Inkshares Community discussion

Hello, Writers-

Happening in just three short weeks, from May 30-June 5, we (Drinkshares: Last Call and the Inkshares staff) will be co-hosting an event we have affectionately deemed “DraftFest”.

The purpose of this week long event is to highlight drafts that show great potential, but have not received the attention they deserve because they are not yet in the sales campaign portion of their project. The goal of this fest is to generate buzz for these projects by following, reviewing, commenting, and recommending these projects on Inkshares, Facebook, and Twitter. All Inkshares authors are welcome to participate by submitting their drafts for review, but we will be making a special effort to bring special attention to new and undiscovered talent, as well as bringing new readers to Inkshares to check out these projects. On Saturday, the last day of the event, DLC will air a special livecast to talk about drafting

Many authors have totally bypassed the draft portion of the project stage, jumping straight to the pre-sales campaign with a manuscript, work in progress, or as little as an idea. While this works well for some, the draft stage of the process is a valuable stage of the publishing process, allowing you to flesh out ideas, get feedback, and most importantly, generate exposure for your project without the stress of having to push sales.

Even if you don’t have a draft, but have an idea for an upcoming project (or, dusting off an old project idea), we encourage you to create a project page and enter your idea for review by our community.

If you would like to enter your draft into our pool of projects to be highlighted, please tweet us @DrinksharesLC with the project title and link to the project page, including #amdrafting. (Hint: If your link is waaaay long, use Bitly to shorten your link to a tweet friendly length ;) )

If you don’t have a draft or an idea ready to draft, but you would still like to participate, please feel free to take this week to check out the projects and authors on our list and help them by following and giving feedback.

We are lining up several cool prizes which we plan to use as raffle prizes for participants, both readers and writers. If you are interested in donating merch, books, or services as prizes, please tweet @RebekkaLeber or DM me on Inkshares.

Please join us May 30-June 5 for what we expect to be a fun, productive, and fulfilling week!

This sounds great! Thanks for putting this together. Is there a minimum length you would suggest for proposed drafts? Would 1 or 2 chapters be sufficient?

P.H. wrote: "This sounds great! Thanks for putting this together. Is there a minimum length you would suggest for proposed drafts? Would 1 or 2 chapters be sufficient?"

Whatever you're comfortable with, P.H. - 1 or 2 chapters sounds great!

Get ready, because Draftshares is about to begin!

When: May 30th - June 4th

Readers: Check out as many drafts (projects currently in the Draft stage) as you can during the week of May 30th - June 3rd, and participate by opening and commenting on your favorite drafts’ excerpts.

Why: To encourage community engagement...and, PRIZES!

Prizes you say?: Yes! For every Draft (or synopsis*) you critique, you will be entered into a drawing for the following:

(Prizes for Anyone)
- Three sets of a copy of Asteroid Made of Dragons, button, and shirt
- Signed copy of Five Minutes + the 5 exclusive art pieces by Tabi Card
- Church of Technology/Deus Hex Machina swag (pins and shirts)
- Copy of Shadow of the Owl
- Signed copy of Ageless
- Three hardcover copies of Journey, A Short Story
- Order of Dax Harrison
- Order of Bones of the Past
- Order of Proxy
- Original drawing by Jack Katz
- Ladies of Sci Fi poster from A.C. Weston
- Mix CD set with custom cover art by C. Brennecke
- $25 in Inkshares Credits

(Prizes specifically for Authors)
- Video editing by Yicheng Liu
- Cover design by Elayna Mae Darcy
- Interview on The Warbler
- Guest spot on Drinkshares: Last Call
- $25 in Inkshares Credits

Drafters: Let us know if you’d like to receive a soft critique or a hard critique by messaging a member of the DLC cast or tweeting your project link @drinkshareslc with either the #critiquemekindly or #critiqueme hashtags. If you want your synopsis critiqued, include the hashtag #critiquemypage too.

Soft Critiques (#critiquemekindly): This is the default critique if the author has not specifically requested a hard critique. The tone should be supportive and curious. Point out things you like, comment on the broader story ideas, and ask questions.

Hard Critique (#critiqueme): Only give a hard critique if the author has specifically asked for one. This is where grammatical errors, typos, and oversights can be pointed out. It’s best to include elements of a soft critique too, but you can unleash your inner editor a bit more here.

*Synopsis Critique (#critiquemypage): Interested Drafters should create a thread in the Inkshares forum ( https://www.inkshares.com/forum_threa...), linked to their book draft, titled “Synopsis Edits: [Book Title Goes Here].”
>> Throughout the week, fellow authors will browse these threads and offer help with editing and improving your project page synopsis so you’re better prepared to switch over to funding with a fantastic, compelling, error-free introduction to your book!

