Inkshares Community discussion

I thought it would be a good idea to have a location for Inkshares writers, new, old, and prospective, to gather feedback and learn for those who have come before. Please, if you have contact information for your fellow writers send them over so they can benefit.

Hi! I'm Rick Heinz. Author of The Seventh Age: Dawn.

Just flagging that I'm here!

Hi! I'm Christine Brennecke, author of Seven Shards: the Colors of Wine.

Just saying hello as well :)

Hello, I'm John Robin, author of Blood Dawn and a short story called "One Who Waits" published in the Tantalizing Tidbits Anthology (which will eventually be reworked as the prologue of Blood Dawn).

Hi,

I'm JF Dubeau. Author of The Life Engineered and A God in the Shed.

This is a great idea Joe. As Inkshares develops and grows, Goodreads is likely to become an important part of it's marketing. Having a presence here for authors is really going to pay off in the future.

I'm Kate, or on Inkshares K.E. Madsen author of Silver Eyes-which I'm funding-, The Plant Mage Trilogy: The Discovery, Separated, The University, and Lohikaarme.

Nice to meet everyone!

Hi everyone!

I'm Elan, occasionally known as The Warbler, most often seen online as bonbonelan.

I started my relationship with Inkshares by reviewing a few ARCs for them: Abomination, Dawn of the Algorithm, and The Battle for Oz. I love the idea behind Inkshares, and watching the community grow and seeing so much great material cropping up has been deeply inspiring.

I love reviewing books, but I love writing fiction, too. Happy to meet you all and take part in this community.

Hello!

My name is Jamison Stone and my novel is entitled RUNE OF THE APPRENTICE.

Glad to join the community and thanks for the invite!

Hi all! On behalf of the Inkshares team, this is so wonderful to see! Building and cultivating a community of authors and readers who reinforce the importance of supporting literature means everything to us.

I'm a book production and marketing manager at Inkshares, and I'll be checking in to answer any questions you might have/share advice that might be helpful. As always, you can reach out to us at hello@inkshares.com anytime.

Avalon wrote: "Hi all! On behalf of the Inkshares team, this is so wonderful to see! Building and cultivating a community of authors and readers who reinforce the importance of supporting literature means everyth..."

OMG! Who invited the adults?

I made Jeremy and Avalon from Inkshares moderators so they can add books, etc. to the group. I tried to find all the books that were in production or available and the Goodreads database, but if you see anything missing, add them!

J-F wrote: "Avalon wrote: "Hi all! On behalf of the Inkshares team, this is so wonderful to see! Building and cultivating a community of authors and readers who reinforce the importance of supporting literatur..."

The omnipresent book Gods ;)

Joe wrote: "I made Jeremy and Avalon from Inkshares moderators so they can add books, etc. to the group. I tried to find all the books that were in production or available and the Goodreads database, but if yo..."

This is awesome! To me this models exactly how the traditional publishing team works with authors. We're all in this together to reach readers.

Joe, I don't have a page for Blood Dawn because I didn't think you could create a page for a book that's not published yet. Is this true? If not let me know what I have to do to create a page for Blood Dawn because that might help some more with visibility.

John wrote: "Joe wrote: "I made Jeremy and Avalon from Inkshares moderators so they can add books, etc. to the group. I tried to find all the books that were in production or available and the Goodreads databas..."

I looked through my settings and couldn't find any way to add an unpublished book. I'd love to make one for my novel as well.

My name is Derek and I am the worst. THE WORST.

Oh good... Derek.

The Sword to my Laser.

Yay...

Per John's question,

I believe the book needs to get near the final stages of production before it can be available in the Goodreads database. I'm not certain, I just queried the books in the database against what was on the Inkshares site and added the ones I found.

For K.E.

Check the other discussion for Nerdist contest writers. The first post has a link to my blog where I run down what worked and what didn't work for me as far as sales are concerned. Experience might vary and I think other writers have also chimed in with advice there as well.

