Submitting a co-authored series: suggestions?

[SimonBrooke]

I've been working for some time on a story with spoiled_bratsche; the first section of it is up here.

I've submitted the second section, and have received a setback: it's been rejected with the message 'We currently have no way to link stories as a series if stories are submitted by different people.'

So basically, we have two options; first we submit all the parts under Brat's account, or we submit them with a text notice saying it's part of a series and what the other parts are, and hope that interested readers will find them by searching.

Which would you do?

 

[TxRad]

I've been working for some time on a story with spoiled_bratsche; the first section of it is up here.

I've submitted the second section, and have received a setback: it's been rejected with the message 'We currently have no way to link stories as a series if stories are submitted by different people.'

So basically, we have two options; first we submit all the parts under Brat's account, or we submit them with a text notice saying it's part of a series and what the other parts are, and hope that interested readers will find them by searching.

Which would you do?

I write with co-authors from time to time. Normally we make up a joint name and put all our stuff under that. Keeps things neat and clean. Never had a problem with Lit that way.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I write with co-authors from time to time. Normally we make up a joint name and put all our stuff under that. Keeps things neat and clean. Never had a problem with Lit that way.

that's what Joey's game and I did.

But I think-- I think Manu was talking about developing a way to link two authors together.

 

[TxRad]

that's what Joey's game and I did.

But I think-- I think Manu was talking about developing a way to link two authors together.

I think he meant linking different parts of a single story under two authors. The data base is set up by author name primary and story title secondary. Causes problems when you try to cross the two with as many old stories as there are here.

If they had started out that way, a whole lot of things would have been easier for so many things. Hindsight is so good, ain't it.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I think he meant linking different parts of a single story under two authors. The data base is set up by author name primary and story title secondary. Causes problems when you try to cross the two with as many old stories as there are here.

If they had started out that way, a whole lot of things would have been easier for so many things. Hindsight is so good, ain't it.

For anyone who wants to know why their favorite website can't make everything go their way-- here is some explanation from one of the builders of flickr;

http://revdancatt.com/2010/09/27/a-users-guide-to-websites-part-1-if-it-wasnt-broken-why-fix-it-2/

It isn't too impossibly geeky, I don't think. Jargon is at a minimum.

 

[oggbashan]

I've been working for some time on a story with spoiled_bratsche; the first section of it is up here.

I've submitted the second section, and have received a setback: it's been rejected with the message 'We currently have no way to link stories as a series if stories are submitted by different people.'

So basically, we have two options; first we submit all the parts under Brat's account, or we submit them with a text notice saying it's part of a series and what the other parts are, and hope that interested readers will find them by searching.

Which would you do?

It might work if you were to resubmit both as a Chain Story.

Og

 

[TxRad]

For anyone who wants to know why their favorite website can't make everything go their way-- here is some explanation from one of the builders of flickr;

http://revdancatt.com/2010/09/27/a-users-guide-to-websites-part-1-if-it-wasnt-broken-why-fix-it-2/

It isn't too impossibly geeky, I don't think. Jargon is at a minimum.

Yeah, that's the short version but to the layman it should explain a lot.

Good writing style also.

 

[rgraham666]

I'm never writing with a co-author again.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I'm never writing with a co-author again.

I'm afraid I've made a few people say that...

 

[SimonBrooke]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. In the end we've decided just to post alternate chapters under our own names, and trust those of our readers who are sufficiently interested to be able to link them together themselves. OK, I know that that requires a certain sophistication on the part of the reader, but I'm a snob, OK?

We essentially wrote by 'role-playing' in text chat (and yes, you nasty-minded individuals, it most certainly was that sort of chat), and then took alternate episodes to write up; we wrote up in a Google document we both have access to, and the convention we use is to write new material in coloured text, and then the other person reads that text and, if they're satisfied, they recolour it black. If, on the other hand, they want to change it they add changes in a new colour.

Writing with spoiled_bratsche has been all pleasure; I'd certainly do it again, without hesitation. However for geographical reasons we were never going to be lovers in real life. So although I'm certain we will remain in touch and friends it's most unlikely we'll do this sort of exercise again.

But it was great fun to do!

 

[EmeraldKitten]

I'm never writing with a co-author again.

Yeah, just using someone for inspiration is a lot easier, isn't it? lol.

Matriarch and I co-wrote... we opted to submit to her page, since her's had more traffic than mine, that way it would get more reads. We discussed writing a part 2, but that would have also just gone to hers.
I would probably just submit them all under the other person's name. Might be the easiest way to do it.

Good luck!

 

[spoiled_bratsche]

My thanks as well to everyone who shared ideas. Access to collective wisdom and energy is one of the most delightful things about the Interwebs.

The Chain Story guidelines specify 3 or more authors, so I assumed at the outset that we couldn't go that way. Probably should have asked about that beforehand.

We also thought about creating a new joint identity, but one of the great benefits of having posted a piece which is greeted with enthusiasm is additional traffic to one's other work, as I've found out this week, and while some readers would be motivated to take the extra time to hunt for our respective individual pages, the absence of that single clickable link would, I imagine, reduce that somewhat.

That was also an obstacle to simply posting all the remaining episodes under my byline; readers who enjoy the episodes that are primarily Simon's creations should be directed to his page and not mine (though I certainly wouldn't turn them away!).

On the subject of credit where it's due, Simon is too much of a gentleman to say that the entire project was his idea, and that the whole thing would have been finished long since if he hadn't decided to hobble himself to a co-author so very much less experienced and so just plain slow. But I'm grateful that he did. I've benefited tremendously, I've had and continue to have a splendid time working on this, and I have a treasured new friend. So I enthusiastically recommend collaboration to one and all!

 

[sr71plt]

I write with co-authors from time to time. Normally we make up a joint name and put all our stuff under that. Keeps things neat and clean. Never had a problem with Lit that way.

That's how I handle it too. I write with Sabb here under the separate account of Shabbu. The coauthorship is explained in Shabbu's profile--not on each posted story.