Not sure where to start? Check out these Drafts first!:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Watch: Tune in at https://youtu.be/82ged3xwwew on Saturday, June 4th @ 4/3 Central to watch us discuss the drafts and announce the winners!

Good Luck & Great Drafting!

Is it too late to donate a prize?

I offer 3 hardcover copies of Journey, A Short Story

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

Mykl wrote: "Is it too late to donate a prize?

I offer 3 hardcover copies of Journey, A Short Story

https://www.inkshares.com/books/journ..."

It's not too late! I'll update the forum posts now :)

Thanks!

Great! btw - these will be personally autographed, low numbered first edition, first printing copies.

Is everyone else that donated OK with shipping outside the U.S.?

I was thinking that due to postage costs - of awarding two to U.S. and one International?

Mykl wrote: "Great! Due to postage costs - can we award these to U.S. Addresses? Or even two U.S. and one International?"

I'll make a note to ensure that when we draw the prizes.

Christine wrote: "Mykl wrote: "Great! Due to postage costs - can we award these to U.S. Addresses? Or even two U.S. and one International?"

I'll make a note to ensure that when we draw the prizes."

How are we going to know which winners are local and which are international at the moment of the drawing? Will we tell two of the winners "no, sorry, you can't win" if all three are international? Will we re-draw for new winners after?

That's why I was asking. I have no idea what you have for database info or how you go about doing the drawing.

Obviously, we don't want to inform someone they won and THEN ask for their address and say, oh sorry, my mistake, you don't qualify.

If it is a problem, I am willing to take the chance that all three might have high shipping costs.

Mykl wrote: "That's why I was asking. I have no idea what you have for database info or how you go about doing the drawing.

Obviously, we don't want to inform someone they won and THEN ask for their address an..."

I'm going to look into it. Where there's a will there's a way (or so I hope). :)

Too late to jump in with a signed copy of Five Minutes + the 5 exclusive art pieces for the prize list?

Tabi wrote: "Too late to jump in with a signed copy of Five Minutes + the 5 exclusive art pieces for the prize list?"

It's not too late! Is that one prize containing the signed copy and all 5 art pieces? Or did you want that split up?

Nope, one prize - unless you think it would hold better appeal as two separate prizes, book for one and art for another?

Tabi wrote: "Nope, one prize - unless you think it would hold better appeal as two separate prizes, book for one and art for another?"

I think one would probably work best. Thanks so much!

No problem! =D Really excited for this xD

If the Inkshares Authors Anthology Earth In The Year 10,000 is selected for "Draftfest", I will extend the submission deadline to give time for new people to submit.

I may need to extend it anyway, if we don't receive enough quality subs to fill the book.

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

Thanks for putting this together. I'm excited for sure. Haven't had hardly anyone look at my work yet, so hoping this will get some eyes on it.

M. Robert wrote: "Thanks for putting this together. I'm excited for sure. Haven't had hardly anyone look at my work yet, so hoping this will get some eyes on it."

Thanks for taking part in it! I hope the event gets lots of eyes on your draft, and all of the other drafts, too!

I really enjoyed the entire idea of Draftshares. Unfortunately it happened during a week when I had crazy work hours and I barely had time to do any campaigning for my own book, let alone look at at many others. But I still love the idea. I feel like inkshares, being a community of writers all striving for the common goal of publication, makes it the perfect environment to receive meaningful, educated criticism from like-minded peers. I feel like it was a real shot in the arm for a lot of people's projects, and I'm glad I got to be a part of it.

The broadcast is coming up in just over an hour! Don't forget to tune in to see if you won :D

https://youtu.be/82ged3xwwew

If we can't tune in, is there still a way to see winners? And please don't forget that I've donated a copy of Five Minutes and all 5 pieces of current artwork from Scribbles for the prizes =)

This has been really interesting to follow! What are the odds that we'll see an event like this again in the future sometime soon?

Very likely. Draftshares will return and it if possible that review-a-thon 2 will return before that and really anyone in the community can create an event all of these are author conceived and driven.

Whew, I butchered that one (I'm on my phone.) Let me try that again.

Very likely. Draftshares will return and it is possible that review-a-thon 2 will show its face before that. Really, anyone in the community can create an event. All of these are author conceived and driven.

Thanks again to everyone! The list of prize winners has been posted here: https://www.inkshares.com/forum_threa...

:D :D :D