Inkshares Community discussion

Seriously, this book should be closing on 750 both on the merits of the book itself and on the outstanding support John Robin provides to each and every author who joins our community. I've pre-ordered 3.

I'm 100% with you, Craig. We should all be talking up Blood Dawn for John because he's fundamental to the formation of this community, AND his book is genuinely amazing. It could be the next "Game of Thrones" if we let enough people know about it. I really believe that.

So, the question is: are we a group of fans who just can't stop ourselves from telling everyone about this book and we decide what we want to do, OR are we John's marketing team that he can direct to do different activities?

Craig! Thank you! I'm 100% with you too. Thanks for your support. Really, everyone who has shown support for this book, it means so much to me.

Cara -- you're making me blush! But in all seriousness, to answer your question: I'd say you (the team) are what you want to be. The timing of this post is impeccable actually because right now I'm in the process of trying to organize my existing fan base and look for ways we can all work together to tell more people about this book. This is a new venture for me, so it's awesome to know going into this we have a Johnslist endeavor on board.

Let's keep this percolating and see where it goes. I'm open to ideas. I'll take orders. I'll come up with a few surprises and ideas of my own.

All right, lets get some dragonfire cooking.

John wrote: "Craig! Thank you! I'm 100% with you too. Thanks for your support. Really, everyone who has shown support for this book, it means so much to me.

Cara -- you're making me blush! But in all seriousne..."

I feel like drgonfire are being too overrated among fantasy writers, what's wrong with the flaming passion of hell reaped from the souls of the dark ones (okay, no more rewatching GoT 'till midnight)?

Well Yicheng, dragonfire is the basis of my magic system, the force that lives in the blood of every person, so it's very much needed for Blood Dawn to succeed!

YES!

@john - Are you up for an author interview?

John's book is absolutely deserving of full funding.

John wrote: "Well Yicheng, dragonfire is the basis of my magic system, the force that lives in the blood of every person, so it's very much needed for Blood Dawn to succeed!"

Oh, okay. Though it seems like you have a little more dragon fire in you than the average person. ;)

I'd like to try a #1LineWed campaign for Blood Dawn. It's not likely to garner instantaneous preorders, but it will help you down the road. (Remember that advertising is all about the rule of 6). It does this by:
A. Increasing your follower and engagement count on Twitter
And
B. Acting as a test market to discover which lines will work best on future promotional materials

What you need is 5-25 lines that are either humorous, moody, or dramatic and that fit within the character limit. And maybe a few that just exceed the limit too (you can cheat by making a graphic with those). Then schedule the tweets to post throughout the day. On the day itself, be sure to do a search for the hashtag and like and retweet a few lines from other users. And to really boost it, the rest of us can retweet you throughout the day too.

@Christine -- totally on board for an interview, and I'd love to try this #1linewed thing you mention. I'm willing to try anything, and grateful for all the help.

I'm going to be dipping in here later today (and responding to your other email, Christine). Just finishing up an express editing job that needs all my attention since client is under deadline, but I want to chime in here to let you know I'm game!

I know Inkshares has reserved the right to give the full publishing treatment to any Quill book it deems might have sufficient sales potential. I also think that John AND his book are deserving of this.

But I'm not sure about the process to make this happen, without Inkshares making that independent decision.

Once you accept a Quill deal, you could potentially start earning royalties with pre-order #251.

So even if you get to 750, you have siphoned off much of the money that Inkshares would normally use to produce the full "Inkshares" production.

See what I'm getting at? If you accept Quill, does the 750 pre-order level still get you an "Inkshares" book, instead of a Quill imprint?

Since this scenario leaves Inkshares with much less of the pre-order cash (because of royalties paid from 251 onward) I would think that you remain as a Quill imprint, UNLESS Inkshares decides to bump you up.

Does anyone know if there is some stipulation for an author to move himself (or herself) up from Quill and into "Inkshares"?
Pre-sell a certain number of copies or take yourself out of Quill and forgo the royalties between 251 and 750?

Has this situation been clarified by Inkshares?

