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[YADS] Inkitt

tiakall

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www.inkitt.com

Thought I'd start a thread on this since they appear to be trawling for their next contest: http://www.inkitt.com/epicworlds Submit your work to someone who doesn't understand publication rights on a site with no notable presence, game their vote, and maybe you can win $100! Wowee! /sarcasm

They were brought up on a fanfiction forum I help mod a while back because they do publish fanfiction (of course, there's no fandom sorting mechanism so it's basically worthless as a fanfic archive). They offer the ability to import all your work from fanfiction.net, but apparently don't require so much as a ffnet login, so it would be horrendously easy to steal someone else's work to put it on this site.

They're apparently also spamming people about the contest, wanting them to download .zip files - because that TOTALLY seems safe: https://twitter.com/ChuckWendig/status/595279649434918913
 

Parametric

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They messaged me via Fictionpress. No thanks.
 

tiakall

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Heh. They just pinged me on Twitter too. Wonder where they're culling from, since my profile doesn't mention writing and I don't think I've used any of the typical hashtags recently.

I also wonder if their horror contest earlier in the year (Feb-March-ish?) didn't do so well in terms of numbers, and that's why they're pushing this one so hard.
 

tianaluthien

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Inkitt

Has anyone heard of these guys? I received a twitter invite for their story competition. I'm tempted, but I'd like to know if anyone's heard anything first.

Cheers,
T
 

SBibb

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There's a thread for them over here: <snipped>

(I got one of their twitter messages, too).
 
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parumpdragon

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I got a tweet from them too on Twitter, didn't go to the link or anything as I don't have any SciFi currently finished. Thought I'd check here on AW first, and look what I found - blocked them. Thanks all! :)
 

tiakall

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They don't announce who the winners of the Epic Worlds one actually are, so I guess we won't know if they ever actually get their cash prizes.

This is the new one: http://www.inkitt.com/beyondtime Interestingly, they're not offering any cash this time around - just Scrivener, B&N gift cards, and a book by Brenda Ueland (not sure if affiliated or if they're just fans). Would love to know who they're printing the winner's book with.
 

Filigree

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Here's a new, annoying twist: respectable writers who inadvertently add fuel to these kinds of outfits. Kate Elliott just posted this on Twitter:

A free SF writing contest Beyond Time at @Inkitt
inkitt.com/beyondtime
(runs until July 27)

Why, Kate, why?

I'm not going to reply to her tweet, because that's shouting into a rainstorm. But I do wish well-meaning authors would stop and either 1) research the service or company they feel compelled to tout, or 2) offer the standard disclaimer of 'Your mileage may vary, so do your research!'
 

Jeneral

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Ohhh, a friend of mine has a story posted there. She said something to me about them asking her to submit, and I wondered what that was about. Forgive the potentially stupid question, but the problem here is basically that writers are just giving this site free content under the guise of it being a "contest," right? So if you submit to this site, there goes your chances of selling the story legitimately? I don't deal much in shorts, so I'm ignorant here.
 

Filigree

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Pretty much. If they post the story, that counts as publication. So unless the contest prizes interest you, consider the tradeoffs carefully. Once something has been published, reprint possibilities can narrow to effectively nothing. I know some people on AW resell older stories, but in SF&F reprints (if they're accepted at all) often pay only 1 or 2 cents per word.
 
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Jeneral

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Makes sense, that's what I thought. ETA: I mentioned this to my friend, and she's cool with it. I think she's just looking to get her name out there since she just self-pubbed a book.
 
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tiakall

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They have ANOTHER contest started, another fantasy: http://www.inkitt.com/hitherthither They do list a judge for this one, a fantasy author, which I don't recall them doing for the others. Feeling like this plethora of contests with pretty small prizes (top prize for the new one is only $25 gift card plus some branded swag... they're getting cheaper, the first was $100 cash and the third was $50 B&N card) is pretty much a ploy to generate a lot of content.

Just went and checked again, and they're apparently running three contests every month for fantasy, SF and horror: http://www.inkitt.com/contests
 

Krista G.

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And now they have a contest for historical fiction, too. Got their solicitation in my inbox earlier today (after they found me on Goodreads), so apparently, they're mining other social media platforms now. I especially liked their subject line: "Helping aspiring Historical Fiction authors" (random capitalization theirs). If they really found me on Goodreads, they should have been able to see that I'm (finally!) no longer aspiring. :)
 

Parametric

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I'm absolutely sick of being bombarded with spam by Inkitt. I've never expressed interest in them, so they're purely hitting my accounts because I write fantasy. They just spammed a third, perhaps fourth account of mine and I'm so done with it.

:rant:
 

VeryBigBeard

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I got one, too, which is kind of amazing because I have like zero Twitter presence and the only indication that I write fantasy I give on my profile tag is that I'm "fond of fantasy". I actually publicly identify as a game writer first because I have more credits as one than I do as a writer of fiction. I have no idea why they think I'm a good target other than they were trawling anybody based on a very broad keyword (probably "fantasy").

Even then, they didn't follow me. They just tweeted me. Far faster and also more polite to follow accounts you think might be interested in your contest.

Needless to say I'm not interested. I'd already read this thread so I just reported them as spam and moved on. I didn't actually block them so if they come calling again I'll report them again and we'll see how long that goes on before either Twitter deals with them or I lose interest in toying with spammers. But I have an awfully long attention span....
 

Parametric

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I'm about to ragesmash Inkitt. I've been now messaged by "cynthia95", "cynthetizer" and "fearlicynthia" on FictionPress. I assume the rapid changes of accounts are because FictionPress is banning them for spamming people. Their latest message had the temerity to say that they were spamming me for the nth time because "this one might be important for you". Here's a thought, Inkitt: absolutely nothing about you is important to me. :rant: