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Alexander Barnes liked the forum thread, Promote your project on my blog!

 Although I’ve become a poor blogger with no sense of schedule over the last year or two, I still have a blog which counts several hundred page-views even when I don’t post, every month.  Much more when I do.  Starting this coming monday (very much in honor of Draftshares which has so recently ended) I would like to invite Inkshares authors the chance to display themselves and their projects on my blog.  Basically it would be an author profile and an introduction to their stories, with one or two images of their choosing.

Obviously, I don’t promise any specific results.  It’s only a chance to spread the word of your project on another tiny piece of this infinite little internet of ours.  If you are interested in taking part, message me here or post on this forum thread.  I can’t say that everyone will be able to do this, since I’ll only be posting one profile per week, but I’ll do my best to spread the love!

If there is enough interest, I might even turn it into two posts a week; one for drafts, and one for projects already in the pre-order phase.  

Please let me know if you have any thoughts or ideas about this!

If you want to check out the blog first: It’s Right Here

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    Alexander Barnes liked the forum thread, Geek N Sundry Contest Entrants: Crowd Funding Guide!
    Greetings everyone! 

    I’m Rick, and I love crowd funding and contests. Since all of you are entering this Fantasy contest (my genre of choice) and I’m going to end up bankrupt in the near future. I figured I’d give you some quick pointers on how to get started on the prospect of crowd funding. Because for many, you’ll quickly find it’s more daunting than you realize. 

    1. Contests are the best way to drive orders to your book because they provide a sense of urgency. ~Make sure you tell people you are in a contest, it’s a big deal, the top 3 get published and be excited. 

    2. In order to crowd fund, you need a crowd. This one is one I often see overlooked. Even if your crowd is 10 people, that’s fine, get those 10 people before you pitch strangers. There is this farmers market theory of kale thing that John Olivir did and it’s totally true. Nobody will buy the one, sad, lonely piece of kale. But that same kale with 10 more people behind it giving it a thumbs up! Perfect.  Basically, before you go mass pitching to anyone who will listen: Get your immediate 100% surefires to order. Spend that time polishing your campaign page. 

    3. Use Video. @Joseph Asphahani ran a fantastic campaign using video updates. Short, simple, and sweet. @Tal M. Klein went and had some amazing muppet ad’s and he was the prior Geek N Sundry contest winner. 

    4. Don’t be afraid to ask people to support yourself, not your book. It’s a small division, but it makes a big deal. Ask people to help support you get published and back that dream. It will take 2 years before they have a book and there is a lot of editing that goes into it. Your story may look completely different, so focus instead on your idea, and who you are and why it’s important to you. 

    5. Focus on your own extended networks, family, and friends first, then turn your attention to crowds and other Inkshare authors. Yes, there is a community here, and everyone is trying to get their books funded. At some point, it’s about playing match maker and cross pollination of reader bases. That is a good and healthy thing. It’s okay to market each others books to your crowd. That’s why you knock your people out of the way first. Then you can help others and others can help you. 

    6. Passive media: Ads, cards, fliers, these things help you build your author brand and focus your vision, but they don’t help with crowd funding in a contest. They won’t net you any sales. What they will do: Is polish your writer brain into a fine-tuned 15 second selling machine. 


    So, those are some of my quick tips. Inkshares had blogged about it before: and Tal Klein wrote his tips. I’m willing to help and offer advice to anyone, just send me a PM. 

    ~Rick Heinz
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