Inkshares Community discussion

Occasionally, I am particularly moved by an Inkshares project that I read. There is one that has really captured my interest, something I think would be a great addition to Quill, and I'd like to drop this here in our supportive community to see if other epic fantasy lovers want to get on board and help.

At 94 orders, Storm of Furt is almost halfway to getting into the new Quill imprint.

Got credits to spend? Or do you want to put money toward what promises to be an awesome epic fantasy read? Head on over!

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

If it is that impressive, you should look beyond Quill to move it into the 750 range.

This project has 64 days left to fund and there is always the potential for an extension.

Quill is a nice fallback to have, but the full treatment is so much more attractive.

But getting into the Quill range is a good initial goal and I support that.

Mykl, I'm thinking about this the same way. Quill is the start. Anyone who gets Quill gets published. But with time left, we can take it further. How about this: if we get this into Quill, then let's start a new thread called "let's get this into Inkshares"
:)

agreed

I've launched a Twitter snowball -- you're taggged in it. If other authors on twitter do the same, then we can get this out there. Here's how it goes:

tweet this:

@[your contact]
Please RT

Order this #epicfantasy book -- The Wheel of Time, with the Dark One as a menacing storm.
bit.ly/1QDDGr1

put in as many of your contacts as you'd like. I've chosen all the contacts who are in our author grid.

Hello everyone!

I'm Andrew Wood, the author of Storm of Fury! Firstly, let me extend a thank you to John Robin for creating this thread and supporting my book!

Here's a short blurb about Storm of Fury:

Humanity has always sinned, it is in their nature. However, the great god Na'lek will tolerate their despicable behavior no more, and has made his rage manifest in the form of a massive storm, which is his Fury.

Within the Fury, rage is made flesh in the form of nightmarish creatures, and march forth from the storm to wage war upon the sinful mortals.

Kaven, a young man who has failed everything from archery to college, is selected to go into the Fury itself. Within the storm, he must beg for humanity's forgiveness, or else all will perish before the Fury's might.

Please, check out the link in John Robin's post and check out the first three chapters of Storm of Fury for free!

Thanks for adding this, Andrew! I just sent out a reader update suggesting authors who follow me send out an update. This would be great to add in an update to any authors who want to share your book.

Want to include your cover here? If not, I can easily upload the image from the URL. It would be great if authors can include your cover in the reader update.

John wrote: "Thanks for adding this, Andrew! I just sent out a reader update suggesting authors who follow me send out an update. This would be great to add in an update to any authors who want to share your bo..."

I'd love for you to do that! I'm new to this system, and I haven't figured out how to upload a picture yet.

I tried to order this one among others with my credits today, but since I started on here before all the changes I was never asked for credit card info. Now you apparently need it even if you won't owe anything. Unfortunately Inkshares wouldn't let me order anything without cc info, yet they don't give a place to enter it, and there isn't any other area under my profile to add or change it. Very frustrating, I have lots of credits and this new issue, added to several others I've dealt with, has dotted the Inkshares 'i' so to speak. I don't think I'll continue my journey with them once my campaign runs out. I've had other potential readers run into this same problem and it has cost me a few orders recently with all these changes, etc. I would very much like to support others however, and I asked my husband to order your book for me, (he didn't have the problem, I think they have his cc info already). If this gets sorted out before I lose my credits I hope to order it too, among others.
Btw, in case anyone suggests, I have contacted Inkshares about this, but haven't gotten a response yet. I guess the weekend issue...

Melissa wrote: "I tried to order this one among others with my credits today, but since I started on here before all the changes I was never asked for credit card info. Now you apparently need it even if you won't..."


I'm having the same issue. :( I've tried ordering a few people's books including this one and it just won't let me. :(

Jessie wrote: "Melissa wrote: "I tried to order this one among others with my credits today, but since I started on here before all the changes I was never asked for credit card info. Now you apparently need it e..."

Be sure to email Inkshares -- they should hear from everyone having this issue, so that they can investigate the bug from all angles and resolve it.

John wrote: "Jessie wrote: "Melissa wrote: "I tried to order this one among others with my credits today, but since I started on here before all the changes I was never asked for credit card info. Now you appar..."

I just emailed them. :( Hopefully it gets resolved soon.

I'm going to promote this (Storm of Fury) in my update this evening =)

Tabi wrote: "I'm going to promote this (Storm of Fury) in my update this evening =)"

Awesome, Tabi! Yes, let's keep doing this. I love the team effort. And this is not something limited to Storm -- I think it's great when we do something like this to pick a focus (sharp arrow = puncturing even through steel), but also if this works, what about as a community of authors jumping on board and bringing our readers together on works we're passionate about?

