A B N A Vets Forum ABNA Forum

Don't think its just me (tried on 2 different machines), but the ABNA Forum is down. Last post was 51 minutes ago. 

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Wonder if ABNA is wanting to put a stop to the chit-chat.

Ahhh, I am probly just being a silly-sally!

Guess not, it's back up!

Hi everyone.  I finally figured out how to get into the group.   One question I do have is how do I accept the friends invite on this site?  I click the link, sign in and nothing really happens.  Am I missing something?

Theresa --

Not sure what you mean.  If you've gotten a friend invitation it'll show up in your mailbox, with a link that you follow, and there you'll find a green check and a red mark.  Click the green check to accept, the red mark to decline.

If you want to add someone as a friend, go to their profile page, click on "add as friend" in the box in the upper right hand corner, and the invitation goes out automatically, from you to them.

The "invite" tab on the group site is to invite friends to the group who aren't in it already.  I think when you do that the page appears blank sometimes, and you have to scroll down -- maybe not.  Anyhow, that brings up a menu of your friends to pick from.

Anyhow, the group is ABNA only -- if someone gets an account here and I'm not available to extend the invitation, and you know they're ABNA, any of you can invite them. They have to be your "friend" first.

Hmmm. The signal to noise ratio on the Amazon ABNA forum seems to have gone way, way, way down. I suppose that will remain true for the next week or so.... So, I'll be hanging out here, if anybody notices my absence over there.

Chrysoula, I hope you'll be reviewing as well as posting to this forum.

With the kids back in school starting tomorrow, I hope to have more time to review some of the offerings here.

It'll be serious reviewing, not strokes, because that's what I want from people who review me.  It's the only way to get ready for agents, editors, and contest judges.  When I see something I think works well (and there's always something) I'll mention that too, of course.

I definitely plan on doing some reviewing. I just need to make sure I get my own writing done first each day, and I'm still kind of sorting out my schedule after the upset of the holidays, and my husband's game launching and so forth. I was part of the SFF Online Writing Workshop when Del Rey sponsored it and I loved it.

Oh, but--

It may be a while before I post anything of my own for review. I have this thing where if I get feedback on something unfinished, I never seem to finish it. And since my current project is a Book 2 (book 1 is in the contest), I don't know if it'd be fair to try to get feedback on it when I'm ready for it. But I have some projects planned for later this year, if I can get this trilogy done.

I've been away for a week. Did I miss anything exciting on the ABNA Forum? I've had a bit of a look but so much has been written.

As a fellow Aussi I would like to thank Tom for raising the question of downloading entries.

Gayna

Gayna, there was a lot of silliness on the official forum, the usual concern about leaks of The List, and a bunch of interesting discussions.  And the stream has moved on, of course.

I'm trying to stay away from Amazon, myself, for the sake of my nerves.  I hope to be reviewing here soon, starting with the things I've saved to my library. 

(For those who haven't discovered it yet: If you want to remind yourself to read something you don't have time for at the moment, there's a box at the top right of every piece of writing here, where you'll find a place to save the writing on your profile, for future reference.)

The official forum's signal-to-noise ratio is something SETI should concern themselves with. It's horrible, really.

And I'm starting to hate myself for going there several times a day in expectancy of some valuable news regarding the contest. Yet despite repeated bitter disappointment I don't seem to learn.

Then don't go there. Despite the excitement a few weeks ago I doubt anything is going to happen until the clock runs out.

The competition will continue without you constantly checking the forum and there is nothing you can do now to change the outcome.

Chill out. Get on with your life... and only check once a day. 

Gayna

As it is now, I go there about 2 or 3 times a day, which doesn't seem much to me during a 12+ hour day in front of the computer. But still, it remains annoying to have the occasional interesting tidbit (like things about The List as it happens, or customer support replies) awash in so much white noise.

I wonder what it will look like after the first cut has been made on the 15th.

I wonder what will happen if most of the people who regularly contribute are not picked. Will the forum go quiet ... or will they carry on regardless?

If (heaven forbid) you are not in the cut will you continue to contribute? Will you even bother to look at it?

I guess I'd occasionally look, just to find out who's going to win.

But of course this isn't going to happen because we're all going to be in the cut...Aren't we?

Gayna

At least my interest in the official forum would cool off even more. I'd still risk the occasional look, but there wouldn't be much investment on my side.

As to whether I make the cut... hmmm, I don't know.

I'm quite Janus-faced about it, which probably mirrors my bipolar writing experience.

One half of me believes that there is absolutely no doubt that something as grand and important and ingenious as my writing (and it is none of those with a probability that borders on granite certainty) would pass the cut, while the other half of me believes that my writing made at least one reviewer claw his eyes out and leave bloody, slimy caves of flesh where they should have been. At least one other reviewer's brain probably fled into a coma to escape the agony headlong.

In general, I am quite happy that everyone who read my writing so far has never come into striking distance to beat my fingers into pulp and smash my face in for the literary audacity I committed. On my side there certainly is no sense of entitlement towards going anywhere with this contest. Whatever happens, happens.

So, yes, Tuesday is going to be very interesting, even if it won't change anything about my resolve to succeed as writer. I just might reconsider writing my next novel in my native tongue instead of English.

 Everytime I read about someone's entry, they always seem so much better than my ms and the writers seem so more knowledgeable about writing. (I have no writing qualifications, I just make it up as I go along.) But when I go back and read my writing I'm  always surprise by how good it is. I just hope the reviewers think the same.

I would like to make the cut, but I cannot seriously imagine winning. Although a trip to America would be nice except I don't have the time or, more importantly, the money to make a holiday of it. It would be a long way to come just to come second then get straight back on a flight to come back to Australia.

Gayna

I think the trip would still be worth it. Hanging out in New York, meeting some industry people, and enjoying solid prospects of signing a book deal anyway: all sound quite worth the effort.

Winning the whole damn thing aside, I'm convinced that at least the top ten will be able to secure very favourable deals, while perhaps up to the top thirty (just a wild guess, shot from the hip) might clinch minor deals that could get them into print and onto people's minds. There is some very valuable exposition to be had, even without outright winning the whole contest, and being evaluated by potentially interested agents or publishers might be all that is needed to kickstart one's career.

I'm pretty sure that the whole industry is following this contest quite closely for many reasons. There are too many big players involved with Penguin (world's 2nd largest book publishing group) and Amazon (largest online store and book seller), too much interesting marketing/research data, and too many implications regarding future industry trends to just ignore it and let it blow by.

The whole event is really incredibly interesting. :)

I agree the event is interesting and I like the idea of coming to the attention of publishers. The Australian publishing market is a tiny overcrowded pool. Any chance to draw international attention to your work is well worth pursuing.  

But if nothing comes of this competition I know I have learnt a lot. As someone who lives at the end of the world (even for Australian standards) this has resulted in me finding passage to larger more exciting world.

Gayna

Hey Mike, do you ever get the feeling we're the only people reading this because everyone else is busy chatting on the Amazon site and we've been left out in the cold.

Gayna

I'm here and there. There's not much being said over there. Terrible signal to noise. Here, signal quality is here, but activity is rarer.

But I've read and reviewed a couple of texts in various locations. Trying to decide if I have the energy to do more. Wondering if I'll ever have anything I'll want to put up.