Blog idea - Critique contests geared at self-pub?

[Samantha]

EDIT: For those just coming into this thread, take a gander at what I posted on Sat., April 12. Let me know what you think and if you're interested in participating.



Not sure if this is a problem, but this folder seemed most appropriate. Hopefully this is ok? And an ok topic (Bisky?)?

To keep a long story short, I've been thinking about what other kinds of blog posts I would like to do beyond writing book reviews. This idea is still in its infancy, so I'm looking to get some feedback and perhaps find out if there is anyone else also interested in doing this along with me.

I've seen a lot of "get an agent" or "critique my query letter" contests. Although I would like to someday be a hybrid author, at the moment, I'm focusing on self-publishing. So I was wondering if it would be useful to create a blog post or series of blog posts or blog tour that pulls together the community like that, while mutually benefiting the participants.

So far I've only been able to come up with a couple things -- critiques of book blurbs or critiques of the first 500 words of your novel. Can anyone else think of another type of critique or community-focused support system that would draw people in?

The other thing is that if you guys can help me come up with some brilliant ideas, I was wondering if we could do a trial/inaugural run of a series of blog posts in, say, May. This is again just brainstorming, but let's say there are four people interested. We'd have people enter their items to be critiqued, and then on one week, I'd host, say, 5 entries while the other 3 bloggers cross-promoted. Then the next week, someone else would host 5 entries while the other 3 of us cross-promoted.

The goal would be to get people involved in a community event while also showcasing our own blogs. If it's successful, we could do something like this every few months or we could each branch off and do our own or whatever makes sense.

OK, so that was a bit rambling, but what does anyone else think? Is this a good idea? Terrible?

[Brian]

I would definitely be willing to do something like that. I do a new writing blog post every week on Saturdays. I would love to do something like this every 4-6 months. We wouldn't have to limit it to any one idea either. I'm a little too distracted to come up with any ideas right now, so I'll have to come back after this NCAA Championship game is over.

[Ann]

I'm cool with this, it is the right folder. (Gonna shuffle the folders about this morning to change the name to suit the purpose of it)

I just woke up so I'll come and input when I've had some coffeh :]

[Samantha]

Can't form much of a coherent thought this early in the morning, but I had one other idea yesterday: Book cover critiques.

And maybe instead of one person per week, we all take five every week (for a total of twenty, or whatevs) and have a different subject each week. (One week book cover, one week blurb, etc.)

And, in case this wasn't clear, we'd encourage the participants and bystanders to crit each others' work.

[Brian]

I just reread the whole proposal, and I like the idea of cross promotion a LOT. I don't think a contest would be the best word for it because that implies competition. Not sure if I like the critique idea either just because I could see someone's feelings getting hurt at some point. Something like a cover reveal party we could post the cover for someone else's book each week, or like an "exclusive look inside" where we can post a first 500 words or a specific excerpt from someone else's work in progress.

[Samantha]

I agree that "contest" is a misnomer. But I have seen many successful critique events. A couple examples:

http://michelle4laughs.blogspot.ca/ - Does (or did) crits of query letters. Not sure if that still happens on her blog.

http://misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot... - Regularly does all kind of crit events on her blog.

Now, both of them did agent contests (submit your query/first words, get agents to bid on them), so maybe that is the key ingredient to making it successful.

I don't mind doing blog tours and cross-promotion, but I'm stuck on this idea of doing more. People can actively participate in the crit contests and I like the idea of giving back something / creating a sense of community.

[Brian]

So we're looking for something that would invite more interaction from the readers. I just had an idea but it would require all the authors involved to agree and would probably work best with a smaller group. What I was thinking we could do a sort of choose your own adventure chain story. One author would start it then the readers can comment on what they want to happen next the next author could pick the story back up using a suggestion from the audience. At the top we could update it with links like a table of contents. Trying to think of other ways to get people involved...

[Christie]

I love this whole idea of cross-promotion and offering critiques. I own an editing business, Proof Positive, and would be happy to participate under my business' name, which might help spur more authors to participate, especially if you choose to do critiques. If you do end up wanting to do contests for critiques or something, I'd be happy to do that, too. (Bisky, I am not advertising my business here, just offering it to help in this blogging effort). I would reblog on my author website, or I could even use that to do the cross-promotion instead.

[Samantha]

@Brian - That sounds fun, too! I would participate in something like that.

However, I'm offering to run this other thing, so if I get enough people interested, I'd be happy to do both. (Run my thing and participate in your thing!) And.other things, too. I just haven't had much success making blogger friends, probably because I've only gone about it timidly and awkwardly. But I love the idea of a community supporting lots of cross-participation.

So I have Christie and myself. :-)

[Ann]

I'm enjoying reading all the ideas. When you do run it, do let me know and I can tweet about it :] Not sure how much I could participate at the moment as I'm moving flats. So I expect things to get really busy soon haha.

