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You are here: Home > Forum > A Place of Safety > Literary Merit > Hosting of eBooks
Hosting of eBooks  [message #77470] Fri, 13 November 2020 07:21 Go to next message
Talo Segura is currently offline  Talo Segura

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Location: Europe
Registered: July 2019
Messages: 103



"Teddy wrote on Fri, 13 November 2020 08:03"
Thanks for the recommendation, Tim. As soon as I am finished here I will go to Amazon and get it.

I have discovered that for a very modest fee you can purchase a Kindle Unlimited subscription, at least here in the US, and find many of the books of this genre and many others available for free. This discovery has saved me quite a few $$$ since I discovered it last summer.

--
I have been trying to get any main stream site (I call this main stream) interested in hosting free gay themed ebooks, but without success for now. In the meantime, I have my own and a couple of other free ebooks here: https://the-gay-fiction-library.site123.me

A
pologies for slightly highjacking the topic, the book recommendation looks very interesting. I love stories set in the recent past and the picture on the cover is very in-keeping with the epoch. Will check it out.

Re: Lost Lad  [message #77471 is a reply to message #77470] Fri, 13 November 2020 20:16 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
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I don't recall being asked to host ebooks, but I am not against the idea at all. Let me ask, though, if the story is serialised here then what is the real difference between that and an eBook?



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: Hosting of eBooks  [message #77472 is a reply to message #77470] Sat, 14 November 2020 06:52 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Talo Segura is currently offline  Talo Segura

Likes it here
Location: Europe
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Messages: 103



I don't know the numbers, however, some readers only read completed books (I presume all books are complete on this site, so not an issue), some readers do not like to read in instalments (given that here, you publish chapters frequently, usually three per week, books are on the site in their entirety very quickly, so not really any issue).

This leaves open the discussion of what else is different between reading online serialised webpages and ebooks. Leaving aside the possibly better presentation of ebooks, that they bookmark where you get to, and are easily readable between devices (on the move) and offline (webpages you need an internet connection or to save for offline reading). The big difference I see as the approach to the service provided.

Sites like GA offer a platform for authors to try their hand a writing with comments and likes, feedback to authors. There are non-gay sites which do the same. Those sites have lots of unfinished stories, but that is the nature of that kind of platform.

This site, along with a few other similar sites, offers a platform to read gay themed (teenage romance) books and short stories. It follows the concept of serialised chapter posting because it started after the first gay story sites (Niffty etc.) offered a platform to post gay stories. The difference is, this site accepts submissions, chooses, and posts stories it accepts. There is no author posting. It seems to me to be more a publishing house for authors to place their work online. So why not offer the platform of a publishing house: promotion of new stories, discussion of story issues/topics, interviews with authors.

The forum already addresses a lot of this book discussion, however, the site is one with a foot in every camp: serialised chapters, story discussion, gay issue discussion, or any issues/topics (from serious to humourous). I only know a little about what readers (who, presumably, are the main supporters of the site) want. I wouldn't presume to speak for everyone, but commonly, readers want to read: completed quality gay themed books which they can find and read easily. How do you find these books? Well you know yourself, you follow recommendations, read reviews, synopsis, extracts, look at the cover. 

Essentially, I can't help but think the ideal is a library organising gay themed novels and short stories by genre in an attractive way (with covers) accompanied by some recommendations and discussions. A rather different platform to anything that exists, at least as far as gay stories for free, and the common format of ebooks would seem ideal for such a library. If you like, it's a new approach for the 21st century, however, we need to hear other members views to see what people think, these are only my own ideas, born out of readers saying "I only read completed stories," "I saw your story, I think, but forgot about it," I want to read the next book, how long before I can," etc.

Re: Hosting of eBooks  [message #77473 is a reply to message #77472] Sat, 14 November 2020 07:58 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

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Location: UK, in Devon
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The places that encourage readers to place sycophantic comments have long struck me as offensive by their allowing it. Here the effort is made to make it very easy to contact the author directly.

"What a lovely chapter, I can't wait for the next" is a typical comment in such places and is simply the comment writer wishing to be heard.

The forum here is different, distanced purposely and historically from the stories to seek to prevent self aggrandising comment writers. It succeeds in that, though true discussions on stories are rare because very few folk seem to wish to start them

[Updated on: Sat, 14 November 2020 14:04]




Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: Hosting of eBooks  [message #77474 is a reply to message #77473] Sat, 14 November 2020 13:20 Go to previous messageGo to next message
joecasey is currently offline  joecasey

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I used to submit stories to GA. They have (or had) some kind of point-based ratings system; every post, every comment on message threads and other socially-interactive parts of the site would earn the poster points. It seemed to me that the least-reliable way to get these points was to actually submit a story. This might explain the "sycophantic comments" that you see. I remember one poster in particular who used to post a synopsis of EVERY chapter he read of whatever story he was currently reading; it made no sense, but it boosted his ranking on the site. GA is good about publishing a wide range of stories, once you get past their trial period for new authors (a kind of limbo) and the rather inconsistently-applied ministrations of the grammar martinets who run the site.
Re: Hosting of eBooks  [message #77475 is a reply to message #77474] Sat, 14 November 2020 14:02 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



Now I understand the sycophant's rationale!  It's a commment competition!  Thank you Joe. I'd far rather know what someone thinks  than what they think I'd like to hear, though. I'm self aware enough to know I am capable of writing drivel while thinking it to be wonderful.

Reviewers on Amazon / Goodreads have a weird tendency to regurgitate the plot, too. I want to say to them, "Either review the book or write it yourself."

With grammar (etc) issues, I take a different view. I ask the author if their usage was intentional if I find it to be unusual. It's their story, after all. Odd constructs can be a literary stratagem. Sometimes they work less well than the author hopes.

[Updated on: Sat, 14 November 2020 16:24]




Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: Hosting of eBooks  [message #77492 is a reply to message #77475] Thu, 26 November 2020 00:23 Go to previous message
Teddy is currently offline  Teddy

Really getting into it
Location: USA
Registered: October 2006
Messages: 484



"timmy wrote on Sat, 14 November 2020 06:02"
With grammar (etc) issues, I take a different view. I ask the author if their usage was intentional if I find it to be unusual. It's their story, after all. Odd constructs can be a literary stratagem. Sometimes they work less well than the author hopes.

--
This is a well made point and why writers should at least attmpt to run their work past a beta reader or editor. As for the "odd construct" sometimes those are regional or cultural in nature that the author takes for granted the reader will understand. Feedback is critical, I think, in making someone a better author.



“There's no grays, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is.” - Terry Pratchett
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