Win US edition of The Bird Room by Chris Killen, signed, and probably with drawings
A signed and scribbled in copy of the (hard to come by in the UK) US edition of the (brilliant) novel, The Bird Room, by Chris Killen is available as a prize to a person who comments on this blog by 10th March.
To enter, comment anywhere on this blog, from the publication of this post until midnight on 10th March. You can comment on any of the posts on the blog – book discussions are open indefinitely so you could comment on one of them; ALTERNATIVELY you could comment on this post and let us know what you think of Yet-to-be-books, where you think it could go in the future, the format, any additional things we could do, etc. You get one entry in the draw per comment posted; my rats will pick a winner soon after the 10th, Mr Killen will sign and draw in the book for you and I’ll put it in the post. People outside the UK can enter…the prize may take a little longer to reach you.
You CAN post multiple comments – the point is to encourage discussion – but be warned that any comments split into multiples for the sake of it will be disregarded by the rats. They take a similarly dim view of comments like ‘I would like to win the book’ and ‘please provide biscuits’. Genuine contributions to discussion only, ta. You don’t need to register with WordPress or anything to comment, but to win the book you’ll need to comment in a way that links your comment to your email address, e.g. a link to your blogger identity.
So…what do you think?
Yet-to-be books 
Some questions to consider…
What do you think of the format of the blog and how it works as a discussion group? Any suggestions? (Remember you don’t have to have submitted a book to comment; you might be thinking of submitting one in the future or are just interested in the discussions. Have a look at the ‘about’ page and a general browse around the discussion posts)
Anything else you think we could be doing? Some sort of anthology of extracts? Guest posts? Guest readers?
Are you thinking of joining in but none of this is making any sense to you? Request clarification!
The two main aims of Yet-to-be-books are to get readers for finished books while they’re waiting on slow-moving submission/publication processes, and to get publicity for finished books though discussion in the public domain. Any comment on this?
Comment on this post to share your thoughts 🙂
Guest posts are always nice to have.
So Yet-to-be-book is a publicity blog for authors with coming-out books? Not sure I understand.
Hi Melissa
It’s a discussion blog for writers with as-yet-unpublished books – they can have an agent or be mid-submission, as long as they’re not actually published. The discussions are a bit like a book club…pdfs are sent out to members (people who have joined up, also having a book to sumbit) a month before the discussion starts, though anyone is welcome to comment. There’s an initial hour session to focus discussion, but the discussion is left open indefinitely. The idea is to relieve some of the frustration unpublished authors feel at not having a reader, and to get the books some extra incidental publicity. Bit more here – https://yettobebooks.wordpress.com/about-2/ Shout if any of that doesn’t make sense! Thanks for your comment!
Yup it makes sense. So you are looking for beta readers so the unpublished authors can test their work, and then their will be a critique group of sorts.
That’s it, although the aim is more to get the proper readership for the books (novels, collections of short stories or poems, comics, whatever) they’re not getting while unpublished, and discuss them on their own merits, rather than critique them in the sense of offering suggestions for improvement. That said, writers do often get ideas for developments from taking part in the group, and criticism is fine, as long as it’s not an overarching negative. This is because the discussion is in the public domain and it wouldn’t be fair to negatively review books that haven’t yet had a chance at publication. Anyone can comment, but the books are only sent to those who have a book of their own to submit – this, hopefully, helps make things reciprocal and instills trust.
Maybe it would be a good Idea to have “in-between” posts that talk about the writing process or the publishing process from the authors attributed to this group. It might bring others into the mix that are maybe too shy or not sure if they have the time, etc., as well as promote the writers and their practices even more.
Very good idea Brian – want to submit one? Personally, I think it would be good to have writers who’ve had their book discussed, talking about their experience of the discussion and their writing / submission / publication experiences to date. Blogging on the writing process has already been done well elsewhere. I could be wrong…any other thoughts?
Interested but shy? What one thing would encourage you to join up?
I think for me the group works well as a forum for seeing what other completed but not-yet-published books are out there, and I’ve enjoyed reading others’ work & discussing them on the blog.
I think its only draw-back is that, as a public forum, we have to be careful of plot spoilers which limits what we can say to some extent – although I don’t feel it has been detrimental to the discussions in any way. I’m certainly nervous about plot spoilers when my book comes up for discussion on 21st March!
Obviously it isn’t a critical discussion group as such, so authors looking for in-depth critical discussions of their work can’t get that in this space as it’s too public – I for one wouldn’t want that kind of conversation going on in the public realm! Also, many writers wouldn’t feel comfortable discussing their work in such depth in a group context anyway, and I feel the level of our discussions works well in the scope of what it intends to do. It would be great if more writers who have finished their novel but haven’t had it published yet got involved as it’s good to have a sense of movement – of something happening – when the writing itself has finished and the writer is looking for (or thinking of looking for!) a publisher and/or agent.
I agree Jane…I think the public discussions could be helpful in creating a buzz around a book before it’s published – I use a link to the discussion of my book in my email signature and I think a few others do too. As a ‘book club’ rather than ‘critical’ type discussion, the aim is that writers get that sense of movement as you say; that their book is being read as a book, and has not slid into a black hole while they’re waiting on agents / publishers.
For those who would like some critical feedback – what do you think of an offshoot of Yet-to-be-books where writers can contact each other via the group admin and organise private discussions of their work?
And the winner is…Brian. The rats have chosen. Book heading your way.
Surprise announcement! Chris has donated us a second book, so there is a second winner! Well done Jane, you’re the rats’ next choice.