The Cafe Collection

Welcome.

I’m starting off the Cafe Collection with a guest post from Adam Charles, Director of http://www. iwritereadrate.com

Here’s what he had to say about his new site.

For me and perhaps for you too, admitting to being an unpublished writer is a bit like admitting to having some strange disease contracted in bizarre circumstances. However, here I am, admitting to the wonderful readership of this blog that, not only am I an unpublished writer; but that I’m proud of it too. This feels good, cathartic almost, as if it’s my first night at Writer’s Anonymous.

I’m enthralled by literature and always have been. I’ve learnt over the years that the gratuitous acts of writing and reading just do it for me. So, a few years ago I decreed that no longer would I watch from afar, no more would I be content with just reading. I wanted to become part of the writing world, a world where ideas and images conjured by language are king. With my mission confirmed I set down to diligently sketch out a story that had been bouncing around in my head for a decade.  It went well, the words flowed, my pen moved effortlessly and almost supernaturally across the page: I was fulfilling my dream.

I reached a fair point, some 35,000 words and had judiciously self-edited a few times.  I decided that it was time to send off my baby to be critiqued by those in the know to see if my delusions had any substance.  I packaged up the first few chapters and launched my creation on the publishing industry bodies. 

I waited and I waited and finally they started to return home to me.

I tore open the first one with adolescent enthusiasm. Sadly, all it contained was my unmarked, extracts and a standard rejection note. Undeterred I posted off another batch of submissions but the curse of the standard rejection letter continued.  Were they even reading them?  Surely I could get more feedback than this? Doubt began to creep in and after three batches of submissions I coalesced.  I didn’t know whether I had something entertaining – even interesting – to say or if I should just give up on my dream.

Then, after months of researching the publishing process, I hit upon the idea of an online community for unpublished writers by unpublished writers. I envisaged a democratic cyber-city where writers receive ratings and reviews from and sell directly to the readers and where those same readers were able to access the writers and become part of the writing process.  This is where the first seed began to grow for our new website – www.iwritereadrate.com a new dynamic between unpublished writers and readers worldwide. 

We successfully launched our Registration Page in December 2010 and are now looking to launch the full site during the first few months of 2011. You can register now to be given pre-launch access to the site to upload your work before anyone else and you’ll also be automatically entered our competition to win an eReader at the site’s full launch.

We look forward to seeing you on our website soon.

Visit us for more details at: www.iwritereadrate.com

and follow on Twitter @iwritereadrate