Before I finish up on this book (still going to take me a few days) I’d like to know directly from you what you think makes a good western. The only westerns I’ve had experience with are Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Tombstone, and Red Dead Redemption (all except Red Dead I had seen the first time this year). DM me anything that you feel is essential for a western and I’ll consider if it’ll help the story or not. Thank you for reading this and I look forward to your feedback!
@Rick Heinz is absolutely spot on here. I wanted to Add a few things as a Finalist (barely) in the "Sword and Laser: The Sequel" contest:
1. It is absolutely crucial to esablish an early lead on your competitors. At one point I was in 3rd place and only 23 pre-orders behind @Joseph Asphahani ’s "The Animal In Man". He ran an excellent campaign and reached out to his extended network and I quickly found myself still in 3rd place but now 197 pre-orders away.
2. Just because you are "competing" does not mean you are enemies. Despite conventional knowledge, during a contest the quality of your work won’t move pre-orders, your ability to help promote other Authors will. Exchanging pre-orders with other Authors whose work you find interesting (in the contest or otherwise) WILL help fulfill some of those early numbers you need. If you want to get too the top you must take everyone with you.
3. VISUALS, VISUALS, VISUALS!!!!!!! A finely crafted page filled with high quality works of art, video and concept sketches helps move units. Even though you’re marketing a book and hope people will fall in love with your genius literary talents, most people can’t commit 45 minutes to reading all of your sample chapters. Interesting Concept Art can bait people’s into reading more than your pitch in an attempt to understand what it is they are seeing. PUT ART ON YOUR PAGE!
In the end I finished near the bottom of my contest. I wish I would have known these 3 key tidbits of info earlier!!!
There’s another important aspect to remember when you’re running the gauntlet of a campaign on Inkshares. Take care of yourself, mentally and physically. There are going to be a lot of day between now and November 1st. I know first hand how easy it is to obsess over your reader count, and to put in that hustle. You can get lost in it, and that’s just not good for your you-ness.
Schedule yourself some breathing time. Take a hour, and turn off the screen. Step away from the keyboard. Breath. You’re going to have anxiety. You’re going to have fear. You’re going to have those days where everyone per-orders, and then comes the days where you might only manage a few. Maybe there will days where you don’t see any movement. This is an emotional roller coaster, and it will start to take it’s toll.
Find that one thing you love and treat yourself to it. Have a night out with your friends. Sitting there all night refreshing the page won’t change anything, so focus in on you, the writer. You’re an amazing person who took a chance at a crazy thing. Be proud of that. Celebrate that, because this will not be easy.
And when it gets hard, when you get frustrated or stressed, reach out. Many of us here have been through a rocky campaign, and we know what it’s like. If you’re worried about bothering another writer, don’t. Message me.
How wonderful! Thank you @Rick Heinz , this is exactly what we want the Inkshares community to be!
@Luke Fellner The system refreshes a few times a day (I think every 6 hours) before it recognizes new submissions, if it was a successful submission you should see it later today on the submissions page. If you do not, go ahead and email me at hello@inkshares.com and I will help you out.
