As anyone who puts words to paper understands, sharing those words with the world for the first time takes a great leap of faith. Our words are in many ways a mirror to our souls and putting our very being on the line is something we can neither resist nor deny, no matter how uncomfortable the process may be.

There is a new website in Beta production from Random House called authonomy.com that helps make sharing those words with others an easier proposition. With the tagline of “we’re on a mission to flush out the brightest, freshest new writing talent around”, this site gives authors hungry for eyes to read their material a forum to post works finished or in-progress. Requirements are 10,000 words to upload and previously published works can be showcased as well.

The last few months have been discouraging for us with similar words from both agents and publishers, “Not now, the economy is tight”. Our goal has always been to get our story out there for others to read (and hopefully laugh a little, too). Yesterday we took the plunge and posted an excerpt of What Boundaries? Live Your Dream! on the authonomy.com site for critique.

Response and comments so far have been encouraging. I wanted to share this with you because all writers need a little encouragement now and then. It’s a new concept for a publishing house, but with a tight economy it may be one way they are adapting to the changing environment. For us, it’s more eyes to take a look at and comment on our book. If we play the law of averages just right, the next set of eyes just might belong to a publisher.
We’d also love to hear what YOU think.

Best of luck to all of you out there who are busy putting your soul on paper so others can be entertained or enlightened by what you write!