Inkshares Community discussion

Hey Folks

One of the cool things about the contest has been getting to know some of the other authors, either here (though I confess that I checked out for a while because the new semester really started kicking my ass), on Twitter, or wherever. Everyone I've met has been a class act.

Now that the contest is over, most folks are still in search of their novel goal. And if you're at all like me, most folks have access to referral credits. What I'd love to see happen is for people to start to network together and try to move some other folks toward the 1000 book goal. In particular, Ricardo and Catcher's Trap missed out of the top five by 2 readers. He's got almost 700 books ordered, so is by any real measure super close to funding.

300 books is 30 people blowing 99 bucks of credits. Not everyone has 99 bucks in credits, but every little bit helps. Once we've gotten him over the finish line (or close enough for him to go the rest of the way easily), move down to number 7 and repeat. Then 8.

Anyway, give it some thought. As you continue to fund your own books with your referral links, put some thought into what to do with those credits.

Thanks, and best of luck to everyone :)

-Dave

I like the idea of moving down the list and getting more books funded. However, I think if we rely on leftover referral credits, this plan is going to run out of steam almost immediately.

I usually have a solution to throw around when I have a complaint (bring me solutions, not problems) but I'll need to give this one some thought. The easy answer is 'bring in more readers' but as we all saw, that's a hell of a job.

Of course if the plan is just to move that one book over the funding goal then yeah, referral credits will be sufficient...

Yah, obviously this is going to benefit the people much closer to the goal, since most of the credits are going to be spent on those folks. Though to be honest, according to Inkshares I've earned almost $3,000 in credits, and that's just on my account. My wife, who shared among her own circle her own referral code, had plenty of credits to buy 10 copies of The Catcher's Trap. My Daughter, who worked her ass off helping me, ALSO had her own referral code, and she's bought 10 copies. If people plan appropriately, every single book order they receive should be crediting SOMEONE referral credits. First goal, get your friend to buy 10 copies of your own book, but once that's done the credits just sit.

I'm an accountant, so I tend to think in terms of practicality. I think that over the next month and a half getting someone who's sold 500 to 600 books already has a pretty good chance. Someone who's sold only 300 not so much.

I'm not going to lie, there's a good bit of "There but for the grace of God go I" at work too. I edged Ricardo out by so few, it could so easily have been me looking for more buyers. Consequently I'm inclined to work extra hard to get him over the goal.

It actually looks like #10, Jamison's Rune of the Apprentice is the next closest to hitting the target, with 635 sold, and then Single vision at 550. So after Ricardo they seem like the ones that could most benefit from a concentrated push over the short time we have left.

In the meanwhile, those of us who have already achieved funding should be using that platform to highlight the other books that are still working toward their goal, and are really not terribly far away. It costs nothing to throw in a, "by the way, check out this other book that looks really good." in our communications to followers, and to use the "recommend" button on Inkshares.

I like the idea, and I think it's worth the attempt even if the full goal isn't achieved through the effort. If our collective social media presence were organized to focus on one book at a time, it could at least help close the gap enough that the writer could then take it from there.

Maybe we could get a list of us that opt-in, and everyone that joins the movement would get one week of the entire group recommending, tweeting, blogging, etc. about their project?

Who has a facebook page, or a website that gets some traffic? Can we write some articles that highlight these words and get some buzz?

I know I wasn't in the 10, but I'd really appreciate any credits thrown Ghosts of War's way.

http://bit.ly/ghostsnovel

Dave wrote: "I'm an accountant, so I tend to think in terms of practicality. I think that over the next month and a half getting someone who's sold 500 to 600 books already has a pretty good chance. Someone who's sold only 300 not so much."

I was talking with Inkshares the other day about the ebook goal of 750 copies, and about what happens if you only hit that? I wanted to know if there was an avenue to get a print copy later down the road.

In reply they said they haven't had a single book hit the 750 and not make the 1000. So you could argue that the ones like Ricardo and Jamison don't necessarily need as much help as those of us in the 200-300 copy range.

I think the focus needs to be on getting people to the 750 at which point, history shows, the momentum will carry them the rest of the way. Plus, even if they end up only hitting the ebook goal, they still get published and they still get the editing and promotion.

Getting people over that first hurdle should be where the spare credits go.

I agree that the goal is to get as many people to 1000 (750) as possible. I also agree with Paul that those who already have good momentum might not be the ones in need of the most help. That's what I mean about being clever about our use of resources. Having say the 11-20 dump all their credits to get the 6-10 their goal might not be the best way to go. Having the 11-20 help get visibility for the 6-10 might be enough to get them their goal and then turn around and with credits and visibility push the 11-20 along.

In the end, I'm probably just going to keep motoring on my campaign anyways and pushing books I think look rad, regardless of where they are in the rankings, but if we do come up with a sensible method of pushing more books to publication, I'm in.

Paul wrote: "Dave wrote: "I'm an accountant, so I tend to think in terms of practicality. I think that over the next month and a half getting someone who's sold 500 to 600 books already has a pretty good chance..."

I'm with Paul on this one. I was always planning on doing a Kickstarter project before I discovered Inkshares, and one piece of conventional wisdom for a Kickstarter project was that if a project makes it to 50% of its goal, it will make it all the way - almost without a doubt. People rally because they love to see a project succeed, and there's a level of doubt that makes some people hold back when you're under 50%. Maybe for Inkshares, that figure is 75% instead of 50%. I'd believe that.

So, obviously, I would love some help. Hahaha.

I think that someone (but who???) needs to start a blog that's exclusively about Inkshares books, but isn't run by Inkshares. We need somewhere we can highlight really good projects, share news, let people know about conventions we'll have tables at, etc., and I think it could be a vehicle for advertising our books. If someone went to Inkshares right now and wondered, "Hmm, what's a good book that needs a bit of help?", they wouldn't be able to figure that out without searching through probably dozens of projects.

It would be nice to have a blog where people could just go and see: THIS book is almost to its deadline and has 700 pre-orders, HELP! And THIS book has a cool contest running right now, go win a gift card or a t-shirt or something! And THIS book just got covered by the NY Times, AWESOME JOB! And THIS book that recently got funded is now in production and here's what the author thinks of the editing process so far, etc etc. Like an Inkshares round-up, so that new readers don't have to be following 50 different authors and blogs to figure out what's up.

I'm not in any position to run such a blog, and I wouldn't expect anyone else with a currently funding campaign to start one. Who could do it?

Anyone?

I'll totally take over after my campaign is successful...