Inkshares Community discussion
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Let's get FEYSIDE onto Quill!
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Thank you SO much Christine. (10 DAYS. That is SPOOKY. Can I afford to SLEEP between now and January??) I am of course 100% at the disposal of anybody who has an idea to share, or energy to contribute, or simply rousing words of encouragement with which to push me on through this final crowdfunding effort. You folk are an absolutely wonderful bunch, and I'm humbly grateful in advance for ANYTHING that you might be able to do to help me carry the day as the last minutes tick down.
....now back to editing...!
Mod
I'd try to make the quick pitch a little more compelling and perhaps simplify the language a bit. Something like:
Do you have what it takes to escape the steampunk plutocracy and trek across the unnumbered realms of Faerie? Dare the path through the Thinning and enter Feyside.
I love the illustrations, but I'd rather see the character designs all together. Or at the very least, move Emlie further down so that she doesn't interrupt the two sections with the connected headings (Journey Through the Thinning... ...And Discover Feyside).
p.s. After I get some work-work done I'm going to pull some quotes from your story and tweet them out. It's "One Line Wednesday" (#1lineWed) on Twitter, so use that hashtag if you have time to do the same!
Shall do! I'm doing the work-work grind myself ATM, but I'm gonna try to sneak some revision and promotion in over the course of the day!...tried some slimmed-down wording in the quick pitch!
Fairies (as any of the SotO readers know) are so my thing!Peter, 9 days and 120 orders is a little steep. Have you considered an extension? We can definitely get you on the promotion train, I'm just not certain how much buzz we can accomplish in a week.
With an extension of a couple of months we can definitely get this done.
Cover Critique: I think this one is definitely representative of the book, but I might try something that works on the themes of fairy and steampunk. I can see what I can come up with.
Blurb Critique: Forsake the steampunk plutocracy. Trek across the unnumbered realms of Faerie. Dare the path through the Thinning and enter Feyside.
I think this is a great opener to set the mood of the book, but is missing the main protagonist and the stakes of the plot.
Concept Critique: What is this book? Is it a graphic novel? Your description talks about an artist designing it, but that sort of confuses me. What exactly is the reader funding here?
Promotions questions:
1. What is your current method of promotion?
2. Do you have 150 additional contacts (perhaps in the game industry) that would back your book?
3. What communities are you connected to outside of Inkshares that would be a good fit for a reader base for this book?
Amanda,Thanks for the reply! I've actually emailed Jeremy asking for an extension... do you know if there is a more formal process for requesting one? Regardless of how it turns out I appreciate any momentum that this thread is able to generate.
As for the cover, that one was only ever intended as a placeholder. I mocked up an (exceedingly rough) layout for a more action-oriented cover... that my colleague and erstwile cover artist LJ has been too snowed under to execute. Here it is:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8HY...
It combines the key elements of the book (the 4 leads, faery magick, a dangerous steampunk contraption) and sets them amidst a dangerous confrontation in a flooding logging camp. Should be quite stirring... if it ever gets done!
You are absolutely right about the blurb... and I've struggled with it throughout. Distilling setting plus quartet of characters PLUS plot down to a paragraph, let alone a pair of sentences, is something that has flat-out eluded me throughout. Anybody on this thread willing to take a swing at it?
Promotions attempts at answers:
1. Pestering friends and family, obviously. Posting periodically on Twitter and Facebook. Joining appropriately themed Facebook groups and interacting for a bit before posting about my book has worked well. Cold email solicitations to writers and similar types in the same area of genre. Some things that arguably didn't do much, like printing up fliers and attempting to distribute them at NY Comic Con, or cadging Twitter mentions from the few famous friends I have (hasn't done much since they tend to be reality tv contestants, newspaper reporters, miscellaneous things like that with disinclined fanbases)
2. Contacts, yes. Getting them to back though is tough... I confess that I haven't approached most of my "day job" contacts about this, for fear that it would be regarded as unprofessional and could have serious repercussions. I will certainly approach more of them next week as I grow more desperate.
3. As mentioned #1, a number of sci-fi/fantasy fandom communities and literary fandom communities. Getting members of those communities to look at and even discuss my book has been pretty easy... getting them to plunk down $10 on a preorder for something that isn't even available yet has been the toweringly hard part! Then there are various professional associations etc. that don't seem to provide as ready an avenue to talking about a hobby project fantasy novel...