[Brian]

@S flesh out the idea a bit more and I might participate. I definitely want to participate, but it all depends on what is required. I was just trying to brainstorm other ideas.

[Samantha]

Yeah, no worries. Let me think more and see what I can come up with. I'm totally up for other ideas, too. I will go scout around some of those crit event blogs and see what wisdom I can glean. :-)

[Christie]

Two things: (1) a lot of times blog hop type things need to start and gather participants through Twitter and other social media outlets (2) do you know the ISWG (Insecure Writers Group)? They actually have rules where if you join, you have to participate a certain amount in order to make sure everyone gets comments on their blogs, and they do very well. I'm not a huge fan of rules, but if we kept it simple or made it a blog hop type of thing, it might gather supporters faster!

[Samantha]

I have not heard about ISWG. I will check them out today.

I was thinking more about this, and I totally agree with gathering people through social media--tweeting about it definitely because that's where I am primarily. I was thinking maybe we could do a giveaway of us bloggers' books, if we have published one. Mine is out soon, so I'd be happy to do that. Maybe sweeten the deal with a small amount Amazon gift card. Give entries for tweeting about the event.

I'm still noodling it through, but keep the suggestions coming! :-)

[Christie]

Sorry transposed letters and got the name wrong! It's actually IWSG - Insecure Writers Support Group. And yes, giveaways always draw people in!

[[deleted user]]

s: "critiques of book blurbs or critiques of the first 500 words of your novel."

holy golly gee! i like both ideas. not only can they prove helpful, they're so darned DO-able! even someone who is as busy as i pretend to be can critique a scant 500 words.
and ooh! ooh! covers too!

brian: "a cover reveal party" and an "exclusive look inside" from WIPs.
yeah! yeah! those too!

s, i have a blog on my website but i don't think it matches your (much more gracious) intentions. however, i'd be happy to review 500-word pieces and provide my inept ramblings to others for consideration for adding to your/their own blogs; that is, on blogs written by people who understand blogs better than i do (which is pretty much anybody who can breathe while counting higher than 10).

brian: "choose your own adventure chain story."
the goodreads site, st. peter's asylum, does something similar and does it very well. incredible detail. problem: only the moderators do the bulk of the work. and the asylum doesn't get many visitors. the artists in that group may have valuable input.

lately, most of my thinking goes into marketing--fruitless thinking at that--and there may be marketing hooks that i can suggest. i'm reading malcolm gladwell's 'tipping point' which discusses, among other examples, how to turn minor book sales into best sellers. i can provide his wisdom as my own and hopefully nobody will notice the plagiarism.
lemme know.

[Samantha]

Yeah, obviously (or maybe not so obviously) this whole idea is tied to the ultimate goal of more sales through getting more exposure for our blogs. More traffic = more exposure = more sales, which compounds itself. That being explained, any marketing wisdom is welcome! I feel uncomfortable with the generic marketing concept (ugh, I'm not a salesperson), so this is my idea of how to do it while also doing something enjoyable.

So, in addition to that, I don't care what your blog is about in general, just that you would want to participate within the confines we decide on (of which I am drafting a plan and will post soon for further discussion).

[Brian]

YAY! S has de plans! Let's follow her! ;)

[Samantha]

lol. I'm a project manager. I won't say it's in my blood, but it's in my ... day job, so I'm used to it. >.>

[Samantha]

Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

So here's what I've come up with. Note that this is all up for discussion, so feel free to poke holes and make suggestions. Since it's getting on into mid-April already, I'm suggesting we start this mid-May to get time to organize.

Weeks of May 12 and 19 - Post announcements and tweet that we're welcoming participants
- Tues, May 13 - What is it? post + announcement of weekly giveaway
- Fri, May 16 - Who are the blog hosts? post
- Tues, May 20 - "Rules" post - Critique at least four other posts if you enter, be nice/helpful, don't enter if you don't want feedback
- Fri, May 23 - Reminder that NEXT WEEK is the first round of critiques

Week of May 26 - Critiques of first 500 words
Week of June 2 - Critiques of cover art
Week of June 9 - Critiques of book blurb or query letter

So the format for each week would be:
- Tues, 6 a.m. Eastern - Open for submissions to an email address I will setup
- Wed, 5 p.m. Eastern - Closed for submissions - Or until we get (Number of bloggers) x 5
- Wed evening - I can prepare all the entries and send them out to the bloggers
- Thurs - Time for us to format and ready our blog entries
- Fri, 6 a.m. - Posts and giveaway go live
- Sun, 5 p.m. - Weekly giveaway ends - Blog post goes up with a reminder of next week's crit or "end of event, thanks for participating"

Let's assume that there are five of us interested in being hosts (not that I would turn anyone down!!). We'll limit the number to 5x5 = 25 entries. And each of us should try to do a critique of all of the entries on our blog, and possibly each others', if we have the time. (In the comments rather than our blog post?)