Well, haven't we already created that community here with this group? I have seen that when we get together and support one project, it gets attention more than individually, so the whole idea of making one project reach a goal at a time works wonderfully. I'm going to send out my update in a few hours, and the image you used in emails...that's open for use in my own update about 'Storm', right?

Yes, that image is right from Inkshares. I pulled it from the URL where they store it in their system.

'Kay, thanks! =)

Sure, I'll pitch in.

Inkshares credits working again!!! :) I was able to order!!

Me too ;)

I'm thinking, folks, this is such a great thing we're doing! I realize the purpose of this group is to bring us together to help one another, but what we're doing here is taking it to a whole new level:

-pick a focus, one single work
-Get as many of us on board who believe in it and promote the hell out of it
-pre-order the book if we feel so inclined (but don't just pre-order for boosting numers)
-promote promote promote promote until goal is achieved

Once we get there and Andrew is in Quill, we look for another work. Who's on board? The more authors who want to join up, the better. Spread word -- other authors with Inkshares who can help. Let's flex our group muscles and show how powerful our joined efforts are and how we can bring readers on board.

I think that's a fantastic idea, John! To quote a great warrior; "Together, we vanquish!"

Andrew wrote: "I think that's a fantastic idea, John! To quote a great warrior; "Together, we vanquish!""

That's a great quote! And yes, together, we are a FORCE. Let's show it now.

Additionally, I'm thinking if we're going to do this, then all authors who get on board to be a driving force for the given work we focus on should also perhaps offer some feedback, i.e. suggestions for improving the project page, cover improvement, perhaps some critique on opening chapters, perhaps adding a review, etc. (none of this is obligatory, just a thought -- in other words, not just a bunch of "buy this book" tweets and reader updates. Let's really get active and invested if we're going to do this)

Uh, I'll see what I can do with this.

John wrote: "Additionally, I'm thinking if we're going to do this, then all authors who get on board to be a driving force for the given work we focus on should also perhaps offer some feedback, i.e. suggestion..."

MAKEOVER! MAKEOVER! BOOK PROJECT MAKEOVER!

I love makeovers. :)

I was thinking exactly along those lines - what can we offer each other together, as a group, to make our projects better?

Is anyone willing to put together a better cover?

Post a review?

Sketch some main characters?

Draw some maps?

Highlight favorite paragraphs and leave encouraging comments?

(Of course, some people are gonna get angry that their project isn't selected for this special treatment. What are we going to tell those people? We can't do this for every book...)

John wrote: "I'm thinking, folks, this is such a great thing we're doing! I realize the purpose of this group is to bring us together to help one another, but what we're doing here is taking it to a whole new l..."

What a great idea! So inspiring!

Cara wrote: "We can't do this for every book"

That's just it right there -- we can't. So it means we're going to choose as a group, and really, it's up to us, right? Here's the beautiful thing: why does it have to be just us? There are 450 authors here! Nothing is stopping other authors from grouping up and copying us with other books. Nothing is stopping one author from joining multiple groups. This is all free will.

So we're all HERE because we want to help Andrew get Storm of Fury into Quill. When we've got there, we'll all point our eyes elsewhere (I'm thinking, what about helping Yicheng with Remains of Civilization?). We can decide when we get goal #1 done, then move on. But yeah, seriously, I'm all for this bubbling out and other people starting other threads for something similar. In fact, I'll be thrilled if I have to go and make a special folder in this group just for this sort of "author power" endeavor.

Cara wrote: "John wrote: "Additionally, I'm thinking if we're going to do this, then all authors who get on board to be a driving force for the given work we focus on should also perhaps offer some feedback, i...."

I can do a book trailer and some rudimentary cover design, maybe post some encouraging reviews. But uh, that's 'bout it. Graphic design is my hobby, not profession.

I know Tabi already reached out to Andrew about a book cover redesign. A book trailer would be cool. More reviews and comments are always a good thing.

Thank you all so much for helping Andrew with this!

I think this could be a epic book cover. Just sayin'. I got way too much time on my hands...

I'm available for cover designs. I'm not the most professional at it, but I enjoy making them and do my best to give quality work. I'm willing to do them for free, unless you want a specific picture that isn't free. For copyrighted covers you want to hold the rights to, I can only use free images or there would be a matter of either you buying specific images and sending them to me (which I think is easiest overall) or we can do something through PayPal to cover image costs.

Anything else to add for helping push works, I have a pretty solid Twitter and Goodreads base of people (not as much as some of the veterans on here, of course) and I'm a pretty good beta reader and developmental editor. Not too much of a massive copyeditor, but I know some finer points of grammar and what looks right and what doesn't.