@Mykl this might be something for @jeremy to weign in on. I'm not sure how it work.

However, as it stands, I'm not Quill until my funding ends April 11th. Right now if I don't make it to 750 I will still publish under Quill. If I get to 750 then I will get full production. Either way, I still think this push toward 750 is good either way and I'm going to start spinning some plates with whoever wants to jump on board and help.

You're in great shape then. You WILL get to 750 before April 11 - I have NO doubt.

I saw that Cara is getting Quill royalties, but that is because her campaign ended short of 750. So that's the difference.

So Cara, we should lobby for a way to get YOU (and SHE) into the full blown Inkshares deal.

My question now to Jeremy, Thad and the Inkshares team is "How can we make that happen?" Give us a way and WE will do it!

Back in the funding changes discussion they mentioned that being in Quill then hitting 750 pre-orders does not automatically bump you into the full Inkshares tier. That says nothing for if they decide to elevate a book on their own will, I don't think we've seen it happen, yet.

It's pretty early in the Quill game for that to happen and under most circumstances, I expect it will be a fairly rare occurrence.

That's why I'm asking if there is something we can do as a group to MAKE that happen or help make it happen - starting with suggesting She Is The End as our potential first target.

(Sorry if this is taking focus on what this thread was designed for - if the idea has any backers, we'll move it to it's own space)

Mykl wrote: "It's pretty early in the Quill game for that to happen and under most circumstances, I expect it will be a fairly rare occurrence.

That's why I'm asking if there is something we can do as a group ..."

That is an interesting concept to explore. Though with so many good books out there, it will be hard to choose from them.

Mykl wrote: "(Sorry if this is taking focus on what this thread was designed for - if the idea has any backers, we'll move it to it's own space)"

Mykl -- Cara is one of my dragons, a powerful, powerful dragon. Talking about getting She Is the End into Inkshares is absolutely relevant here. Plus, Cara is on board to help me so yes let's talk about this here!

Mykl wrote: "You're in great shape then. You WILL get to 750 before April 11 - I have NO doubt.

I saw that Cara is getting Quill royalties, but that is because her campaign ended short of 750. So that's the di..."

Thanks for mentioning my book, Mykl - I can't say it hasn't crossed my mind that they might bump my book up to full publishing.

I know that you don't just switch over to full publishing whenever you hit 750 orders after your campaign is over. Whatever range you end your campaign in is the range you are published in, unless they make their own determination that they want to bump you up.

I have no idea what will happen because it hasn't happened yet, but I suspect that they're reserving that bump for books that look like they could be wildly-successful bestsellers or maybe win an award or something. They also might have a number of orders in the first year after publication that, if your book reaches it, they'll consider it worthwhile to market the book more. I have no idea, but I'm not expecting it to happen before a book has been out for a while.

I doubt we as authors have any influence over which books they bump up, though. The campaign is over; now it's about the book's quality (and probably its first year of sales).

Of course, I think we all hope that they read our finished draft and the editor runs to their supervisor, heart racing, and says "THIS BOOK IS THE NEXT HUGO AWARD WINNER!!! TELL EVERYONE!" but, uh, I'm not going to bank on it. I wouldn't expect you all to rally for my book to get a better publishing deal, either, unless you're doing it after you've read the book and you're just super-enthusiastic about it. That would be pretty great. :) :) :)

I am definitely looking for people who will pitch my book to bookstores in their area, write articles about my book, interview me for their blog, etc etc, but that can be separate from our efforts to get Blood Dawn to 750 orders. We can do both!

@cara, I'm right on board with your thinking re: we have no control over Inkshares' decision and really shouldn't push since we don't know what their factors are. As far as I'm concerned, I just want to connect my book to its readers and it doesn't matter if it's through Quill of Inkshares -- either option is better than it sitting in a drawer. As far as publishing under Quill, I have invested thousands already in editing so I'm not concerned about the book being put out with substandard editing. However, funding fully for Inkshares would be an A+ for me because I'd get a second round of developmental editing (by editors with traditional house experience), better design and marketing support. Bookstore distribution is also huge. So although I say Quill or Inkshares are both "wins" to me, of course I'd be dumb to say I don't want Inkshares. It's a gold, while Quill is a silver.

