✍️ (Writing) Community Focus: Why I Love Inked Voices
For invaluable connections with agents and editors, Inked Voices workshops are right up there with SCBWI--but for any writing genre
This is the third in a series of posts about various writing communities I am a part of, both free and paid. Each one has unique features, and I hope by showing you why I’m a member of each, you might find one (or more!) that fits your needs and interests. It is not meant to be an all-encompassing list and only reflects my own experience(s). I am not being paid or renumerated in any way for these opinions.
If you are trying to “up” your craft in a number of writing genres (including non-kidlit genres), there may be no better place to do it than on InkedVoices, an online writing hub whose strength (IMHO) is in the breadth and depth of its writerly communities, as well as their user-friendly critiquing platform. I only joined Inked Voices last year, and it has already been a fantastic experience.
Here’s why I find it valuable:
Price: At “press” time (or WordPress time, as it were), the price for an annual plan on InkedVoice is only $85, making it one of the most budget-friendly options of all the paid memberships I have. Though agent and editor workshops cost extra, they are usually in the neighborhood of $100, though multi-month workshops run more in the neighborhood of $350 (I should note that both are excellent values for what you get). Note: full scholarships to agent and editor workshop scholarships are typically available to those who qualify; follow Inked Voices on Facebook and Twitter to keep tabs on those opportunities as they arise.
Platform: The Inked Voices platform is very user-friendly, especially for critiques. You upload your file to your critique group, and members of the group receive an email that it’s ready for review by the deadline. Then, each person sees a clean copy that they can make inline and overall comments on. The final critique is saveable as a .PDF file that can be adapted to save any assortment of critiquers’ notes.
Craft communities aplenty: I’m truly impressed by both the breadth and specificity of the groups I’ve found on InkedVoices. In the kidlit space, there are groups for picture books, early readers and chapter books, middle grade and young adult, and they are constantly evolving with the times–some recent pop-ups I’ve seen were for MG novels in verse and picture book humor, for example. Outside of kidlit, there are also adult-writing groups for novels, short fiction, poetry, flash fiction, etc. And that’s not even counting the book clubs, accountability groups, and more. As they say on their site, it’s not a giant forum; instead, the site is a collection of small workshopping communities.
Access to truly remarkable agents and editors. So far, I have been lucky enough to learn from whip-smart industry professionals like agent Sean McCarthy of Sean McCarthy Literary Agency (update: Sean is my agent now!), agent Allison Hellegers of Stimola Literary Studio, and editor Feather Flores of Atheneum Books for Young Readers (Simon & Schuster). Each experience (and person!) was truly stellar and definitely built my craft (and strategic thinking) skills in innumerable ways. But that’s not all…
Access to other great writers, both published and pre-published. You will find many of the most active users on this site are actually published and agented already. The fact that professional writers rely on the site to hone their work is another proof point of the value of this membership. However, it’s also a great place to try to find your tribe if you are pre-published! With so many communities to choose from, you are sure to find those who are “into” the same kinds of writing you are.
Overall, Inked Voices is a big community that helps you find your tribe(s) while also offering numerous opportunities to up your craft through free-with-membership webinars and extra paid workshop opportunities with truly top-notch agents and editors.
Whether or not Inked Voices is for you, I’ll be doing a whole series on other options that I have found extremely valuable over the coming weeks and months. Tune in for more!
Yours in getting Inked,
Elayne
See others in this series:
✍️ (Writing) Community Focus: Why I Love SCBWI--the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators
✍️ (Writing) Community Focus: Why I love Julie Hedlund's 12x12 Challenge
✍️ (Writing) Community Focus: Why I Love Twitter — NOTE: written before Elon made it weird (and not in a good way)
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