Inkshares Community discussion

So I'm pretty new to Inkshares, but my question that I'm hoping someone can answer is whether or not it's normal or better for people to release all their chapters or only enough to give potential readers a taste? Despite doing some touch-ups, everything is ready to go for my book I'm just wondering if Inkshares readers expect more.

Hi Ryne. Welcome!

The advice you'll probably hear a lot is that unfortunately, most people won't actually read all your samples. 1 or 2 chapters to start is usually plenty. Rarely do people ever post the whole book. Having a ton of chapters posted doesn't necessarily draw more attention. If you want to post more than 1 or 2, common practice is to release additional chapters gradually throughout your campaign.

It's more important to make sure that those first couple of chapters are VERY polished and effective in hooking readers and showing your writing competence.

Hope that helps.

Yeah, that makes sense. I'd just seen a few people who'd posted their whole thing, so I wasn't sure if that was common practice or not. Thanks!

I don't disagree with P.H.'s reasoning, but I have noticed that some of the more successful projects seem to be the ones with 5-7 chapters.

If you actually browse those chapters, the commenting drops off sharply after ch 2. However, I think having a good bit of the book posted gives people confidence that they're pre-ordering something that'll actually finish on time. It's hard to get people to back a concept, even though they'll get the money back.

"gives people confidence that they're pre-ordering something that'll actually finish on time"

This is a non-issue. There is no 'on time' because there is no specific deadline for the completion of the book until determined between Inkshares and the author after funding. Most who order understand that they won't be receiving the book for up to year afterward anyway.

A lot of times, when you see more than say, 5 chapters, they've been released gradually throughout the course of the campaign as rewards or incentives for orders.

The reason commenting drops off after ch. 2 is because the majority don't read farther than that. 2 chapters is plenty to tell if someone can write or not, and should be enough to give readers a sufficient sense of the story.

It's not going to hurt at all to have more than a couple chapters posted, but you shouldn't sweat having any more than that.

I'm with you on people not reading past ch 2, P.H., and there's certainly no rush to get to 5 or 7 or whatever.

And yet. We're not making a rational appeal, but an emotional one. If you've got more than two chapters to post, I say post most of 'em over a period of time. People know it'll take some time to get a book that reaches Quill or higher in hand, but there's a high degree of social proof and groupthink at play in buying decisions on Inkshares, as anywhere. People seem to support projects with more to show, like Terminus. Membership in syndicates doesn't hurt either.

By "on time" I really meant "at all". I've got two solid chapters of a book up right now and will be updating chapter one shortly. I've got a detailed synopsis of the full book. Still, it's a leap of faith for people to believe I'm going to finish the manuscript, or that the quality will stay consistent. The more I show, the more I can bridge that gap.

Like I say, if you've got it, post it. Andy Weir posted the whole of The Martian online and people demanded a paid Kindle version. Same deal here. If the story is good, people will ask to support it, or at least read it in a preferred format, be that e-book or paper. The concern should not be giving away too much, IMO, but too little.