IWSG October 2020

Hello world! 

It's Insecure Writer's Support Group Blog Hop Day, October 2020!

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post. And please be sure your avatar links back to your blog! Otherwise, when you leave a comment, people can't find you to comment back.

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG

Hosted by our founder and Captain: Alex J. Cavanaugh

Co-Hosts this month:

Jemima Pett, Beth Camp, Beverly Stowe McClure, and Gwen Gardner!

OPTIONAL QUESTION: When you think of the term working writer, what does that look like to you? What do you think it is supposed to look like? Do you see yourself as a working writer or aspiring or hobbyist, and if latter two, what does that look like?

Join our Reading Community with the Goodreads IWSG Book Club!

For October/November, we will be reading Animal Farm by George Orwell to study symbolism.

Discussions will take place in November.

Mark your calendars for the next #IWSGPit Twitter Pitch Event!

The next #IWSGPit will be in January 20, 2021

8:00 am - 8:00 pm Eastern Standard Time

Create a Twitter-length pitch for your completed and polished manuscript and leave room for genre, age, and the hashtag. On January 20, 2021, Tweet your pitch. If your pitch receives a favorite/heart from a publisher/agent check their submission guidelines and send your requested query.

Many writers have seen their books published from a Twitter pitch - it’s a quick and easy way to put your manuscript in front of publishers and agents.

Rules:

Writers may send out 1 Twitter pitch every hour per manuscript.

Publishers/Agents will favorite/heart pitches they are interested in. Publishers can either Tweet basic submission guidelines or direct writers to their submission guidelines. (Writers, please do not favorite/heart pitches.)

No images allowed in pitches.

Pitches must include GENRE/AGE and the hashtag #IWSGPit.

Ages:

#C - children’s

#MG - middle grade

#YA - young adult

#NA - new adult

#A - adult

Genres:

#AD - adventure

#CF - Christian fiction

#CO - contemporary

#F - fantasy

#GNC - graphic novels/comics

#H - horror

#HI - historical

#LF - literary fiction

#MCT - mystery/crime/thriller

#ME - memoir

#NF - non-fiction

#PB - picture book

#PN - paranormal

#R - romance

#SF - sci-fi

#WF - women's fiction

#UF - urban fantasy

#S - suspense

Free Books Without the Guilt and Curses

 Most authors will agree there should be a ring in hell for book pirates. Not a fiery ring or anything. We're not that mean. More like a ring in hell where the book pirate has an eternity of red lights and lost keys. Years ago, I had a reader message me that she'd read and loved the first book in the Coulter Men series. I was touched that she took the time to send me positive feedback, so I offered to send her the second book in the series for free. She happily told me not to worry--she got them for free already. 

I asked her for the website she was getting these "free" books. She sent me the link and you guessed it- they were from a pirate website. I told her those sites stole books from authors and often used these "freebies" as ways to sneak trojans and viruses into electronics. I wasn't lying about that. I read it in the pirate ring of hell pamphlet.  

The woman told me she couldn't afford to read all the books she wanted to read. She had a voracious, expensive reading habit. So, I sent her a list of all the many ways to get free books without being cursed by writer's wrath. 

1. Be a reviewer. Writers will not only give you free books, they might throw in their first born, to gain a reliable reviewer. Places like Net Galley and Online Book Club offer books to readers who are willing to post reviews. Reedsy also invites readers to become reviewers for their Discovery blog. 

Or maybe you want to start your own book review blog. Reedsy has an excellent post on that right here. 

The best part about being a reviewer, besides the free stories? Usually, reviewers get the books first, before they are published. 

Your local library. Remember that magical place with the cool stale air that smelled of aging paper and glue? It's still around and probably online offering free eBook lending programs. 

Be a Prime reader. I'm a member of Amazon Prime for the free shipping. At $119 a year, we spend that much on shipping over the holiday season alone, so it's a value for us. The bonus to that is it also comes with FREE reads. Not to be confused with KDP, which offers even more titles for free, there is a catalog of free titles just for Prime members. 

Visit Project Gutenberg. With over 60,000 titles to choose from, there's surely one or two books you've been wanting to cross off you to-read list. All of the titles are no longer under copy right and legally (and ethically) free to share. 

Check the free lists. Most all of the eBook sites offer free books- even if you're not in a paid program. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, and Kobo all offer free books. 

