These are really good points from a lot of good Inksharians, and I just want to throw my experience in as previous contest winner/newbie.
I had never heard of Inkshares until the day before the G&S contest was to go live last April (the contest ran through mid-May, so not that long ago). I heard about it via G&S FB page. I was working on my novel, which fit their theme of Hard Science Fiction, so I threw my towel in and annoyed the heck out of everyone, including people I hadn’t seen or heard from in years. My own comfortable social and family network is very small, but I hustled and asked literally my entire FB friends group, any and all book clubs I’ve belonged to, even previous co-workers. Sometimes several times. To my surprise, the orders came in, sometimes slowly, sometimes much faster. And I definitely got ignored by a lot of people! People are busy, might be financially strapped and don’t want to say anything, or were just not interested in my book. But that’s ok.
By the end of the contest I was on a fun momentum that helped me be in the top three. I went outside my comfort zone, and I’m happy I did. It was very hard, though, and I sometimes look back and wonder how I did it.
But the important point I tell everyone who asks me is this: you can win this without being an established author. I was neck to neck with another Nerdist Contest winner for weeks until he pulled ahead the last few days before the contest was over. I like to think I kept him on his toes :-).
The long and the short of it is, you can do this!! I’ve learned that Inkshares is a wonderful community that supports each other, and we will do what we can to help!