My goal really is to connect with readers one reader at a time. I am not focused on pre-orders. Those happen how they happen. What I'm interested in is how a pre-order can become an opportunity to build a relationship with a fan. That very philosophy led ultimately to this group we are posting in right now -- since it seems the idea is contagious once a thank-you email turns into a "let's chat about how we can work together" invitation, which leads to brilliant minds coming together (Joe and Cara being two such ones). I continue to operate under this philosophy. Rather than turning to "new" orders, I'm turning to existing fans and deepening those relationships. Seth Godin makes a great point in an interview I watched with him and Dan Blank: "You aren't going to get rich off your fans. You treat your fans great and then they will spread word and you'll get rich off other people."

So here we are -- fans of Blood Dawn, let's come together and spread the word. This really isn't about me, although of course I am personally invested in Blood Dawn because I am passionate about it and the story and message and experience I want to share. Really, this is about YOU, those who I want to enjoy the book, and, in the same spirit of giving, how you can share this great thing with other people too.

I'm really excited about this, but not just for Blood Dawn. This philosophy can extend in every direction, because each person here has projects they are passionate about and, I think, common vision. I'd love to see Blood Dawn succeed in Craig's intention creating this thread, but not just for me, but as an example for the community of how when we work together we can do this!

John wrote: "My goal really is to connect with readers one reader at a time. I am not focused on pre-orders. Those happen how they happen. What I'm interested in is how a pre-order can become an opportunity to build a relationship with a fan."

This right here echoes my thinking on it exactly. Its why after the first month of my campaign I've been making sure to send everyone who orders a thank you email with multiple ways to contact me back if desired. Most don't get back in touch, but those who do have made me happy that I've taken that step.

The thing I've been most disappointed in is that I haven't been able to get as many conversations started as I wanted to, but that's mainly due to my own lackluster skills as a conversation starter. I've just always been more of a wait, listen, and respond type of person.

As disappointed as I am that it looks like I'm not going to hit the Quill goal in these last 4 days of my funding unless a miracle happens, I'm also somewhat glad it'll be ending soon. As the campaign has gone on that panic to get preorders has just grown stronger to the point of me sort of forgetting how to interact with people outside of sales pitches. It'll be nice to become a person again instead of just a (largely ineffective) billboard.

@Thomas, it is very tough getting pre-orders. That's something you can't control, much like you can't control whether or not backers will respond to emails. But what I've found is for all those who haven't backed the book (I have about 200+ followers of Blood Dawn who still haven't ordered a copy), and those who have backed but never responded to my thank-you email, those who HAVE really have made the experience worthwhile. Originally when I put Blood Dawn up with Inkshares my intention was not at all to get published, but rather to build an audience in preparation for when I submitted to an agent. What's happened here has astounded me. In fact, I didn't think I stood a chance because I knew from doing some initial research that crowdfunding a book is a tough act. Pre-orders of your book on Inkshares are not an accurate reflection of how a book will sell when it is in bookstores, because pre-orders here reflect people who 1) will trust a radically new kind of book vendor and, most importantly 2) will buy a book that isn't even published yet. Most people who buy books buy books that they can get right away and read, or at most, might pre-order ones they are really excited about when they're available on Amazon a few months before release.

It's a mighty show of faith and support for someone to pre-order your book here on Inkshares. People who do this aren't just readers, they're fans, enthusiasts, early adopters. Connecting with these people goes above and beyond just getting a sale in a bookstore. To me, that's gold, even if it's just a few, because it's more than you'd have if you quietly slaved away and waited to show your book to an agent in hope of selling it. Authors who follow a traditional route have to work hard to get fans on their mailing lists in order to build the fan network that we naturally can build just from the way this platform is designed.

I consider myself very lucky to have received the support I have so far and am grateful to whatever is to come. I will be doing lots of hard work on my end, and while this has some effect, really it's the hard work of the larger group of people who believe in Blood Dawn that makes the difference.

