Saturday, April 29, 2017

6 Reasons to Follow #ShoreIndie

The submission period for the ShoreIndie Contest is just a little over a month away, and we are SO EXCITED about how this community is coming together to support emerging indies and all the amazing opportunities we're able to offer! Whether you plan to submit to the contest or not, here are 6 compelling reasons to follow the contest.

1. Learn from professional editors
Ten amazing editors have volunteered to donate a significant amount of time as well as their expertise to this project. Not only will they each choose one author to work with for free for seven weeks to get the authors' manuscripts much closer to publication-ready, but they will also provide opportunities for the whole community to learn more about craft by tweeting anonymous feedback about about the submissions they receive June 3-10 (check out the #RevPit #10queries feed on Twitter to get a sense of what this looks like) and hosting weekly-ish revision parties during the editing round, June 12-29. Announcements about what kinds of novels each editor will be excited to see in their submission inboxes come June 3-5.

2. Learn from indie authors
We're also excited to offer AskAuthor chats June 12-30 with our nine ShoreIndie Featured Authors, who are at various points in their indie careers: some are full-time authors who have been self-publishing for years, while others have already seen a degree of success despite having just gotten started. The AskAuthor chats are great opportunities to learn about the experiences of these indie authors: anything from the big-picture questions such as "Why did you decide to go indie?" and "What's your writing process?" to the nuts and bolts of indie authorship such as "How do you format your books for different distribution platforms?" and "What marketing strategies are you finding most effective?" Stay tuned this week to find out who these Featured Authors are so you can see what they're up to and brainstorming your questions for them.

3. A special Reedsy webinar
But the opportunities for learning don't stop there. I'm thrilled to announce that Reedsy, one of our sponsors, has agreed to host a webinar on May 20 for the ShoreIndie community on the topic of writing/revising the back-of-the-book blurb and first five pages to get readers' attention and keep it. More information and the registration link coming soon!

4. Prize package announcements coming soon
We've been blown away by the generosity of our sponsors. Thanks to them, the Grand Prize Winner and Runner-Up prize packages contain services and products to help the winners self-publish their next book and develop their indie author careers, such as copy editing, mentorship with an established indie author, cover design, and graphic design of promotional materials, just to name a few. The reveal of prize packages will take place on May 27th at 12pm ET on the #ShoreIndie hashtag on Twitter.

5. Giveaways
We'll also be hosting giveaways of Write!, half-hour marketing consults with Cynthia T. Luna, and books about the business end of indie authorship. More information about how and when to enter coming soon!

6. A supportive community
Last but not least, our experience with contests like this for querying authors has revealed that those who participate in the community - whether they submit or not - learn a ton, form supportive community, and come away with critique partners and other resources to help them continue to grow.

So follow @ShoreIndie and the #ShoreIndie hashtag on Twitter for announcements and giveaways. We'd love for you to show your support by following the editors, sponsors, and featured authors, too!

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