Inkshares Community discussion

So we've got about 9 days left in the comp, and there's going to be (at current count) 324 of us that won't win.

This is the place to come in, pull up a chair and drown your sorrows/plans for the future/other thoughts and feelings.

So what's everyone's plans post-Nerdist?

-----


I've come to terms over the last few days that I'm not going to hit the Top 5, I've had several days of zero to little sales, which after selling almost 90 in a week has taken the shine off a little.

I'm at 126 readers presently and there's no way I'm going to find another 220+ in 9 days, and that's even if the other books don't sell any more...lol

So yeah, comp wise...I'm out. But I'm also 1/5 of the way to my goal of 1000 copies, so that's my focus now.

I've also managed to write some of my book today, for the first time in...well it's been a number of months...I think knowing the contest is gone has helped.

At this stage the plan is to have a self published version out in November, while funding through till the end of the year, and maybe even getting an extension depending on how sales go.

First and foremost though, I need to get this book finished, and now I should be able to concentrate on that a bit more.

I'm pleased that I participated, and I'm glad to have joined this community.

I'm going to work on a shorter, very different project on inkshares. It's called The Taking Kid , and it's a retelling of The Giving Tree from the tree's perspective. A good friend of mine is a fantastic artist and illustrator, and wants to work on it with me.

As far as longer form fiction is concerned, I am going to write and rewrite One, keep working on my historical fiction novel, several short stories, and my epic fantasy piece, The Waterwoods.

Congrats to those of you who win. Congrats to the rest, too, because you are all great writers, and you deserve it.

My funding period ends on November 19.

My book will be self-published on November 20.

My name is Aitor Ibarra and I am an Inkshares author.

Is that how we should do this? I didn't know about the Nerdist contest when I launched Oculus and although like anybody here I would love to win it I never had any expectation. The contest finishes on the same day I stop being forty-two. Last year's birthday was possibly the best in my adult life with three lovely ladies singing to me (one of whom was Kate Bush) and that's a hard act to follow.

I don't know if Inkshares will look at this, but it may need someway of resuscitating authors' failed projects. What's clear to me as that with the possibly 1:100 pure-reader to reader/writer ratio, it's great at creating content but unless it attracts readers in much greater numbers, it's just going to be a place where writers come to be disappointed. I don't think anybody who is out of the top five, or who doesn't get 750-1000 pre-orders fails because of the quality of their work or even the quality of their self-marketing.

Perhaps Inkshares should do a deal with some site that has lots of voracious readers. These people would tear through the projects and find what they want, and like I said, a "failed" project is not really a failure, and could have a ton of potential. I wonder what site has such a bunch of readers? That you know, like to tell each other what they like and connect to authors and stuff? Maybe a site like that would be useful to a major bookseller like Amazon?

I really want my book to be read. That matters to me much more than the money - although I'd already decided to donate any pre-order royalties to organisations I believe in, so money too would be nice. If I got published it would be nice to eventually make a living from it.

So I may self publish but I doubt that will ever bring in the numbers.

In the meantime I set up a gallery on Instagram - https://instagram.com/oculusnovel/ - zero traffic from it in the dashboard, but I've discovered that Instagram is like what I imagine crack to be like.

I still haven't given up, but I'm enough of a realist to say that I will come back to commiserate later. :)

I never thought I'd win haha! I just found out about Inkshares through the Nerdist contest and decided hey why not try fund my novel.

Granted I'm still trying to fund it, but orders have slowed to a crawl. I guess promises of more book aren't enticing enough haha. Oh well.

I arrived to the Nerdist Collection just after the appetizers, offering my novel to see where it would take me. Making that top five would have been a cool thing, but I was looking more towards trying to accumulate the golden number by the end of November. This wasn't planned, more a frantic attempt to put my book out there and see what happens.

I've met some amazing authors, people who I hope to keep in contact with long after the campaigns. My largest takeaway is that this whole experience gave me a reason to open a manuscript I hadn't touched in over a year. I'd put it away, moving on to other stories and seeking out new and exciting word counts. If anything, I've had the chance to fall in love with my book again, and remembering how much the story means to me. Whatever happens, I know there are people out there who love my book as much as I do.

I'm helping a few people with their book covers, then I'm going to get back to my original plans that I had before I discovered the Nerdist contest. I was close to self publishing through create space and iBooks anyway, I just needed to finish the artwork for my map and rework some formatting things. I was really bummed that first week when the response was quite below what I expected from the Facebook crowd. I already knew I didn't have much of a network, but the ones I did have were awfully quiet. Yet I had some surprises too, people who we hadn't seen or talked to in years were quicker than closest friends and relatives to order, even before they had credits. I also learned a lot about this process. I hate self promotion, I usually feel like I'm intruding on others. The face to face thing is impossible for me. I can't even bring myself to tell the other moms at the school bus stop what I'm doing. I don't want to be met with the LOOKS anymore from the crowd that isn't into what I'm into. High school lunch room flashbacks anyone? Instead I'm going to take the positives with me. I don't know if I'll try Inkshares again, maybe once they have more readers than writers (I posted somewhere else my thoughts on that whole issue) the writers sustaining each other thing can only go so far. What I'm hoping to gain from this are some real friends interested in what I'm doing, who might help to support my next step. If I can get a few decent reviews on Amazon and iBooks, then maybe I'll get more response from that route. I am surprised I've managed to skim the top 20 in this contest. Who knows? I don't think mentioning that in a query letter would hurt either. Btw I've seen ads for a site called book bubs, and they will advertise your book if it's free or discounted, as long as you have a certain number of good reviews. So that's probably my next goal.

on the subject of expecting to win, I don't know if I was expecting to win...hoping? maybe.