Hey John and co,

Just wanted to quickly chime in and say that I've read through this thread and completely agree with these sentiments. I am a big fan of John and Blood Dawn and we all know deep down that it deserves full Inkshares publishing. I'll continue to watch this thread and think about what I may be able to contribute personally. If anybody has specific thoughts, please feel free to drop me a line directly at matthew.sobin@gmail.com

-Matt

Thank-you, Matt! I'm getting a few things in order this week, but the first wave will involve rounding up an group email of everyone who wants to be at the heart of this motion. I'll add you into it. I have a few other people in mind. Anyone else wants to be part of this, just leave you email in a comment, or else email me at johnrobinrt@gmail.com.

John wrote: "@Thomas, it is very tough getting pre-orders. That's something you can't control, much like you can't control whether or not backers will respond to emails. But what I've found is for all those who..."

Definitely. I hope my last post didn't come off as overly negative, and if it did that was likely the exhaustion talking. I'm glad that I've gone through this process, and agree with you that those I have ordered have been some of the best supporters I could hope for and have made it all worthwhile.

Back to the real topic at hand in this thread though, I would love to be a part of getting Blood Dawn up to the full Inkshares level. I think you have my email from previous communications, but if not let me know and I'll give it again.

Thank you, Thomas. And remember, Johnslist goes beyond funding. I'd like to keep Exile, Magus thread open no matter what so we can move forward on discussion to support you in your next steps whatever they may be.

This book absolutely deserves to be fully funded. I'm not sure how much I can contribute right now between writing and campaigning for my own book, but you give so much to this community that it would be insane for you to NOT get the full publishing treatment. Go ahead and put me on the mailing list. My availability will be limited, but I'd like to contribute however I can. I believe you already have my e-mail address from previous exchanges.

I'm going to be lazy and say that I agree with the better-thought-out-than-mine comments that others have posted above. Just got another copy, John, and I'll pick up some more in time. Definitely agree this deserves to go all the way. Good luck and get in touch if I can do anything else.

John wrote: "Thank you, Thomas. And remember, Johnslist goes beyond funding. I'd like to keep Exile, Magus thread open no matter what so we can move forward on discussion to support you in your next steps whate..."

I had similar thoughts. I have ideas for my post campaign plans, some of which were on my mind before I discovered Inkshares. Going to let my ideas roll around for a week or two post campaign to give my brain time to return to normal and really think properly this time around. Definitely no more jumping blindly into the fray like I did at the start of this campaign.

As for Blood Dawn, I already intend to continue my Sunday review updates though I'm slowing them to every other Sunday. I'm nearly to Blood Dawn in my shortlist of reviews so hopefully I can direct a few people your way with that, and its even higher on my list of must orders so I'll be getting to that no later than the end of February I suspect. Would have already done both if I wasn't so strict with myself over my campaign end date triage technique.

@everyoneWhoHasOfferedHelp: thank you! Stay tuned, and meanwhile, please feel free to go ballistic in your efforts. I appreciate anything you can do and really am humbled by the support I'm seeing here and in my inbox and on Twitter.

For anyone who has credits to spend and wants to help out, you could buy an extra copy of Blood Dawn. Or if you haven't bought the book yet but you want to help, that would be a great way to help.

@Thomas, thank you do much for using your updates to help!

I've just put up a video on my Blood Dawn page for this final leg. Folks who want to support me and get me funded, feel free to share this in a reader update:

https://www.inkshares.com/books/blood...


(If you want to share the video thumbnail, and link it to my page, you can find the image at the following URL:
http://img.youtube.com/vi/P_9kfAhbj6M...

Ok guys, I had an idea...

Are any of you willing to do a short (maybe 30-60 second) video explaining why you are interested in Blood Dawn, why it's great, and why other people should be interested in it? I'm thinking the same sort of ideas communicated in a written review, except on video, and you can be more relaxed and personal, use casual language, and maybe even tell a personal story.

