Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Forums

Hey Gloria, I'm glad you like the new challenge and that you're getting in at the start!  Sounds like you've got a plan in place already to get your hands on some great reads.  Best of luck with the challenge and thanks for spreading the word!  So, how are you going to pick your random author?  Are you going to do that up front or later in the year?

Sorry y'all, I was out of town yesterday.  Let me catch up:

@gloker: You can use whatever method you want to come up with your random author.  Your friend should have an idea of what you might like so that sounds like a good option.

@burninglove: I find it interesting that Howard chose to write under a female pen name.  Male authors, or even authors not obviously female, sell easier apparently.  Howard has forgone the natural market advantage of her male given name yet it does not seem to have been a problem for her career.

@Engelbrecht: I knew we'd be seeing you in the challenge again this year.  Glad you like the theme.  Sounds like it fits your own goals like a glove.  Going half and half all year is a big personal challenge - good luck!

@Spindizzy: Thanks for pointing out the broken link.  Turns out there were 2 on that page and both have been corrected.  For the random author button we're going to put in a random picker but we've not coded it yet.  There's a space and an under construction notice at the top of the WoGF page for it.  Should be ready sometime next week.  In the mean time you can devise whatever method suits you to pick your random author.  As for indicating which is your random pick we hope you'll tell us in your review.  It's not a requirement or anything but it'll be interesting for everyone else to see how you fared.  Were you pleasantly surprised, utterly disappointed or just meh about the experience?

@DrNefario: Read more books than you buy?  I suspect that most folks who visit WWEnd can relate to that desire and we probably have as much chance of pulling it off as we do of winning the lottery!  eBooks have made it harder still.  One click purchase for Kindle has been brutal for my virtual book stacks.

@shanaqui: Welcome to WWEnd and the WoGF Reading Challenge!  I like that you found us through a group discussion elsewhere.  Can you hit us with a link?  If 12 books is not enough of a challenge we certainly encourage you to double up!  We figured 12 with the 12 reviews was a doable challnge for most folks and would not really force anyone to pass up on the many other challenges available.  If we get enough people wanting to go to 24 we'll consider updating the code to accomodate it.

Thanks everyone!

Welcome to WWEnd and the WoGF Reading Challenge!

On the All Women Authors page you can select up to 12 authors total for the challenge.  Once you've picked 12 the checkboxes will be disabled so you can't go over.  If you want to change one you'll have to unselect an existing author in your list to activate the checkboxes for your new selection.  Refresh the page and your active authors will all rise up to the top so you can get to them easier.  You can change authors anytime you want but once you've tagged a book for an author you won't be able to change them unless you untag the book first.

Hope that helps!  Let me know if you have any problems or more questions.

Just post it on the novel page.  We read all the reviews and pick the best to feature in the blog.  At the end of the month we'll have a short list that will be posted in a forum poll for everyone to vote on.  We're expecting to have 10-20 reviews in the running each month.

Hey gloker, good deal on your first read for the challenge.  On the novel page you have to mark the book as read before you can check the box to count it for your challenge.  The checkbox is diabled until you select the radio for "Read".  Let me know if you have any trouble.

dustydigger - 2013-01-10 4:16 PM Dave,my old mate! What a fantastic response to the new challenge.WHERE have all these people been hiding? What an amazing variety of new authors too,many of whom I have never even heard of.We could extend this challenge for about three years,and still only scratch the surface! Thanks all you people posting for the first time,and I hope you will continue to participate in the group.The more the merrier. I am still finalizing my list,but I have chosen my random author.Closed my eyes and picked out....Angela Carter! Thats an intriguing choice.I think I will choose Nights at the Circus. We are going to have a fantastic year,with double the reviews.Cant wait!.And this should put the final cherry on the WWEnds site.Way to go,Dave and the team.Thank you for all the work you do.This site will go from strength to strength!

Hey DD, yeah, the response has been really great so far!  I think we've tapped into something really special here.  Imagine if we get 500 reviews from the challenge.  (A conservative estimate.)  That will be a really positive step towards promoting women authors that will last a long time.  These reviews can be that little thing that makes people look a little closer at women authors.  That's going to be a nice feather in our little community's cap.  You guys and gals are awesome.

Maybe we should all take a guess at where we'll end up in a year.  Like guessing how many jellybeans are in the jar.  Closest to the final total wins a prize?  We could guess number of particpants, books read and reviews submitted.

Hey gloker, that's a great question and it looks like we didn't really spell it out completely in the challenge rules so I better clarify.

- Only one review per member per month will be considered for the WWEnd blog.

If you submit 2 reviews in January and we pick your first one to feature in the WWEnd blog your second won't be picked.  This is to ensure that everyone has an equal shot at the prizes each month else folks that read fast or have more time to read will have an unfair advantage.

This is a departure from last year's challenge rules where we allowed multiple reviews per member to count each month because there was only one big prize (book and t-shirt). If you put in more than one you ran the risk of splitting your votes anyway. With 3 prizes we don't want to end up in a situation where one member wins multiple prizes in the same month. You can always win multiple prizes - just not in the same month.

- Only reviews submitted in the current month are eligible for selection for the WWEnd blog.

So again, if you post 2 reviews in January they only count for January.  If the first one does not get picked, which usually happens within a few days of the posting, the second review could still be picked but at the expense of another month down the line.  You can only post 12 reviews for the challenge total.  Come February, you'll have to submit another review to have a chance at the February prizes.

The best option, to maximize your chances if winning, is to submit one review per month and make it the best review you can write.  You can get up to 12 entries over the course of the year and each entry gives you 3 chances to win a prize.  You can, of course, submit as many reviews as you like each month and simply not count them for your challenge.  Our hunger for good reviews is insatiable and we won't turn any down, I promise!

There are 36 gift cards totaling $600! up for grabs in the WoGF and we want to spread the love around as much as possible.  If we had 36 different prize winners that would be just fine by us. The most any one member can win is $300 - that's if they won first place all 12 months.  An unlikely scenario but it could happen.

That's a lot of free books, or whatever it is people will buy with the cards!

I hope that explains everthing sufficiently. I'll post this on the challenge page too.  If anyone has any questions, please let me know.

Thanks, gloker, for the great question. I'm glad this came up before the first poll!

I sure like the idea of a double challenge for those that want to go for it but I don't know how to reconcile that with our desire to give everyone a fair shot at the prizes.  I suppose if you let me know your doppleganger's identity we could leave that account out of the review polls.  That doesn't really seem fair either though.  Anyone have any thoughts on the double?

4 books already?!  Oh my.  I'm 166 pages into The Silver Ship and the Sea, my first WoGF book, and I'm quite pleased with myself for being that far along.  So very jealous.  Glad you're having fun with the challenge and we're happy we got to introduce you to the rabbit hole we call WWEnd!  And thanks to you an everyone else for all the great reviews!

Well, I guess if I did make a second account and let you know about it, you could make sure that only one of my reviews got picked, if any.

Edited by shanaqui 2013-01-15 6:27 AM