Do any of the pros here know someone at Christopher Little or Curtis Brown and can verify their involvement with this? That would go a long way to divert suspicion.
Frankly, youwriteon, some of your wording leaves me concerned.
"Christopher Little and Curtis Brown consider recommended chapters"
"... are considered by affiliated top UK literary agencies each month"
What does "consider" mean? Curtis Brown considers hundreds of queries and sample chapters every month. They considered mine (and rejected it). Do you mean they actively encourage submission of your winning projects and give them special attention? Or do they just allow these submissions, giving them no more attention than anything else in the slush pile.
"We are funded by Arts Council, England - the UK’s largest grant giving body for the arts"
There are lots of things funded by arts councils all over the world. Many of them are not always worth while. (We've all seen articles about some of the ridiculous things arts councils have given money for.) Arts councils exist to give money away and they're not necessarily publishing professionals.
I'm not saying that YouWriteOn is a scam. Far from it. However, I question whether it's worthwhile. I don't think you've demonstrated that writers are any better off by using your service than they would be using other critique means (crit groups, writer's sites, workshops, etc.) With over 8000 reviews, surely SOMEONE would have been offered representation by now!
Basically, you're providing an unpaid slush-pile reading service. You're not giving all writers a better chance, just the best ones. Nothing wrong with that, but I contend that those writers would have succeeded without the service. If it was good enough to be the highest rated submission, some agent somewhere would pick it up.
I don't see anything wrong with what you're doing. I think it does provide a service. But I don't think it's anything revolutionary or industry-changing. You've just moved the slush-pile one more step away from the publisher. Your reviewers might better spend their time working on their own writing rather than giving away it away reviewing other writers for you.
Frankly, youwriteon, some of your wording leaves me concerned.
"Christopher Little and Curtis Brown consider recommended chapters"
"... are considered by affiliated top UK literary agencies each month"
What does "consider" mean? Curtis Brown considers hundreds of queries and sample chapters every month. They considered mine (and rejected it). Do you mean they actively encourage submission of your winning projects and give them special attention? Or do they just allow these submissions, giving them no more attention than anything else in the slush pile.
"We are funded by Arts Council, England - the UK’s largest grant giving body for the arts"
There are lots of things funded by arts councils all over the world. Many of them are not always worth while. (We've all seen articles about some of the ridiculous things arts councils have given money for.) Arts councils exist to give money away and they're not necessarily publishing professionals.
I'm not saying that YouWriteOn is a scam. Far from it. However, I question whether it's worthwhile. I don't think you've demonstrated that writers are any better off by using your service than they would be using other critique means (crit groups, writer's sites, workshops, etc.) With over 8000 reviews, surely SOMEONE would have been offered representation by now!
Basically, you're providing an unpaid slush-pile reading service. You're not giving all writers a better chance, just the best ones. Nothing wrong with that, but I contend that those writers would have succeeded without the service. If it was good enough to be the highest rated submission, some agent somewhere would pick it up.
I don't see anything wrong with what you're doing. I think it does provide a service. But I don't think it's anything revolutionary or industry-changing. You've just moved the slush-pile one more step away from the publisher. Your reviewers might better spend their time working on their own writing rather than giving away it away reviewing other writers for you.