And I can also review works (but do keep in mind that I'm busy with my own projects and personal "fun" reading offline) =)

Also, I second the vote to push Yicheng's work next!

I would like to suggest help for Housewife in Hell. I've been following this author's blog, and she writes excellent and thoughtful analysis of movies quite regularly. I'm very interested in how she applies that knowledge to original fiction.

http://onecriticalbitch.com/

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

Tabi wrote: "I'm available for cover designs. I'm not the most professional at it, but I enjoy making them and do my best to give quality work. I'm willing to do them for free, unless you want a specific pictur..."

Thanks! :D
I owe you a smiley face.

Jessie, confirmed -- I was finally able to order Andrew's book!

Joe wrote: "I would like to suggest help for Housewife in Hell. I've been following this author's blog, and she writes excellent and thoughtful analysis of movies quite regularly. I'm very interested in how sh..."

I'm 100% behind Housewife in Hell, too. Alex Landers is a great writer. I don't read horror, but I'd love to see this one get published.

See, this is going to be a challenge... There are a LOT of good books out there, and if we wait until "Storm of Fury" reaches Quill to start on the next book, the next book's campaign might already have ended.

Maybe we can do a new book every week? Some elements of promotion are one-time deals, like revamping a cover or doing character sketches. We don't have to wait for "Storm of Fury" to fund before we start contributing our collective efforts to another book.

Thoughts?

Absolutely, Cara! This is more of a movement than a one off. There's no reason we can't make a new thread for each book like this. I'll make a folder for these "let's get together" incentives. It's good if we keep focus and keep things separated so that incentives don't get buried. A folder would be great. Anyone wants to add another, title the thread "let get Xxx into Quill" or if it's a book you want into Inkshares that's in Quill, "let's get Yyy into full Inkshares". I'll sort all these threads into the "let's work to get a book published" folder.

YES - I'd particularly love to see people make posts within the... "Crowd-sourced Campaigning" (somebody can think of a better name than that, right?) folder describing things they're willing to help with. It could be like a classified section of a newspaper, or like Craigslist except for

no

OK OK OK

JOHNSLIST

CAN WE CALL IT JOHNSLIST

AHHHH

Authors can post their availability in different "Available" threads, like "Cover Redesign" or "Blurb Revisions" or "Video Help" and then we can invite authors with books we want to help to come and make proposals for what they'd like help with.

(How would we incorporate the promotional pushes, like tweets and update recommendations, though? Maybe Johnslist is just one part of the collaboration...)

AHAHAHA! I just got this! LMAO, Cara, I saw this in our chat and you emailed me. I was so confused. I thought you got hacked by an outer space alien.


Okay, should we nickname this JOHNSLIST? You're a moderator, my dear, go ahead and edit the title ;)

And here's "JOHNSLIST"

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

Make sure you read the instructions I put there (my attempt to create some guidelines so this doesn't spiral into self-promotion -- which we already have a folder for).

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

John wrote: "Make sure you read the instructions I put there (my attempt to create some guidelines so this doesn't spiral into self-promotion -- which we already have a folder for).

https://www.goodreads.com/t..."

Yeah, I WILL

Oh my god. This is epic. But I don't think johnslist is a good title. It sounds too similar to craigslist. We all know what craigslist is. *shivers

Pre-Ordered and shared on Twitter.

Yicheng wrote: "Oh my god. This is epic. But I don't think johnslist is a good title. It sounds too similar to craigslist. We all know what craigslist is. *shivers"

I agree... johnslist sounds kinda scary (too many bad experiences on Craig's list.... How about Writer's Playground? It's a place we can go for everything... making it a playground will help incorporate tweets, update recommendations, and promotional materials too.
Some like the swings, some like the slides, some like the monkey bars.... and then there's the sand pit...... I was a swings person myself but..... ;)

This idea is amazing though!!!

Anybody know how to get a hold of Andrew? I got inspired to do a cover for him, and I'd love to know what he thinks.

I have contact with him through email so I'd say that's your best bet.

Hey everyone, it's been a little while.

An update for Storm of Fury; we've reached 126 pre-orders, which is halfway to Quill! I've realized that I've been a little lax about my book this last week, but that is changing now!

I've given a 'call to arms' to my readers, and I'd like to put it out here to. If you haven't purchased my book, please, please, PLEASE do so! Or, at least leave a review!

If you have already purchased the book, I'd like everyone to find one person they know that hasn't yet. Just one person! Get them to buy a copy!

If every one of my readers gets a friend to purchase a copy, Storm of Fury will be in Quill!

Thanks for your support thus far!

Andrew, make sure you get in on the Review-a-thon -- did you get Cara's email? We should make sure Storm is listed front and center so we can get as much buzz on that as possible.