Any members of Wide for the Win on Circle here?

[Lynn]

It just came to my attention (late, I know!) that Wide for the Win isn't just on facebook anymore. I'm thinking of joining the group.

I typically only interact with people under my real name in communities and not my pen names, though. Is that going to be a problem? Should I just join with my pen name instead? I don't mingle the two so I can't do one and just mention the other. I have to choose real or pen name.

Any advice is appreciated, especially from those who are in the community already.

[Post-Crisis D]

Circle?  The country music TV station?

[Lynn]

It's a platform I'd never heard of until now, but since it's a paid service, not social media, I assume that's why.

[alhawke]

I'm remembering something about this. There was some reason I didn't join. Maybe it was because they were only in Facebook at the time, but I thought they had some other stipulation, like a fee. Is there any stipulation other than email?

[Lynn]

No fee, as far as I can tell.

There's some dogma there, as I've heard from other people in round about ways, but since I'm wide with all my books and have been for almost the entire time I've published, I thought I might find some good information from others doing the same, despite that.

I'm definitely not planning to get into any arguments with anyone. I just don't care enough about what other people think about what I do or what I believe to argue with anyone about publishing. :D

But I am averse to interacting with other writers as my pen names, so I am debating how I want to join (or if, to be honest). Maybe it's just fear of missing out now that I know they're not just a facebook group. ;D

[writeway]

Ugh. I left WFTW. Didn't like the direction it was going as well as other things I am hearing behind the scenes. They moved to a site called The Circle. They posted many times how they were moving there and then they all got in a fit when people actually started telling people they'd moved. Which makes NO sense. So in other words, they moved to The Circle basically but still want to pretend they haven't moved (though admins said they were not going to be posting in the FB group anymore) to keep people in the FB group. I suspect because that FB group is so large and they now use it to advertise not only their own services but other services can now be advertised as well so they wanna keep it open to still benefit off all of the other members. It was the final straw for me. I've had an issue with the group for a while because it's gotten so negative with people just griping, bashing, and whining about Amazon all the time and so I had been pulling away already but once they implemented all these changes and seemed to be going from a completely different direction than what the group was supposed to be, it was a sign for me to finally move on.

[writeway]

No fee, as far as I can tell.

There's some dogma there, as I've heard from other people in round about ways, but since I'm wide with all my books and have been for almost the entire time I've published, I thought I might find some good information from others doing the same, despite that.

I'm definitely not planning to get into any arguments with anyone. I just don't care enough about what other people think about what I do or what I believe to argue with anyone about publishing. :D

But I am averse to interacting with other writers as my pen names, so I am debating how I want to join (or if, to be honest). Maybe it's just fear of missing out now that I know they're not just a facebook group. ;D

You don't have to pay to join The Circle only if you wanted to start your own circle. Honestly, if I were you I'd just go to 20booksto50K FB group because you'll get all the info you need about everything (wide included) without having to wade through all the bellyaching and negativity that's in WFTW now.

[Lynn]

You don't have to pay to join The Circle only if you wanted to start your own circle. Honestly, if I were you I'd just go to 20booksto50K FB group because you'll get all the info you need about everything (wide included) without having to wade through all the bellyaching and negativity that's in WFTW now.

I deactivated my FB account a long, long time ago, and I can't reactivate it without risking all the family I was avoiding finding me again. ;D 

You can't see anything on FB these days if you aren't logged in. Not even my local sheriff's page is more than half visible to me as a non-logged-in user. Luckily, I'm not interested in mug shots or boasts over seized property, so I don't really care.

I think I'll stay away from WFTW then. I certainly don't need negativity in my publishing and writing world!

[Lorri Moulton]

It's not nearly as busy as the Facebook group.  They aren't closing the Facebook group, which seemed to be part of the confusion.

Circle was supposed to be a way to have the subgroups more active than they had been on Facebook, but I haven't seen that many people interacting yet.  Granted, we have to go to Circle to see what's happening or get an email notification. 

I'm not that interested in other retailers, so I'm mainly there for my store and my subscription...maybe a few author promos.  Discounting my books so retailer A or B can get more readers isn't part of my business plan at this time.

ETA: author promos for clarification 

[She-la-te-da]

I'm a member. I don't see it's much different than using the FB group, just harder to figure out where stuff is. It doesn't cost anything, but you have to apply. I believe only members of the FB group can get in. It's been a while since I bothered to look at it.

Like almost all writing groups/subs/forums I'm in, the FB group at least is mostly newbs asking questions about stuff they could get answers to by doing some research. Or people wanting to know the real, super secret to making insta sales at every retailer. *shrug*

[Wonder]

I joined a few weeks back, and it's been nice, as I don't have a Facebook account so I wasn't able to join the group previously. I've picked up a few good tips there, and while I'm not interested in every thread, people seem to be communicating respectfully. I don't see why you couldn't join with a pen name, as it's basically forum software. The iOS app for Circle works for the group, if you want to read posts on your phone.

