Inkshares Community discussion
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Sticking together with authors leaving Inkshares
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I've sort of been acting as this all along, since the group started (I even noted to Joe when he invited me that I am likely a 'former Inkshares writer').It's definitely interesting to see the perspectives of those still going, and chiming in occasionally to give my thoughts, but my main reason for checking in is the community of those who I've gotten to know a little (albeit not as many of you who were all in the Nerdist trenches together).
I've definitely fallen into the camp of those who realized crowdfunding is NOT for them, but it's still a good place to be where authors are in the same place as you.
I had been hesitant to say TOO much though, since many of my thoughts WERE just 'I've gotten out'. I didn't feel like it was the most productive thing to add.
Liam, thanks for chiming in. I think the overall vision of Inkshares and hope is to build a community where writers will have a chance to get input on their works and where writers will come together in a writer-reader community. This does not have to mean you need a funding project, even a draft on Inkshares, to participate. Many authors will not meet their goals, but they will have made so much headway in connecting to an audience through the Inkshares experience that it's invaluable. Forming this group, and what (I hope/think/expect) it will evolve into is a real way for the vision of Inkshares to manifest a higher level of reality, if you will -- instead of authors engaging separately in a sort of maelstrom, they now are a linked metropolis of islands, forging strong connections and crossing over.I'm extremely happy with this and would plan to continue to make my home here even should Blood Dawn fail to meet its goal. In fact, back last April when I weighed the pros and cons of putting Blood Dawn in a visible light during the year I would spend perfecting the draft for agent submissions, I saw that no matter what this is win-win for me:
1) Should I seek an agent after failing to reach my funding goal, I'll have built a fan base and have one year of buzzing platform activity to add to my resume paragraph in the query letter. There is measurable progress in this: presently, my newsletter has 50 subscribers, which is ten times what it started at before going heavy with Inkshares, and it roughly doubles each month. A newsletter is an extremely useful outreach tool and metric for an author to judge the size of their true fan base (so long as the newsletter is appropriately sign-posted to draw in people who are genuinely fans of your writing).
2) Should I reach my goal, then I'm better off than were I to get an agent and sell to, say, Tor or Daw. 70% royalty on ebooks? That's ten times what you make with the big publishers. And building an audience to total 2,500 pre-orders -- all of whom I have engaged with personally and a reasonable percentage of whom will become part of my true-fan pool -- that's a huge tidal wave start toward a book launch.
Regardless of 1) or 2), what is most important to me is connecting authentically with readers, and in my opinion, the Inkshares model is an awesome way to do that, far beyond the traditional model of going quiet for 1-2 years who you busy yourself with production. The fact that you have to be so actively engaged with prospective readers optimizes the amount of fan conversions from otherwise impersonal book sales. (Realistically, the percentage of books sold in bookstores that remain unread on bookshelves is shockingly high.) Although it is much harder work, I think the act of having to go out there and tell people about your book and get them interested in YOU and what YOU are doing by far increases the personal aspect of connecting, and as I've learned in my book marketing course, building authentic relationships with your customers (in this case, our readers) is the key to a successful and sustainable business relationship.
So, we're here, and as far as I'm concerned, all of us doing what we're doing to reach out and be personal with our readers means we're winning, regardless of funding goals. One more pre-order -- one more reader -- is a remarkable measure of success, because that's one true, authentic connection (or, at least, an opportunity for it if we choose to take a step above and beyond just a "favorite" on Twitter or a "Thanks" or form email).
We're all winners, and I think it's good that this group is build on the spirit of that principle.
One thing I would like to suggest, and it's only a suggestion, but if you're someone who's thinking about taking your book off Inkshares, consider doing an update to send some readers to some other books before you do.We can't have people leaving and taking 400 readers with them.
I second that, Paul! Brilliant suggestion.
Paul wrote: "One thing I would like to suggest, and it's only a suggestion, but if you're someone who's thinking about taking your book off Inkshares, consider doing an update to send some readers to some other..."Absolutely.
Mod
My personal feelings are that anyone with a loose relation to Inkshares belongs in this group. Are you a new author thinking about dipping your toes? A past author who decided it's not for them? Currently funding author? All of these types bring a valuable perspective to the community. By being inclusionary, we build the Inkshares platform, and that benefits everyone.
I can speak here, since I'm one such author. My book failed to hit its goal, even after an extension. I want to write up a post-mortem about why I think I failed, and have been meaning to do that for a while now on my blog, www.theadamvine.com. But I can summarize the main reasons here: 1. Not enough lead time (book was nearly finished, and I started taking pre-orders as soon as I joined the site, which is my fault, and not really how the system is designed)
2. Too short of a campaign (I only campaigned for a total of about 8 weeks - I think bare minimum is 3 months, but 6 is more realistic, unless you're famous)
3. I didn't ask people for money - self-explanatory. I'm just not good at begging and didn't hit people up, even my friends. Passive posting on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn about the campaign seemed to hit a ceiling pretty early on (before 100 pre-orders).