If there are a few of us willing to do this - I'm thinking 8-10 - then everyone can send me their videos and I'll get my husband to edit them into a supercut of Blood Dawn fans recommending the book! This is not a project suggested by John; this is all me.

If you're willing to join this project, start with a solid read-through of everything John has posted on Inkshares, then decide on what to say (even if it's only 10 seconds long), and make a video! It could be really cool!

Is anyone in?

Fantastic idea Cara!! I'm definitely in.

Cara, I love this! Absolutely, absoltely, absolutely! I will think of people to email and link to your comment, because I can think of quite a few who would jump on this. But if I wake up tomorrow and 10 people already are on board, then that's great! Wow, what an awesome idea!

I'll likely link to your video during my Sunday review update.

As for the video recommendations Cara suggested I agree that's a great idea but not one I can join in. Nothing turns me into a nearly incoherent buffoon like trying to communicate verbally, even if it is a personally recorded video. I only did one admittedly small audience podcast interview for Exile, Magus and I feel did horribly enough to actually do more harm than good with it.

Cara wrote: "Ok guys, I had an idea...

Are any of you willing to do a short (maybe 30-60 second) video explaining why you are interested in Blood Dawn, why it's great, and why other people should be interested..."

I am in

Okay! Thank you all! I'm sending out emails to people who I think would be a great fit for this. But Andre and Matt, you're in the group email list I'll be sending out later. @Cara, wait for it. Soon as I have everyone rounded up, I'll get our group email rolling and we can start collaborating on this.

Andre wrote: "Cara wrote: "Ok guys, I had an idea...

Are any of you willing to do a short (maybe 30-60 second) video explaining why you are interested in Blood Dawn, why it's great, and why other people should ..."

allright

I will get on this tonight.

Check for my email with a 30 second video (or so) later tonight or early tomorrow, Cara.

Thanks for letting me know, John! (I'm also about to hit 'SEND' on the reply email I'm sending you now. hahah! Multi-Window multitasking!)

I will help but I can't do a video this weekend. MAYBE Sunday. MAYBE. My daughters robotics team competition is this weekend and we have to travel. But I am interested, definitely.

Thanks Paul and Joseph! Already touched base by email. Just to update everyone here, we have 10 people already who are contributing, which means we're now moving forward with planning in a group email. I'm so excited about this. Joseph, your video clip is just perfect -- I LOVE it!

I might be interested though I might not show my face, since I always live with a worry that I might be recognized.

John, did you ever hear more back about the Tubby & Coo's Collection? It sounds like a pretty sweet deal if it pans out. Plus, it helps shed some light on some of those obscure collections that have otherwise been a mystery out on the Inkshares' Collections page.

@michael, I did. They asked for the full manuscript. I had a few questions for them because I was confused about their production schedule (it sounded like it would offer me a double release in two editions, which I don't want), so I'm still waiting to hear from them on that before proceeding.

John wrote: "@michael, I did. They asked for the full manuscript. I had a few questions for them because I was confused about their production schedule (it sounded like it would offer me a double release in two..."

Ah, interesting. Well, please keep us informed on what happens, if you don't mind. Even if you don't end up taking it, it's good to know what these other collections are offering to authors.

@Michael, I think Tubby & Coo's offers something great for authors, but from what I gathered in their email to me, they are more an option for authors who aren't over the Quill goal. They will publish a book (1.5 year production period) then release it but with the aim to sell 750 copies. Once that's hit, the book is out of print the it goes to Inkshares for Inkshares' full publication and it's re-released with Inkshares' full support. It would remain Tubby & Coo's though and they take 50% cut of royalty. So I think they're a great option for an author, say, who is at 150 pre-orders but whose book shows great promise -- they are actively on the lookout for submissions so I hope people will pitch them.

John, thanks for the information. It's cool to see Inkshares expand their operation to independent outlets who offer even more options to authors.

Okay, so CARA DID IT! This is the fan-based trailer video for Blood Dawn. Thanks @mike @matt @paul @joseph @craig @cara @christine for contributing your video clips!

Everyone who wants to help with getting Blood Dawn fully funded, please share this video in a reader update, spread the word!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdDc8...