I am a new member and have just signed up for the free one month trial.
I am conteplating whether the full membership is worth the, relatively high, asking price of £35 per annum. Who better to turn to than the members themselves.

I am a PoD published author with two young adult fantasy novels to my name and sales in excess of 600 books in the past 18 months. I am very active on the promotion front and attend various book shops for signings, craft fairs and lit fests to promote my work.

What benefits do YOU think I would receive from becoming a full WW member?
I can obviously evaluate some over the coming month, but as you know, not all areas are open to me unless I become a full member.

Looking forward to any advice received and thanks for bearing with me (as I'm sure this has been asked a few times before).

Taff

A tricky question because only you are fully conversant with your position as a writer; only you really know what you want out of a site.

All I can tell you is what I personally get out of Write Words, speaking as a moderately established author from a mainstream publishing house.

I get to debate all kinds of aspects of craft, which is something that helps my development as a writer. I get to ask technical questions, and questions about the publishing industry, and about writing protocol, and when I ask I have the choice of appealing publicly to everyone here, or to a small group, or privately to an individual. I've been in receipt of some excellent advice during the time I've been a member.

I get to network, and to make writing friends. I get support and I have the chance to engage in banter, which is important for me now I work from home and see no one but the Betterware man from dawn till dusk.

I get to look at people's work and give crits, which helps my ability to see my own work in a critical light.

I have the sense of being part of a community.

There's probably all sorts of other stuff too, but my husband's waiting to get on the computer, so I'd best wrap up!

moderately

Ahem!!

Welcome Taff.

Yes, i'd agree with all of the above. don't know whether you belong to any other writing sites, but from what i know this one is particularly well run and i don't think you'll find a more supportive/safe-feeling writing site on the net on which to air your questions and opinions and plain simple banter.

Yup, I also thought it was expensive at the outset, and tried a month's trial before going for the cheaper option of £20. I can honestly say it has been worth every penny -forking out cold hard cash does make one more committed to one's writing.
As for the benefits - all I can say is you reap what you sow.

- NaomiM

Hi Taff, and welcome to WW.

As Kate, Casey and Naomi have said, you get out what you put in. The members who benefit from the site tend to be the ones who jump in and participate, both in the groups and in the forums.

The Private Members forum is a recent innovation. It’s where we can have private writing-related discussions about our work, about agents, publishers, deals… I think it would be worth the money for that alone. And don’t forget, if you're earning from your writing, the subscription for WW will be tax-deductible.

If you need any help finding your way around the site, give Nik Perring or me a shout.

Dee

Thanks all.

I do hang out at a couple of author forums at www.authors2you.co.uk and on the Lulu forum (even though I am not published via Lulu) at www.lulu.com. (plus a few other genre related forums).
I don't get too much out of Lulu but I get a lot from www.Authors2you.co.uk where we have a small community of authors sharing ideas and experiences and even costs for adverts and signing events at shows and festivals.

I also understand what you mean when you say you get out what you put in.
One of the reasons that I am keen to get opinions from members of WW is that I need to cut down the number of forums in which I participate as they can be very time consuming (especially as I do not like to see a cry for help go unheeded).
As I do a lot towards running A2Y, I will obviously stay with that but I hope that WW gives me a slightly different slant on my 'career' as a writer and can be supplemental for me (and other A2Y members should they choose to jump across).

So far all I have read about WW has been positive with the only exception being a few individuals complaining about the cost, but as you say, if you don't put anything in then any cost can be deemed expensive. (even the £5 per annum charged by A2Y)

I'll certainly check out the varous aspects of WW and hopefully I'll be around for a while yet and that I find it good value to become a full member.

Thanks to all for the replies.

Taff
taff@lovesey.net

The cost is an issue, but I think it does mean that everyone on WW, whether they're a beginner poet or a published best-selling novelist, and whether they crit assiduously in a single Group or post in forums all over the place, is very, very serious about writing in general and their own and other members' in particular.

Not that things don't get pretty frivolous sometimes, thank goodness, but the background is that we all think this stuff matters, and understand why it matters so much to each other. I for one value that hugely, and I think it's one reason that the atmosphere on WW is both very supportive and very rigorous. It's not such a common combination.

Emma

I've just had a look at A2Y, as far as I could without registering, and the difference between the two sites quickly became obvious.

What WW offers, and this is probably no help to you, Taff, is to offer a place where unpublished writers are not excluded. WW recognises that a writer can be equally serious about their work whether they're a raw beginner or someone with a mainstream publishing deal. We do not discriminate against writers who are still learning the craft, still working to produce that first novel, still needing advice and encouragement from those who have made the leap into the world of the published.

That’s not to say that sites like A2Y don’t have their place – of course they do – but the accessibility of WW to all writers, whatever stage of their career they're at, is one of the best reasons I can think of for its existence.

Dee

the accessibility of WW to all writers, whatever stage of their career they're at, is one of the best reasons I can think of for its existence

I fully agree with this. I don't think I would have reached a point where I could try for a publishing deal without WriteWords. I've met incredibly generous, encouraging and supportive people here. Now that I have a deal, I've been invited to join another authors' society, but I'm only allowed in once my book is published next year. The trouble is, I have questions and concerns right now! I think this site is truly invaluable.

Agreeing with Dee and Luisa. There are things which the published and unpublished don't have in common (there are things which the self-published don't have in come with the published, after all) and there are forums for each. But there's an awful lot which they do have in common and WW seems to me one of the few places where we all meet on equal terms.

I was an early WWer to get a publishing contract and, knowing from my own experience how bitterly one can envy someone who seems to have 'made it' when one's still struggling, I remember being nervous about whether it would change my relationship to the site. But with one exception (who isn't around much any more) I couldn't have met with a more generous and interested response.

Emma

Taff,

I have a young friend who was divorced a few years ago. He has been looking for another lady as a permanent partner.

However he has one declared objective in mind - to marry a woman with money. He has had a number of female friends and I know that with at least two of these their 'affair' has ended with a splitting up and the woman being told that 'she hasn't enough money'.

He is an honest fellow, some might say, I am not too keen on him.

However, if you decide to become a Member I hope that we may see authoritative, helpful and constructive comments on works written by other Members, for there is a strong element of 'partnership' that exists on WW.

Len

Hi Taff,
As someone who is at the bottom of the success ladder I have found this site to be a godsend. I have had helpful comments and suggestions on the first chapter of my novel, suggestions which I know will improve it no end. I have also been able to ask questions and know I will get answers.
I don't feel too overawed by the published authors on this site; they share their expertise freely as well as asking questions themselves, which makes me feel less of a doofus when I realize they don't know everything.
£35.00 is a lot of money but trust me when I say it will be money well spent.
Take care
Tracy

Taff,

The main benefit of WW for me has been being in a group (very actively for six months, though have just left it, due to time pressure now that my day job is gearing up to take the upper hand again for a while). It's not just unpublished authors, but also the published and self-published who can benefit enormously from posting their work in a group here, and receiving feedback. I've learned heaps. And I've learned just as much or more from reading others' work, and attempting to crit it, and reading others' crits of what I've read to see what they picked up that I missed....

Yes, the forum chat is very supportive and helpful and full of little mines of invaluable info, but for me what has been the best is how much I've learned in the way of improving my writing and my analysis of how writing works (or doesn't).

Rosy