OCT 2011Authonomy Announces Digital Imprint
Dear authonomites
As some of you may have noticed, new faces have been popping up behind the virtual authonomy gates. Last month we announced that Scott Pack, Publisher at The Friday Project, had been appointed the new head of authonomy.com; Scott stepped onboard with this primary objective: to ensure that more of the great books on the site get published.
TODAY, WE'RE THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE THAT AS PART OF THIS INITIATIVE, SCOTT WILL BE LAUNCHING A DIGITAL PUBLISHING PROGRAMME DEDICATED TO AUTHONOMY'S BEST AUTHORS!
The books will be hand-picked by the Scott and the authonomy Editorial Board, worked on by HarperCollins' finest publishing teams, and published as HarperCollins digital originals across all possible devices. This new HarperCollins list will look to publish one book a month, starting in January 2012. Most importantly, all of the titles will have been discovered on the authonomy.com website and will be published digital originals. The bestselling titles will go on to have print editions.
Preparations for this new list are well underway. In fact, we've already found our first book: Mary Vensel White's The Qualities of Wood. Mary's beautifully written novel tells the story of a young married couple who decide to take a break from city life to renovate his late grandmother's country home, only to become enmeshed in the mysterious death of a young girl. Thanks to the overwhelming support of YOU, the authonomy communinty, Mary's novel reached the editor's desk this February. You loved its well-crafted prose and vivid characters. Well, so did we!
You can read the first 5 chapters of Mary's novel, as backed by you guys, here.
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Over the coming months we will also be implementing several other changes to authonomy and the site's functionality. These will include: new page designs, additional social networking features, improvements to forum control, and the opening up of authonomy to a greater range of writing. Plus, we promise to bring you more competitions and giveaways, as well as regular exposés on published authors, top authonomy authors, and the publishing industry.
Bear with us - these changes might not be perfect straightaway, but rest assured we will keep going until we've whipped authonomy into tip-top form. We'd love to hear your thoughts as we go along and any ideas you may have to help us make authonomy.com the best possible platform for writers, readers and publishers.
Drop us an email at yourauthonomy@harpercollins.co.uk.
Best wishes, Rachel, the authonomy team.