Giveaway - A free copy of our (e?)books and, if anyone wants to donate, an Amazon giftcard. I can set it up through Rafflecopter.

I haven't 100% figured out how to fit Christie's editing in there. We could do a giveaway each week for a random drawing of the participants for a first chapter critique or X pages, maybe? That's up to you, Christie, how much you want to throw in the ring. I could also ask my editors if they're interested in donating something like that.

Throughout the event, we should be tweeting about the giveaway, the crits, and engaging with one another in silliness, because who doesn't like silliness?

ALL RIGHT. SHARPEN THOSE PENS. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

[Christie]

I just want to clarify what the blog posts we put up are: on Thursdays, would each of us put up one of the pieces to be critiqued? And then visit each other's websites and critique other ones? Or are we posting something else?

As far as my business' participation, since it sounds like manuscript critiques would be about once per month, those authors could be automatically entered to win a free professional edit of a certain amount of pages, and if they aren't interested in that, it could be a choice of winning either the free professional edit or an author interview that would be posted on all of our (yours, mine, and other "organizers") blogs. That way they either win a professional service or exposure of their name.

Great job fleshing this all out! I really like it!

[Samantha]

On Thursdays during the event, we would each put up all 5 of the critiques entered and designated to our blogs. For a total of 25 different ones across our blogs.

[Christie]

Sorry, my question may not have been specific enough. Would we each post both the original work and our own critique?

[Samantha]

Yes. I was thinking the post would be the original submission with no commentary and then we, along with the other commenters, put our crit in the comments. That way people can look at the original and give their own perspective without being swayed right away by what the blogger has to say. Does that answer your question?

[Brian]

I have a couple of suggestions. The rules should be posted right away to give people a chance to prepare. Tell everyone that there is a limited number of spots in promotion. Also instead of posting all 5 at once we could spread them out day by day. That way each submission could be considered individually by commenters. If they are all posted at once there may be a few submissions that get lost in the shuffle or ignored completely because of the others.

[Christie]

Spreading them out one per day on weekdays especially is a great idea! The first blog post can say where the next one will be and link to the site, the next blog post can say where the third one will e and link to the site, etc. I like that a lot. We will give all works an equal shot at critiques then.

[Samantha]

So the suggestion is doing one per day for 5 days Mon - Fri? I wouldn't mind that. I haven't seen it done that way BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN WE CAN'T!

[Christie]

Innovators! :) Can't wait to get this started!

[Samantha]

I will update the schedule soon. I assume this means we want to take subs Sat to Sun? Fri to Sat?

Also, I count 3 of us. Anyone else? I think it would be best to have at least 5. I have considered asking my CP's, but none of them have blogs that would really fit this.

[Brian]

We should figure out what the prizes should be before posting anything. I don't have a book out yet. All the writing I have out is available for free. I don't mind doing a $20 amazon gift card or something like that. Are we doing a seperate giveaway for each blog participating? Will the commenters for all the blogs combined be entered into the raffle for each prize? I've never done something like this before, so I'm just curious. I can also do graphics for whatever if needed.

[Samantha]

Prizes:

I figured we'd do one rafflecopter that is shared across all blogs:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/

I've never set one up myself, but I've entered plenty and been host to blog tours that had one. You can give entries for tweeting about the event, for leaving comments on the blog, and just about anything else you can think of. (I think the comment one is an honor system thing.)

I was thinking we'd could do one package of prizes per week with 3 total weeks/prizes, and so far we have:
Rafflecopter giveaway - My book, $20 gift card (or we could even do $5, if you meant $20 max)
Entrants for getting their work critiqued - Christie's edits of X pages

I think maybe we need a couple more participants. Anyone else interested? Or know someone who might be?

[Ann]

I want to be part of this but I'm upto my eyeballs in work. And I wasn't going to read as much as I did today. I only wanted to go and sort out my emails and answer messages. But someone sent me this book about angels and when I put it in my ipad at lunchtime I noticed how pretty the cover was so I thought I'd have a look at the beginning...

Aaaaaand now I'm on chapter Sixteen >_>

[Samantha]

*claps excitedly*

I mean, GET BACK TO WORK, BISKY! :)

[Brian]

I can do at least $10. Getting excited for this!

[Samantha]

I've posted a blog article asking for more participants. I tweeted yesterday (pre-blog) and got one guy preliminarily interested based on a probably poorly worded 140 characters, so let's see if I can get a couple more to join us. Here is the link:

http://wp.me/p3Z4F3-d9

I updated it with the new schedule (call for entries goes Sat/Sun and we post one per day for five days).

[Samantha]

OK, so I have been tweeting about this all this week, and we have ONE MORE BLOGGER, WOOT. So that puts us at the original four that I had hoped for, with my stretch goal still of five participating blogs. :)

Christie & Brian, would you send me a PM with your email addresses? And I will start coordinating this through email so that the other blogger can take part in the discussion.

And anyone else - Still room for more! PM me your email address!