despite that I'm not a member: http://www.fanstory.com/displaystory.jsp?id=531240
 

SeaSerpent

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Fanstory

Has anyone come across these guys before? A fellow writer has asked me if they're worth joining but I'd never come across them before, even though they claim to have been around since 2000. So I wondered if any AWers knew anything about them. Thanks.

http://www.fanstory.com/index1.jsp
 

tiakall

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There's a previous thread here: <snipped>

Find it odd that they claim to be a P&E "Truly Useful" site but I don't see them on the list at P&E: http://pred-ed.com/peasdt.ht. Am I missing it?

Would also like to know what actual benefit there is to their free membership, since their list of features and their list of paid features seem to be one and the same.
 
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Criccieth

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Thank you - this pretty much answers my own questions about it. That it asked for money to join the site to then pay fees to enter comps was enough to make me suspicious but this thread pretty much confirms it. Will look at the Critters rec though......