I was really happy to see a non-Facebook option! I imagine the moderators will be selling courses through the forum to recoup their costs and time in running the community. They seem like knowledgeable people, and I may take a course or two once they're up and running.

Wonder

[writeway]

I'm a member. I don't see it's much different than using the FB group, just harder to figure out where stuff is. It doesn't cost anything, but you have to apply. I believe only members of the FB group can get in. It's been a while since I bothered to look at it.

Like almost all writing groups/subs/forums I'm in, the FB group at least is mostly newbs asking questions about stuff they could get answers to by doing some research. Or people wanting to know the real, super secret to making insta sales at every retailer. *shrug*

YES, that newbies asking the same stuff over and over annoyed the heck out of me. Why do people join a group then ask the most basic questions assuming NO ONE else has ever asked before? Why are people so darn lazy? Whenever I join a group or even a current group I am in, when I need help, I always search the group first. Then when I don't find an answer, I ask. But  WFTW was notorious for people asking the same stuff over and over. Basic stuff you could Google and find out. The mods created the Tree of Wisdom for this very reason but people stopped checking it because it got so darn big and confusing and the mods stopped updating it. The most current info in the Tree is about 3 years ago so that doesn't help. I guess it got too much to update it but WFTW is the only group where people post the same stuff. They even have a newbie WFTW group that was created so the newbies wouldn't clog up the group with asking the same basic questions. But no one uses it, I guess. It got so bad about the repetitious questions, some of us complained. People started ignoring the questions or commenting telling people to do a search. I don't mind helping people but in this day and age I am not going to tolerate someone getting on ANY writers forum and asking basic crap like how to publish print or how to upload books to retailers! You can Google and find that out in two seconds. Some people want others to do all the work for them or walk them through everything. They can go to Youtube and learn this stuff step-by-step.

As for the group, it became useless for me and they have over 14,000 members I believe and not even 30 visit on a regular basis. It's the same handful of people who participate. Most of the FB members haven't been in there in years. Some just join and never even visit. And not to mention how some of the members seem to have this cultish-type behavior where they seem to worship the ground the admins walk on and dare to say anything negative about being wide even though people should hear both sides. They just wanna give off this rosey picture like wide is perfect. When writers come in there asking about wide, people should be honest. But the KU trashing for years and years got old. It's supposed to be the wide group but yet they complain about KU more than anything. If you aren't in KU, why do you even care about it?

At first that group was great then it lost its way as time went on.

[She-la-te-da]

have this cultish-type behavior where they seem to worship the ground the admins walk on and dare to say anything negative about being wide even though people should hear both sides

There's one group for PA authors and the "founding" group is like gods to the other members. No idea why, but there you go. Praise for books that aren't edited, that have weird covers, awful descriptions, and apparently sell, sell, sell.

Sigh. I just don't fit in. LOL

I pretty much just skim writing groups now, because it's just so tiresome to see the same stuff over and over. Amazon "redid" their forum, and now it's basically the low content get rich folks posting about why they get no "sells", why Amazon closed their account, and how come they can't get the OPT on their phones. It's crazy.

The groups that are mostly for those past the noob point are basically dead, so there's nothing new to see there. At least, the ones I was accepted into. Might be some that are active, and I just don't get to be in them.

[LilyBLily]

<snip>

The groups that are mostly for those past the noob point are basically dead, so there's nothing new to see there. At least, the ones I was accepted into. Might be some that are active, and I just don't get to be in them.

There probably are, but most of us don't get invited into them. And then there are groups like Novelists Inc. that have fiscal requirements that are tough for indies to meet, another way of keeping out the riffraff. A traditionally published author only needs a $2k advance or $2k in royalties in 12 months. An indie author needs $5k income for each of two books within a 12-month period. Five times as much income, in other words.

[She-la-te-da]

fiscal requirements that are tough for indies to meet, another way of keeping out the riffraff

Certainly keeps me out! I could probably use the higher level of advice, but I won't get it. Add my contrary notions about not laying myself bare on social media, or spending all day on TikTok or Instagram videos, and it would likely be wasted on me anyway.

I'm content to read and decide what I want to do, and leave all the "mastermind" stuff to the SEO stuffers/"letters" achievers and others who do business in ways I don't care to do. (I'm pretty sure none of that applies to members here, as I don't think the SEO folks hang around regular writer/self publisher groups.) I got tired of that stuff being hinted at in the Dirty Discourse forums, and the attitude that if we don't do it, we're not "serious" about our "business".