4. Not a large enough starting platform. I have ~500 FB friends, about 150 followers on Twitter, 200 connections on LinkedIn, and 10-20 regular readers of my blog. In hindsight, I was lucky to get even 10% of my pre-order goal from those numbers. I think the cold reality is that it is just not really possible to find 1,000 strangers willing to give money up front to an undiscovered author, unless that author is already famous or has a large following (Gary Whitta is a good example - he had a huge following due to being the story consultant on TTG's The Walking Dead).
6. No in-person promotion. I live in Europe, in a non-English speaking country, so this part of the campaign simply wasn't possible.
Hope at least someone can find these reflections helpful. Missing my goal turned out to be a blessing in disguise, though, because soon after, I got a deal with Booktrope's new horror imprint, Forsaken. The royalty situation isn't as good as with Inkshares, but I still have high hopes for being with this publisher, and have read at least one phenomenal book from them (C.S. Samulski's "The Water Sign," which was one of the best sci fi books I've read in the last five years). Hopefully, my debut novel "LURK" will be hitting the eBook and POD market in about a month. This sounds fast, but I did most of the work myself months ago, including the layout and hiring a copy editor, so the book was almost ready to go, anyway.
I want to keep in the loop with all my other fellow/former fellow Inkshares authors, but I'm not really sure how to go about it other than by linking up on each-other's blogs (I rarely use Twitter). I'm not sure if Inkshares would appreciate me using their platform to send out the message I got picked up by someone else. or maybe they wouldn't care. I certainly wouldn't want to burn any bridges on accident, though, since I am considering using Inkshares for my next project, a dark, Slavic-inspired urban fantasy based on my two years living as an ex-pat in Eastern Europe.
I'm hoping that the Short Story Anthology contest will serve as one reason for many of the Nerdist contestants (and others who didn't meet a funding goal) to stick around Inkshares.There are several good reasons that make this attractive.
1. We'll probably have 12 to 15 winners (instead of five).
2. There isn't likely to be 300 entries (although we wouldn't mind seeing that happen). So odds of winning are better.
3. The odds that together we will be able to pre-sell over 1,000 copies is VERY HIGH. This is due to the fact that each winning writer will only need to pre-sell 80 to 90 copies each, on average; which gets us the Top package in the new funding format.
I wasn't in the Nerdist contest, so I'm looking for help spreading the word about this from those of you who were and may have contacts within that group of 300.
Of course any contacts you may have with sci-fi or futuristic fantasy writers outside of Nerdist are also great prospects.
Thanks in advance!
https://www.inkshares.com/projects/ea...
Any ideas on good places to promote this contest, anyone?
Mod
Well, this was a good reminder! I missed your call to action when it went out, but I just went in and sent a recommendation. Hopefully it picks up a few more followers. I'm really excited to see where this project goes, whether it includes my submission or not. :)
Thanks Christine! It generated a new follower five minutes after you recommended it!
Adam wrote: "I can speak here, since I'm one such author. My book failed to hit its goal, even after an extension. I want to write up a post-mortem about why I think I failed, and have been meaning to do that f..."Booktrope looks very interesting, congratulations, Adam. Please keep us posted on your experience.
I am hoping that those of us not in the Inkshares funding goal are still welcome amongst the writers. I opted to pursue my self-publishing goal with Shadow of the Owl since there was zero interest in it on Inkshares and that was making me question the quality of my writing skills. I suppose now that I've moved onto the second novel I could throw it up there in the same vein as John with Blood Dawn, in that I could build a theoretical reading community. I think that is much harder for some of us than others though. I dunno, I didn't even think of it until just now.In any case, I don't think we need to formalize a group beyond what we have here on Goodreads. This is a positive climate for writers in which to interact, and I love getting pinged about new discussions, even those that are about funding strategies. I still want to be part of this fledgling community -- whether or not I believe in the product that created said community.
Mod
It would be a sad thing to see writers who have built relationships here leave just because they decided the system was not for them. They've still run the gauntlet, have value to contribute, and as they move along in their writing careers can provide insight into the world beyond Inkshares. This group is flavored by the theme of Inkshares, but also stands as a place for all writers those established and starting out to share their knowledge and find support.
Mod
I hope you still hang out with us in this group, Amanda! We don't toss anyone out when their book moves into other paths to publication. :)
We've met here, worked together here, shared ideas here. Though some of us are gone, in spirit we still are a community of authors. What are some ways we can still work together to co-promote and support one another even if some of us have moved to Indie publication or other options? Or if we've pulled out and are regrouping with thoughts of maybe coming back to Inkshares someday?
What I think is beautiful (and hope) for this community we've jump-started, is that it is NOT Inkshares exclusive. I don't think we want to open the floodgates to all authors and turn this into an author hangout, as we do still have our home base in Inkshares, but it makes sense that as we move on from the Nerdist contest, and as we continue to move ahead and people might not meet their funding goals, etc., that we retain a base of members who ONCE were Inkshares authors.
I really would like to encourage any authors who are moving on from Inkshares to stay in this group and to open discussion perhaps on ways we can still work together.
Thoughts?