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There are two hot book-related issues in the media this week firstly electronic book readers following the U.K release of the Sony Reader and secondly HarperCollins' new authonomy site. I've been aware of both for a while now so what do I think of them? Well its hard to really judge the reader without having a proper look at one, but from what I've read they're easy to use and can hold up to 160 books. They also have an excellent battery which is really important as there's nothing more annoying with gadgets than finding they've died when you want to use them. It is almost very light and has the advantage of no backlight. Would I want one? Yeah, I probably would but they're too pricey for me at the moment (£199 from Waterstone's although they come with a free CD including 100 classic novels) . Would I stop buying books because of them? I doubt it, I have an ipod but I still buy CDs and vinyl. They are also in black and white so at the moment they're only going to be good for fiction. I can't imagine big, beautiful coffee table books disappearing or my favourite 'art of' animation books. I think it would be good if you could read samples of books through them before deciding to buy - I must admit to not knowing if this is the case yet. I've never been one of those people happy to read a chapter or two in a bookshop before deciding to buy so this could save some expensive mistakes. There are also books you know you're going to want to keep and those you won't, as a colleague pointed out if a book is really good you're probably going to want to buy the real thing after having read it electronically. The major drawback I've heard about with electronic readers (another popular make in America is the Kindle) though is that they can go blank for a moment when turning pages which draws you out of the story and also that you can't really flick back a few pages to double check something like double checking a clue or character name. Find out more at www.waterstones.com Now onto the authonomy site. This is a website run by HarperCollins publishers as a way for writers to have their unpublished books read. HC do not accept unsolicited manuscripts so this is supposed to replace the slushpile. There are a few other sites around like this and they all basically work the same way. You upload your book or part of it (in this case 10,000 words or more) and then readers get to vote and comment on it. In return you do the same for other books. The most popular (which should in theory mean the best) are then passed on to an editorial team. On Authonomy they will pick out the top five on a regular basis. The problem with these kind of sites is there are too many people and too many books on them. At the moment there are almost 500 books up for consideration. The later you join then I would imagine the harder it is to move up the ranks. The site has also been running in BETA form (visible to only a chosen few) so again I guess they have a head start. It doesn't say how they were chosen. You have to register to join or read the books and I like the fact that authors can remove their story at any point. 10,000 words is an awfully big chunk of a book though and I'm not sure there's any advantage to having so much on show. HarperCollins state that the wordcount requirement is to guarantee that the books are complete or thereabouts. Its not for me, I did once join another community site like this but never posted anything. The next time I went on there was a harsh childlish message saying I was banned ... forever - I don't think I've ever laughed so hard. Let me know what you think about authonomy and electronic readers through the website and if you have a website too mention you'd like me to include the details.

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