I wrote this post on my blog for the Nerdist Contest - but it still very much applies for SON OF SWORD & LASER CONTEST that just rumbled up from the ether this week. I hope this is helpful to all you bright,shiny new campaigns!

I raise my creaking bones from the sharp-edged divan of Anxiety and Editing to applaud and salute all the new campaigns! More writers, more books, more readers – these are always good things. It’s easy to think of writing as a purely competitive enterprise – especially in a contest framework, but you know what’s great about readers? They don’t want to read just one book – they want to read many books! And bringing more attention to my publisher helps me too – *rubs together hands maniacally* – now more people have a chance to see MY STUPID DORK BOOK FOR DORKS.

But let’s talk about your stupid dork book for dorks. And more importantly about how you can survive the next few weeks of the contest with crying in the bathtub only every other night.

1. Use your campaign dashboard. Inkshares gives you plenty of easy tools to link up all of your Facebook, Google, etc. contacts and puts them in a handy list called the Reader Pipeline. This is a perfect way to start keeping track of who you  have contacted, who’s pre-ordered the book, who you need to beg harder. There are also built-in tools to contact prospective readers and also to THANK people who bought your book.
2. Get comfortable with asking people for money. Yes, I know. It’s terrible. But you have to do it. All of the easy/passive ways you can ask aren’t going to get you there – i.e. posting on Facebook, or your blog, or Twitter. You are the best salesman of your work – you need to go directly to your friends, family, acquaintances, vague strangers, lemurs and ASK for the pre-order.
3. Take a long look at your writing schedule. Assume it’s going to get thrown away for most of the contest. It’s a stressful time! You are going to start refreshing the contest page a few times an hour in the last few days of the contest – go ahead and accept that your writer-brain has checked out, and you are pure rodent-lust. It can be extremely demoralizing for writers – as surprise! – writing is what keeps us happy and reasonably emotionally balanced. You need to account for that, and build in some slack in your support network. (see: crying in the tub.)
4. Get to know the other competitors. Not just follow their campaigns from the shadows — talk to them! 5 winners are going to make it, but there’s nothing saying that even more can hit the overall Inkshares funding goal. The more you share resources, readers, knowledge, and support the easier things will be for all of you. I made several friends during the last contest and I’m very glad that they are still talking to me. .
5. Noblesse oblige. No doubt, tensions are going to run high as the contest heats up – it pays to remember that you all have the same goal, the same dream. Go out of your way to play fair, to help out the other campaigns. We’re all a bunch of small-timers trying to take the leap into a bigger arena. Even if you win, you can still stumble. Nerds must be held to a higher moral code – we are all taught by the finest stories and the greatest heroes.
6. Updates. When you send out updates to your backers – remember that they are your allies, your friends and boon companions that want to help you make your dream come true. They are not your servants or conscripts. Ask them to help you, give them clear instructions of things they can do to aid the campaign – but don’t forget to entertain them! Show them exclusive parts of the book, concept art, videos, terrible pictures of yourself. Don’t just send out endless ‘GET MO PREORDERS’ updates – if you cause your core audience to tune you out, that’s hard to come back from!
7. Cry in the shower. There are going to come moments when you will wonder why you jumped into this thing. We make stuff, we write stuff – it’s a learned skill to put your work out there in the world where anyone can bang on it, or worse ignore it. This contest is 6 weeks of permanent vulnerability – it will be hard. And it’s okay to feel bad. Here’s another post I wrote all about the emotional damage of self-promotion.
8. It is okay to ask people for money. I’m saying this twice, because it goes against the grain for so many people. My day job is sales, so I have a much thicker skin about it – but even I get squirmy when it’s for my nerd poems. People want to help you – don’t feel like you have to make them read your excerpt, or explain the whole book to them. Don’t sell the book – sell YOU. Look in their eyes and ask for the preorder. This contest is purely based on unique readers – not preorder count, so you don’t have to stress about getting multiple books out of people. Just ask – I promise that it is okay.
9. Take breaks. Seriously – as much as you can, especially those last two weeks. You are going to become an internet-octopus, dripping your tentacles across all platforms looking for information and preorders and mentions and ideas and any glimmer of aid that can come to your campaign.  Go on walks. Play video games. Write if you can. There will come moments where you will stare at the contest page and try to WILL the numbers to go up – these are normal, but get your support network to pull you away from it as much as they can.
10. Contact Inkshares with questions or concerns. Some weird stuff happened last contest. A glitch with some referral credit, things not appearing properly on campaign pages, etc. Everyone at Inkshares was always quick to respond, eager to fix the problem, and as transparent as they could be about the source of the problem and the solution. They want to get it right and they work hard to do so – it’s why I’m quite glad to have them as my publisher. (HEARTS 4 INKS)
11. Cry in the shower.
12. Your book is not on trial. There are a lot of moving parts to this contest. People are going to pre-order your book because it sounds awesome. Or because you asked them. Or because they liked the cover. Or, or or…if you find yourself slipping down the ranks, it DOES NOT MEAN your book is bad. Maybe the other books are doing a better job of pestering people, or they have a bigger family, or, or or. Do not start beating up your book and blaming it for not being shiny enough. Unless your book is into that and has given clear, vigorous consent.
13. You can do it. By that I mean – you can get your book out into the world. This contest, the next contest, regular funding through Inkshares, Kickstarter, self-publishing, finding an agent, printing it out on copy paper and hiding it in Waffle House bathrooms — you can do it.