I think Andy Ainsworth and I were the only ones from the top 10 of the last contest (or even from the whole contest..I'm not sure) to resubmit our books for this one, so we both were probably thinking we'd be in for a good shot.

He's done great and is currently in a great spot to take 5th. All the kudos to that man.

(If you haven't bought These Old Bones yet, you totally should: https://www.inkshares.com/projects/th... )

I don't think anyone (even Inkshares) was expecting there to be as many entrants as there has been compared to last time. In the Sword and Laser comp there was maybe, 80 books? It may have even been less than that.

So for me to get to 16th out of 331 entries and improve on my unique reader and sales totals from last time? That's pretty close to a win for me, and I did it without getting back nearly 40 backers from the S&L comp.

I never expected to win, so that aspect is not a big deal for me. I've been sitting on this book for too long, obsessing over trying to create some mythical "perfect" pitch/query letter to the point of never actually trying to actually get it out there. In that time I neglected even attempting to build a platform as well, so really when I saw the contest I just used it as an excuse to just throw the book out there & learn as I go.

So, my plans after the contest are to continue trying to get my preorders up until the project end date of 11/21. If I hit goal to publish through Inkshares that's great. If not, then I actual move forward with the traditional methods of submissions to agents & publishers while also trying to stay active on platform building/networking.

During that time I can also be working on certain steps such as commissioning cover design(would have already been if I wasn't dead broke), and getting some professional editing done. With that done if I haven't been able to get picked up by someone else, then I will go forward with self publishing, most likely starting with pod services.

Won't be an easy task, especially since I'm like Melissa when it comes to my discomfort with self promotion. I've never liked talkimg about myself, let alone trying to convince people to buy something I've created so definitely unnatural for me to promote. I've also never wanted to do anything other than write, and self promotion is an absolute necessity so I have to keep pushing myself into unfamiliar territory until I'm good at it.

Man that was far too long winded. I shoulf have just said, "I'll keep trying," and left it at that.

I never really expected to win either. I just thought it would drive more traffic to my book. Which would result in me finally being able to get my book edited for free. Which is kind of the motive behind me joining the nerdist contest. But since I wanted to get out in print, not the shitty self-publish online deal. I came to Inkshares.

I mean, I could beg my highschool English teacher to edit it. But I think that's an asshole move, so yeah. That's kind of a reason I had wanted to get my book out there. I wanted to see my book in the library, and I wanna be proud of it. ;(

I'm not going to fund, but I never expected to in a 30 day window. I needed a hard kick in the pants to get me off the ground developing social media skills. I also needed something to force me to show my work to strangers if I ever expected to do more than sit and write beautiful stories and dream wistfully of having someone else know they're beautiful.

So far Inkshares has been really good for me, as far as a growth experience. I plan to run out my funding window - ends Dec 6 - and after the last week, I actually feel like I have a chance of doing that.

Knowing that there are total strangers who want to read the book badly enough to order based on a sample chapter is also rocket fuel for my desire to write. Too bad crowd funding has eaten so much of my writing time lately... :(

I was also thinking of printing some copies and getting a table at a few comic cons. Get it in front of my target audience. That's my biggest hurdle with those I'm reaching, most aren't in to reading fantasy, and the ones that are don't bother sharing much with their friends.

Melissa wrote: "I was also thinking of printing some copies and getting a table at a few comic cons. Get it in front of my target audience. That's my biggest hurdle with those I'm reaching, most aren't in to readi..."

Discovery is something everyone struggles with. I'm going to a local comic con (the first one here!) next month and, while I'm excited about it, I don't expect to sell any books. If I do, it will be a pleasant surprise. I don't feel that way because I'm not confident about my stories or writing, but because having zero expectations helps my attitude about the whole process and I present myself in a better way. If I go in thinking about sales, my mood will sour over time and the whole thing becomes a death spiral ;-)

So, my advice is to go in simply eager to meet new people and find out what people are interested in. Often the process can inspire new stories and give you a better idea of where and how to market.

Hey friends.

Seems like many of us are going to re-investigate self-pub as an option after the week is up. I just found a site that seems intriguing. I haven't signed up yet or even read much about what they do, but on the surface, it sounds like something that'll work for many of us.

https://reedsy.com/

Elan wrote: "Hey friends.

Seems like many of us are going to re-investigate self-pub as an option after the week is up. I just found a site that seems intriguing. I haven't signed up yet or even read much abo..."

that's why I'm really hoping that Inkshares works out for me. There's no way in the world I can afford $1500 for an editor, so if I self publish I'm just going to have to do it myself...or find a really kind soul...

Paul wrote: "Elan wrote: "Hey friends.

Seems like many of us are going to re-investigate self-pub as an option after the week is up. I just found a site that seems intriguing. I haven't signed up yet or even ..."

Yeah, same boat here.

I think that is the reason EVERYONE got into Inkshares. Traditional publishing is such a slow and uncertain path. Sure, it's a system fine-tuned from hundreds of years worth of practice, but it's too damned slow and doesn't really tell you what the heck is going on.