By the bye, a brief note. This is NOT meant as any kind of sympathy-seeking, so PLEASE do not register it as such. Rather it is simple explanation, because I respect the people in this group and feel I owe you an explanation. Also I am embarrassed - embarrassed by my general level of participation, and embarrassed by the fact (one I'm sure more than one of you will have noted) that something that by rights should be THE most important thing in my life right now -the crowdfunding for publication of a novel I've all but bled into for several years running- is somehow something that I've been only intermittently engaged with for the last three months, and even now in its last 10 days of crowdfunding is something that I'm barely paying attention to. Also I am momentarily drunk enough to bang this out without being too self-conscious to post it, so here goes:
A few days after submitting Feyside to Inkshares back in September, my wife received an out-of-the-blue cancer diagnosis. She was operated on back in late September and received an ostensibly clean bill of health. However her symptoms have resurged in the weeks since, resulting in biopsies in early October and enforced bed rest since Halloween. Since we have kids (one with special needs), that's meant a lot of additional responsibility on my shoulders. We're still not sure exactly what's wrong. Biopsies (thankfully) show no resurgent cancer in the original location, but there's still an entire rest of the body to rule out and my wife's symptoms are only intensifying. And the time I've had to take off from work to handle things has put my job in a certain amount of jeopardy, necessitating further distraction.
So yeah. Colossal bad timing and a need to reevaluate priorities. Novel-writing and obsessive self-promotion has necessarily had to take a back seat.
I've hit Inkshares up for an extension. Hopefully I'll hear back before my period expires. Given all the other stuff on my plate, that's about all I have bandwidth to do right now. And I apologize to everybody in this group or outside of it whom I may have disappointed or come up short on - it certainly wasn't intentional. It is my fervent hope that when my family/personal issues are addressed I can either continue (in the event of a granted extension) or resubmit (otherwise) and run the type of crowdfunding campaign it had been my intention to run before life and circumstance got in the way.
Thanks, sorry again, etc etc etc.
Hey Paul,Thanks for sharing the behind the scenes struggle you've been going through. Here I was bemoaning the fact that my husband was laid off and we were marooned in a small Alabama city without much prospects for employment -- I realize now that my issues are silly in comparison.
Crowdfunding is a rough business, and not for the faint of heart in the best of circumstances. Here's the hard question: yes, you'll get your extension, but is this the right time for this sort of high-stakes endeavor? Inkshares isn't sharing their statistics on success rates, but judging by what I've seen over the last couple of months, I would say that the win rate on these campaigns is very low -- which is probably why they started the Quill thing in the first place. Quill will get your book into print, but not with a developmental edit and not with the full court marketing treatment a novel will need in order to get into bookstores. As writers we can certainly help, but unless you hire someone for it the promotion of this book will naturally fall mostly to you.
I mention these things because with all that's on your plate, now might not be the best time to run a crowdfunding campaign. It might be better to take the time to re-hone your pitching arm and sling your project at some of the agents during something like #PitMad.
Honestly it depends on you. You will be the one to make this project succeed, and you are the one that knows what your version of success looks like with this book. Whatever you decide, I'll support you and help you along in any way I can. Just know that this is your show, and we're just the ushers.
A briefest of notes... because I remain utterly snowed under at work, where I've been since before the holidays, so brief is all I have time for! Still the news is good: "Feyside" has been granted an extension by Inkshares!This gives me another 85 crowdfunding days. Almost 3 whole months. Three months to, yes, extricate myself from my work-mess and take care of my family at home... hopefully in short order. Then, after that... I intend to make best use of this much-hoped-for gift by doubling and redoubling my crowdfunding efforts. I managed to reach 150 orders with MANY stones left unturned... surely if I try any and everything, I can AT LEAST attain the final hundred, and hopefully shoot for the grander target off in the distance beyond? With, I hope, the advice and assistance of the awesome community and the good friends I've made within it.
Anyway, work is beckoning, need to get nose back to grindstone. I hope to confer with all of you soon and to start getting back down to business. Thank you all for your help so far!
Was sad when I thought I found this too late ... happy to see it got an extension. Ordered one and will absolutely get more if it comes down to the wire. Look me up if it does. Good luck, Peter!
Thanks so much Billy -- and happy to reciprocate!
Hey all, by way of explanation and apology for my lack of presence on this thread, a quick update from my neck of the woods: Greets from a bedside in North Shore University Hospital's post-op care pavilion. Not me, I'm intact for better or worse. But I'd mentioned before in this group that family health issues had been preoccupying me during my first 3 crowdfunding months and blithely predicted that we'd surely soon catch a break that would enable me to buckle down and focus on writing/book promotion/etc. Instead I'm afraid they've broken worse, and in a major way.