Enough blathering from me! Good fortune and good campaigning. If you have questions about anything, drop a comment below or look me up on Twitter – @gderekadams.

Get ready for the inaugural Inkshares Review-a-Thon!

On December 19th, all authors and readers are invited to leave reviews on currently funding Inkshares books using the Inkshares "leave a review" option.

Throughout the day we'll be hanging out on Twitter in the#InksharesReviews tag as we share our favorite book projects, answer author Q&As, debate the merits of astronauts with swords versus cavemen with lasers, and more!

Then, from 6 - 8pm ET, JF Dubeau and Paul Inman of theWriteBrain Podcast will be hosting a video livestream filled with author interviews, review readings, and live announcements of prize winners!

Prizes?!?!

Everyone who leaves a review on December 19th by 6pm ET will be eligible to win one of our fantastic general prizes:

• Sword & Laser Contest Winners Package - print copies of the six winning books from the Sword & Laser Inkshares contest!

• Nerdist Contest Winners Package - print copies of the five winning books from the Nerdist Inkshares contest!

• An immediate pre-order of the book of their choice for five winners!

• $30 in Inkshares credits!

Readers: Peruse the "currently funding" books on Inkshares and leave as many reviews as you want on Dec 19th. You could even start up a "must-have" list of books to order in case you win a free pre-order or the $30 in credits!

Authors: Join our review exchange to leave three reviews in exchange for two guaranteed reviews on your Inkshares project and a chance at author-exclusive prizes! Email  cara.c.weston@gmail.com to learn more and get on the list.

(And authors, if you're in, please copy the message above and include it in your next update!)

A great chance to get involved and win some stuff!

Here's a great picture of me:

You may now return to your day. If you need a mental image of the author of your fiction, please use this one.

So great to have you join the World Builder ranks, what a fun interview! Thanks for sharing with your readers -- I promise if any of your readers become DRAGON backers of Blood Dawn, I'll give them fun names and tie it into an asteroid-like legend, a little known tale among Dwarf lore...

Oh no! Someone let me talk about my CRAFT.

https://epicfantasywriter.wordpress.com/2015/11/13/world-builders-g-derek-adams/

And then there comes the day. The day when the sun shines and you see something beautiful.

Here it is. The official front cover of Asteroid Made of Dragons. The entire team at Inkshares and Girl Friday Production and our designer David Drummond really knocked it out of the park. Tom and Veronica from Sword & Laser were also instrumental in guiding the style of this and I can't thank them enough. If it weren't for all these skilled, talented, kind people - the cover would have probably come out looking something more like this:

How do I feel?

Proud and terrified. This cover is marketable and slick and makes me feel very, very grown up. Also it kind of looks like a Beholder.

I wanted you guys to be the first to see - as you're the ones that made it happen. I'll do an 'official' reveal on my site in the next day or so, but for now GAZE DEEPLY INTO THE ABYSS.

Uhhh...spoilers, I guess?

I'm poking and prodding the Inkshares site with new text and layout - please give it a look and let me know what you think! Same goes for my personal site - Spell-sword.com. I'm hoping to be able to show you the fancy-schmancy new cover in the next few days - and with that will come new people curious about the book. This goes along with my Pan-Social Platform Clean-Up Regimen -- time to hide all that moogle fanfiction, I suppose. Please let me know what you think will help other people get interested in AMOD - as I finish up the copy edits in the next few weeks, I need to refocus my attention to the Marketing Cannon. Oh, how it gleams...

I haven't said this explicitly in a while - but thank you. This has been an exciting week - in between stresses of Dev Edits and the oncoming Copy Edits - working on the final cover, starting to lay down early work on the marketing strategy - I feel like a BIG BOY WRITER. And it's all thanks to you.  So thanks, you weirdos.

YES ITS WORKING

You bastard!  By offering me book two for free, I had to order book one!  No doubt all part of your nefarious plan!  Can't wait to read em :D

Halloween!

YES.

In celebration I'm making my own SPOOKY MURDER MYSTERY NOVEL 'The Riddle Box' free on Kindle through the falling of All Hallows. A lot of you may have downloaded this during the original campaign, but any of the new people who've pre-ordered now have a chance. Some of the same characters that will appear in Asteroid Made of Dragons are also in Riddle Box - but it's not required reading by any stretch of the imagination. Fair warning - there is a lot of death in this book, as well as an electric guitar that levitates, and awkward courtship. The killer will push your Spooky Buttons, guaranteed.

Available FREE on Kindle until the skeletons return to their graves on November 1st.

Also - in other important cultural news: watch this and be purified - freed from your earthly torment.