Fringe Fiction Unlimited discussion

I just wanted to ask the question. There is loads of space to rec books, but it feels like all the discussion posts are aimed at writers. I thought this was worth bringing up because we've just gone through a big renovation, but I still don't comment because none of the conversations are aimed at people like me. :-(

This is a great question especially since this part of the reason I stopped participating in the group. It didnt feel like it was for me and I had no clue how to change it except to hang out in the chit chat thread.

It's for both. At least that's what I'm trying to do. So authors can connect and feel welcome and readers can recommend and find new authors to read. Hmm that should be the groups New mission statement.

Justin wrote: "authors can connect and feel welcome and readers can recommend and find new authors to read"

That's just the thing. All the communication is between the authors. When you talk about readers it's just recommending books. But a big part of recommending books is knowing the person and to do that we need to talk about other things than book rec's. That's what I feel is missing.

Virginia wrote: "Justin wrote: "authors can connect and feel welcome and readers can recommend and find new authors to read"

That's just the thing. All the communication is between the authors. When you talk about..."

Hi Virginia,
I understand what you mean. I want to make this an equal group for both readers and authors. If you have any suggestions on how we can make it more reader friendly please let me know and I will do my best to see if we can make it happen.

I do have one idea, how about a buddy read? I know group and buddy reads are big in other groups I'm part of only I don't particularly take part in them and we would need a lot more participation from group members before we could get a group read going. I would say a buddy read would be a smaller way to get something going.

I will try to come up with more ideas for readers and if you or anyone have any ideas please let me know in the suggestions thread.

Thanks,
Justin

I do enjoy the buddy reads in other groups. In some groups and in others it doesnt. It does depend on how committed people are to participating. And since this is a group that isnt centered around one genre of fiction, we'll have to switch it up so there is something for everyone

If you'd like to get this going Shari by all means..you are a moderator after all.

I didnt realize I was still on as a mod but no thank you, I prefer being just a regular member.

Several of the other groups I'm in do an annual common read (with more spontaneous ones sometimes, depending on interest), and another group does bi-monthly common reads and any number of "buddy-reads" for multiple people, that are really mini common reads. (I usually think of an actual buddy read as just involving two people, with discussion mostly by personal messages.) Usually, I only take part in the annual reads. But one important consideration that we've followed in picking books for these (at least, in the groups where I'm a moderator) is that it needs to be a book that's not hard to obtain by interlibrary loan, so that group members who want to participate aren't forced to buy a copy of the book in order to do so (unless they want to buy one!).

For a group with our focus, that consideration poses a problem. Very few small press and indie novels or story collections are widely available in libraries. (As both an author and a librarian, I have a bit of an inside perspective on that.) The library where I work has a few (mostly acquired by donation --we're a college library, so don't buy much current fiction), and I don't have any prejudice against them; but many librarians are at least cautious about books that haven't been reviewed in library trade journals. (And it's also very hard for indie and small press books to get reviews in those venues.) That's just a thought to consider!

Weren't we doing group reads a while ago...quite a while ago, I think? I believe it was set up so indie authors could suggest their book and then a poll would be set up to vote on which one we'd read. The author would then offer their book free or cheap, which would get around the lack of library copies. This would be a great way to involve readers and writers in a common discussion.

Ericka wrote: "Weren't we doing group reads a while ago...quite a while ago, I think? I believe it was set up so indie authors could suggest their book and then a poll would be set up to vote on which one we'd re..."

I am all for getting group reads going again assuming we get enough people interested and nobody spams their books. What you are referring to is the Pay It Forward reads which we did but stopped after the die down of the group. I'd also like to get that going again too. Perhaps I will run a poll to see if people are interested in doing one.