My wife's uncertainty suddenly resolved into a new scary diagnosis last week, considerably more dire than the original one, bringing us here today for a pretty major operation that will hopefully avert it. In a week she goes home and begins a long painful recovery, potentially followed by further courses of treatment that will leave her even sicker and weaker.
Not good stuff. And certainly not conducive to the kind of very focused, essentially selfish behavior that's essential to success as an independent author OR a crowdfunder. My wife and family need to come first, and their care is bound to preoccupy me for the foreseeable future.
My immediate intention had been to pull my Inkshares campaign entirely or park it, but my wife (who is as stubborn as she is brave) immediately told me that if she caught me doing that she'd kill me... and I think one hospitalization is enough for this week! Besides, long experience has taught me that she's pretty much almost always right.
So I'll let this thing run its course. I don't know how much time (if any) I'll be able to devote to it, or whether any of my promotional plans will come to fruition, or whether I'll make any goals or whatever. I really can't worry about any of that stuff anymore. Instead I'll just be grateful for whatever comes, and for the time I've had to date with Inkshares and with all of you. It's been a blast, and a valuable learning experience, and maybe going forward will serve as an occasional distraction from some of the crummy new realities we're now dealing with.
And who knows? Maybe someday there'll be a novel in all of this ;-/
Mod
Take a break. We'll see what we can do to help your campaign in the meantime.
Mod
You have a good stretch of time left to fund, so I wouldn't waste any spare energy worrying about it at this point. I'll continue to send eyes to your page when I can, and if things are looking up in a few weeks just let me know and I'll help coordinate a more substantial effort at that point.
Good luck and hang in there :)
Thank you Cara, thank you Christine. I appreciate it! There's not much to do at present sitting at my wife's bedside so the urge to dive in is strong -- but I know that that is (hopefully, fingers crossed) a passing thing and that a good outcome here means that I'll be very busy with assisting her very soon and for the next few weeks at least. So I'll keep my hands off and my head clear... for now at least!
very sorry to read this Peter, hope everything will get better shortly.I will continue to share your link to your book.
sincerely ,
Thanks Andre.Will tell you this friends - hospital internet (or at least THIS hospital's) is totally kickass!
Sounds like you have a pretty cool woman in your corner, Peter. And, speaking completely without any knowledge of the situation, I wouldn't be surprised if your campaign gives her some incredibly valuable joy and inspiration. It's fun to root people on as they do this. And those kinds of good feelings are contagious.Anything I can do to help out, just get in touch. I'll be ordering more copies in due time as well. Rooting for you!
Thanks much Billy -- we're incredibly happy to receive well-wishes... and I remain for the present at least happy to swap pre-orders!Any yeah, she is absolutely THE COOLEST.
Peter I'm sorry that things are getting even more challenging for you on the home front. As I've mentioned before, I'm up for helping you wherever I can. Just like writing, promotion takes a huge amount of time and energy, but I don't think it's selfish to want to share your dream with others. When you have your published book sitting on bookshelves in stores across the country (which you will), you'll see your wife was right to push you to pursue your passion. I'm happy to trade preorders with you. Just drop your referral link in here when you get a chance.
Thank you so much Amanda -- I hope and pray that I'll have better news to share with everybody really soon now. Here's my referral link:
https://www.inkshares.com/books/feysi...
All,Apologies again for posting all kinds of gloom and doom on this thread over the last few weeks. Thinking I definitely owe you folk an update, though I'll keep it brief so as to not further overstep the line of propriety OR privacy. So:
My wife's surgery appears to have been a success, with the tumor having been lab-identified as stage 2 colon cancer. Follow up with an oncologist over the next few weeks will determine what further treatment is necessary, but in the meantime we are home from the hospital and her recovery is proceeding slowly but well. So far my job is tolerating my working from home, which has allowed me to take care of her while remaining at least minimally productive. At this rate, I may be able to get back to writing/editing/promoting very soon now!
Mod
Wonderful news, Peter. No apologies whatsoever needed for the earlier updates, either!
Mrs. Peter (by night known as Micheline) deeply appreciates your support. No struggle is ever finished though, and this morning we got some further bad news in the form of genetic test results that may have profound future implications for her and potentially for our kids. Guess that's a portion of this thing to take up on a day other than today though - for now we've got enough to do recovering and reestablishing normalcy.
https://www.inkshares.com/projects/fe...
Faeries meet Steampunk...yeah, I think we can sell that. Easy.
I'm a proponent of chaos, so let's get at it. Have opinions on how to spruce up the project page? Go ahead and share 'em. Have some skill at tweeting? Get to it! A blog? Post! Credits? Pre-order! Fly my pretties, fly!