Hey everyone!

My name is Paul Inman.

I am the author of Ageless and co-author of Motor City Chronicles - Book One: Transgressions (which will hopefully be entering the Nerdist Contest this weekend).

Ageless (https://www.inkshares.com/projects/ag...) was a winner of the Sword and Laser Contest.

I am happy to have been invited! Thanks so much!

Hi! I'm Yicheng Liu. Author of The Remains Of Civilization. Maybe also Ranked(but that's still in the drafting stage)

My first book the remains is a part of the Nerdist contest(don't ask, it's a long story. Ask the guys at Inkshares). I'm seriously not even going to try to be a douchy self-promoter. If you want check out my Goodreads profile/book page, click my cover photo.

Hi all! This is Cara Weston, aka A.C. Weston, author behind She Is the End.

I'm really super-happy this exists. :)

Yicheng wrote: "Hi! I'm Yicheng Liu. Author of The Remains Of Civilization. Maybe also Ranked(but that's still in the drafting stage)

My first book the remains is a part of the Nerdist contest(don't ask, it's a l..."

I will totally be a douchy self-promoter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDTwO...

Hi, I'm Paul, author of Ghosts of War in the Nerdist contest.

I'm so bad at douchy self promoting that I just throw links onto the internet and run away.

http://bit.ly/ghostsofwar

Hi everyone!

I'm Emily, also go by Ranger or Sadict around the web.
I'm author of the fantasy novel An Aarainian Tale: The Monarch's Rabble and added it to the Nerdist Collection Contest. =D

Awesome to be invited here.

J-F wrote: "Yicheng wrote: "Hi! I'm Yicheng Liu. Author of The Remains Of Civilization. Maybe also Ranked(but that's still in the drafting stage)

My first book the remains is a part of the Nerdist contest(don..."

Is it...Is it normal to laugh this hard? I can't...dying from laughter. Blood vessels bursting...uggh.

/* Dies painfully

So good to see this group growing! I continue to recruit new people -- generally whenever I see someone follow me who has a fantasy or scifi book I try to track them down on Twitter I can point them here. If all of us try to actively seek out Inkshares fantasy and sci fi authors, this group can really grow into a vibrant co-promo community!

Hi all! I'm Erin aka E. R. Moore. I'm participating in the Nerdist contest with my book Moonlight & the Magician. Sounds like there is a good community going here. I look forward to reading All The Posts and perhaps Learning Something.

https://www.inkshares.com/projects/mo...

Hey Erin. Welcome!

Be sure to check out the promotion thread -- there's a place where you can put up a media kit for your book so that we can promote it where we see fit, as well as a place where you can check out some cool promotional opportunities.

Hey all,

I'm Damien. I don't have high expectations for the Inkshares contest as my book is more of a series of novellas and less a stand-alone novel, but entering has driven me to kick my book plans into high gear. I'm updating on Wattpad and even made a website this weekend.

Thanks to all who have contributed to my new-found drive.

I'll help out wherever I can.

Welcome Damian.

If you really want to help you can always https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDTwO...

Ha. That's what it all comes down to, isn't it.

Damien wrote: "Ha. That's what it all comes down to, isn't it."

I really hope not.

J-F wrote: "Welcome Damian.

If you really want to help you can always https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDTwO..."

This makes me laugh. Thanks for that!

That's more or less how I did it.

Hey folks! Sorry I'm late to the party!

This has been a real hoot. I've never been a seller, and the process of pitching people until they're ready to punch me in the face has been quite the experience for me. I know one of my colleagues at work is thinking about shanking me.

I think the biggest reason I want my project to be successful is so that I can just write and let repeat readers order my books, rather than constantly pressing the flesh.

Good luck to everyone! :D

- Dave

@Damien

Hugh Howey's Wool is a series of short stories and a novella. I'd argue he's been pretty successful.

Keep the faith!