Newsletters and eBook sites. There are a huge variety of websites and mailing lists devoted to sharing eBooks, many of which are free. ManyBooks, BookBub, Digital Book Today and other sites offer lists of free books and they will send you an email notification of newly released free books.

This isn't even a definitive list. Just google FREE BOOKS and you'll get a huge list of free book sites. How can you tell the legit sites from the pirate sites? Look over the site. Legitimate book sites will have places for authors to submit the books they want to share for free. Pirate sites don't have places for authors to contact them. And be warned! Just like pirate music and movie sites, no one is stealing and sharing content as a courtesy from the kindness of their heart. There is something in it for them and that something could be your personal information!  

Legitimate site with Author Services

No Author services offered on this site that was
listed as the top pirating site by Statista.com

\ Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

What the Irish and British Writing Communities Mean To Me

A few weeks ago, someone posed a series of questions in the British and Irish Writing Community’s Facebook group page. Who are we? What do we do? What should we do more of? The answers that came back from our members surprised me. Some of the group wanted us to focus more on what we have been doing with our magazine Bard of the Isles. Others suggested creating more online content, Q&A’s for newbies, discussions where we could chat about our journeys and the things we’ve learned.

What I found most interesting was that although some overlap existed from the various ideas generated, everyone had a different perspective of what the BIWC meant to them. That got me thinking, especially being one of the original founders of the group: what does the British and Irish Writing Community mean to me?


In a previous article for my friends here in the IWSG, I mentioned how our group originally came together. For me, in the early days, one of my biggest aspirations for the community was showing how writers from different backgrounds and at different stages in their writing careers could work together and learn from each other. I wanted writers from every corner and community across Ireland and the UK to show what we’re capable of building by working together. When people focus on what we have in common, instead of our differences, we can achieve great things. Likewise, when we ignore the better angels of our nature, the exact opposite becomes possible.

Some of my earliest memories revolve around the sectarian violence and inter-communal warfare that ravaged Northern Ireland. Growing up in Dublin, I never experienced this violence first-hand. Aside from a few exceptions, most of it took place across the six counties that make up Northern Ireland, a part of the UK. I remember seeing images from the aftermath of bombings and shootings as sectarian gangs waged war against one another and the British Army. It seeped into the background of our everyday lives, permeating every resident of this island.

When peace arrived in 1998 thanks to the landmark Good Friday Agreement every community across our nations rejoiced. Something so unthinkable years before seemed tangible. After decades of murder and destruction, we could finally begin rebuilding our communities while fighting to ensure that the violence never returned.

For the most part, we’ve been successful. Most of the major terrorist organisations on both sides of the divide have disarmed. There are still a few who wish to plunge Ireland back into chaos, but they are the minority. For everyone else, we’ve seen what we can achieve by putting aside our differences and focusing on what brings us together, not what drives us apart. An entire generation has been born with no recollection of the misery and pain suffered for so long.

Although I have no direct experience of the atrocities witnessed and endured by so many, it is something that’s shaped my outlook, as it has millions of others. I’m a firm believer in trying to be the best possible version of myself that I can be. I still slip up and make mistakes just like every other person on this planet, but I learn from by blunders.

The British and Irish Writing Community has come a long way since our humble beginnings and we still have a long way to go to get to where we want to be. Each of us has experienced some sort of hardship or frustrations with our respective national lockdowns, but the community we’ve created has also provided supportive friendships and relationships. We encourage each other, pick each other up when things are tough and celebrate every victory that takes us closer to our dreams.

So, what does the British and Irish Writing Community mean to me? It’s a place where we can stand shoulder to shoulder with fellow writers, learn, exchange ideas, build friendships and be the best that we can be. I’ve no idea where we’ll be in five or ten years, but no matter where that is, I know that we have a solid community full of great people capable of doing anything we set our minds to.

I’m humbled and grateful to every single member for making the community the vibrant place that it is.

I’m proud to be a part of the British and Irish Writing Community.

Damien Larkin is an Irish science fiction author and co-founder of the British and Irish Writing Community. His debut novel Big Red was published by Dancing Lemur Press and went on to be longlisted for the BSFA award for Best Novel. He currently lives in Dublin, Ireland and is editing his next novel Blood Red Sand due out in May 2021.

Author links: Website, Facebook, and Twitter

BIWC links: Online Magazine, Facebook, and Twitter

Are you part of a writing community?