Howey and Andy Weir are what keep me going :)

Thanks for the pep talk!

Hi,

I'm Aitor Ibarra, and I wrote Oculus : https://www.inkshares.com/projects/oc...

It's primarily a science fiction book... but it's lots of other things too.

I've been writing for just over a year and am almost at what I would call first-draft stage: about 5000 words to write from scratch and about 1000 that need to be re-written. I discovered Inkshares a few months ago and when I got permission to publish from the two fantastic women that inspired four (or arguably two, depends on what you believe!) of the main characters, I thought I'd give Inkshares a go.

Inkshares is clearly evolving - the main issue is that it's full of writers chasing readers - but most people there are writers. We can obviously support each other, but we/it needs to find more ways of getting many more readers on board.

I want to thank John Robin for being so supportive and inviting me on to his blog.

cheers,

Aitor

Aitor -- you've come to the right place in your quest to find writers supporting each other. Hope to see you in the many great threads here where lots of great things are happening!

Same here. We are all in this together.

Hi Aitor! Welcome to the herd! I hit you with a preorder - good luck! :D

Hey everyone, I'm Adam Vine, author of Lurk. My campaign is a week away from spectacularly crashing and burning. If it doesn't succeed I'm going to self or small pres publish the book anyway, but I like the Inkshares community so much I plan to stick around for a while.

https://www.inkshares.com/projects/lurk

Adam, you can ask them to extend the deadline.

Adam, you can ask them to extend the deadline.

Hey Adam! If you can get an extension on your deadline (I've seen at least one project with 200+ days remaining), I'd be happy to toss you a preorder.

Thanks guys. I emailed them and asked to extend it. Time to reorganize my battle plan... I would just restart the campaign in the nerdist contest since there's a much bigger spotlight on it, but it's a horror book, not SF or Fantasy, so...

I think it's about time I said 'hi'. So, hello!

I'm not really active on Goodreads, but I now see a reason why I should. So I'll try to be more active here. Nice virtually meeting you all!

Ya hey dare-- That's Minnesotan for 'Hello'-- at least according to the Coen Brothers. I'm Melissa Berg... from Minnesota, my book is Prophecy of the Stars, currently in the contest. Thank you, John Robin, for inviting me. I am sooo needing this. I've been writing my series for 10 years now, but this is the first time I've shared any of it... kinda scary. Before seeing the Nerdist post, I had never heard of Inkshares. I was close to starting the process of self-publishing, so on a spontaneous whim, I entered. I've been reading as many posts here as I can, and I must say, I'm very excited. Being a stay at home I've been in a bit of a social vacuum for over ten years. Before that I was involved quite a bit in chat rooms and forums. I mean, I met my husband in an AOL chat room about X-Files for gosh dern sakes--anyone in here old enough to remember AOL? Anyway it's time to get out there... or here... and start sharing. My experience using Facebook for self-promotion has been an eye opener. I'm learning a lot about how hard it is to get friends to notice and share... Other than my mom... "You're not helping, mother..." Lol. It's also causing a few bitter feelings toward close friends and family who aren't being very supportive. There are several who aren't into fantasy, or don't even like ::gasp:: reading... (I'm rolling my eyes right now, can you tell?) Anyway I need to branch out and start building followers who care about fantasy and what it all means, as much as I do. Thank you to those of you who have already preordered my book. I really, really, really appreciate it. (Ok, does that last part come off as too desperate? I think it does... Should I fix it? No, I think I'll go with desperate...)
If your not sure which one is me, here's the link:
https://www.inkshares.com/projects/pr...

Glad to see you here, Melissa! Be sure to check out the many useful threads here.

Melissa wrote: "Ya hey dare-- That's Minnesotan for 'Hello'-- at least according to the Coen Brothers. I'm Melissa Berg... from Minnesota, my book is Prophecy of the Stars, currently in the contest. Thank you, Joh..."

Another Minnesotan, heeey! Are you in the Twin Cities?