amwritingfantasy

The Fantasy and Sci-Fi Writer’s Alliance

What is the Fantasy & Sci-Fi Writers Alliance?

We are a group of Fantasy & Sci-Fi writers who have banded together to help promote each other’s works, share each other’s social media posts and try to help each other create a healthy following of readers on all our social media platforms.

Once in the alliance, we will loop you in on follow trains for relevant platforms and postings to help promote you and your fellow alliance members’ works. You can join the trains or share the posts at your discretion, but the more you give, the more you will get from the experience.

Here are some trains we’ve done so far on Instagram, and currently doing one on Twitter.

The hope is to create a network of like-minded writers who will be able to:

  • Length the reach of our social media,
  • To draw in more followers across platforms and
  • Ultimately, improve all of our success as writers.

Anyone who is a writer in the Fantasy and/or Sci-Fi genres will sign-up, all that is needed is at least one social media account. It is encouraged to have at least the big three of Instagram, Twitter & Facebook to get the maximum effect.

If you are a part of an Indie Publisher, you can also sign up your social media accounts to be linked into the alliance network.

No information that is provided on this form will be shared outside of the usage stated above, and will be kept in a secure location. This information will be provided to other alliance members so that they can help support you and share your accounts and works.

What are you waiting for? Sign up below.

Join the alliance.

Indie Ink Awards 2022

SHADOW OF THE WICKED IS UP FOR NOMINATION FOR THE INDIE INK AWARDS 2022!

I’m so excited by this news. When I chose to self-publish and become an indie author, I never would have thought SotW would be in the running nomination for anything. I produced this novella thinking it would gain little noticed but I’m so thrilled even if it doesn’t win an award.

But now, it’s up to you. You need to vote for my book. It has been nominated in several categories and the more votes I get, the more chance I have to win.

The link is below.

Please nominate for the categories: Best Morally Gray Character, Best Villain, Shadiest Character, and Best Debut.

https://indiestorygeek.com/story/2914

Here is the description of the award below.

Books by marginalized authors, self-published books, and books by small presses often get overlooked. The Indie Ink Awards is a unique event that brings together the writing community to celebrate books that have made an impact on us. This is our way of highlighting the future we want to see in books–by uplifting those that shine.

The Indie Ink Awards will begin with nominations. In July 2022, you will be able to nominate your favorite books for over 30 different awards. All voting will take place right here on IndieStoryGeek.com.

We have two categories: the “Best In” awards and the “Writing The Future We Need” awards. The “Best In” awards should exemplify the chosen category. We are looking for exceptional inclusion and diversity in works nominated for “Writing the Future We Need” awards. Readers can nominate books for as many awards of either category as they think fit.

Only self published/small press books will be considered, AND they must be on Indie Story Geek. 

Those published by a subsidiary of the Big 4 are not eligible. If you’re an author and your book is not on Indie Story Geek, you may create an account and submit your book. You are not allowed to nominate your work, but you are encouraged to let your readers know that the Indie Ink Awards are taking place so they can nominate and vote.

Once the nomination period starts, books will go through a process of elimination.
The contest has four phases:

  • Nomination phase – July 2022 – books are nominated by anyone with a Indie Story Geek account.
  • Voting phase – August 2022 – the top nominated books will be listed by award for readers to vote on. The top ten in every category will move on at the end of this phase.
  • Authors of selected books are contacted in September 2022. Authors may provide a digital ARC for our judges to review if they wish, or they may opt-out of continuing in the competition.
  • Judges review selected books in their assigned category from October 2022 through February 2023, utilizing a rubric for increased objectivity.

Winners will be announced in March 2023 at our awards ceremony!

Interesting in reading as a judge? Fill out our application here!

axe placed on firewoods in forest

6 Ways To Improve Your Writing

Are your sentences overly long and confusing? In this post, I’m going to share 6 ways to improve your writing.

Long sentences can be dangerous. When our sentences are too long, we tend to lapse into the passive voice and we risk making tense and punctuation mistakes.

Run-on sentences also distract the writer and the reader. We tend to veer off course and forget the purpose of our communications. They also force the reader to work harder.

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Four Ways To Start Writing Your Novella

Last year I self-published my novella, Shadow Of The Wicked, since then I’ve had a lot of readers asking me why I chose to write a novella, and how to write one. I’ve created a quick and general guideline for writing a novella. I say generally because, like all writing principles, they are subject to change.

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I made a Patreon Account

I’ve been pondering the idea for a while and I’ve wanted to try to involve and give my viewers/readers/writers extra content but I don’t have the time around my work life–well now I do.

I made a Patreon Account

If you haven’t heard of Patreon it is a membership platform that connects content creators with fans and supporters. Mainly, it offers financial tools that let supporters subscribe to projects that give creators a predictable income stream as they continue to create content. 

The membership is based on Tiers. Below are my Tiers. If you click the image it’ll take you to my page and you can see what else is offered for each Tier.

Patreon enables creators to establish multiple membership tiers. The number of tiers and the subscription rate at each level is left up to the creator. This can encourage casual fans to pay a low rate – perhaps as little as $1 per month – while more dedicated followers can subscribe upwards of $10 or $20 per month. Higher tiers grant funders access to premium and exclusive content not otherwise available to supporters at lower levels. 

As you can see, my tiers start at a low price but obviously the higher you commit, the more content you’ll receive from me.

I look forward to building a stronger relationship and engagement with you by producing more content.

#DouglasWTSmith #Patreon

https://www.patreon.com/douglaswtsmith

8 Reasons You Should Start A Blog

I’ve been writing this blog on and off for several years. I admit I go through waves of regularly pushing content and total absence.

Throughout blogging, I always start with the ‘why’. Why did I start my blog? Usually, the ‘why’ is what helps me push out content. The answer typically falls into these 8 points as to why I started this blog. If you’ve been on the fence about starting a blog, see if any of my reasons below can help you decide

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LIFE UPDATE.

It’s been very quiet here on my blog, but I assure you, I have been busy with projects outside writing.

Over the past couple of months I have been mostly working, renovating our home and spending quality time with my family. I also took a step back in my marketing plan for Shadow Of The Wicked to see how the organic sales, as I felt like I had done a lot of the ground working to keep the sales trickling in.

If you wish to get the most up-to-date news from me, I urge you to subscribe to my newsletter.

I only send one letter on the 4th of every month, so it won’t overload your inbox. But it will give you the first insight on my books, as well as early or exclusive access to content, which I am happy to announce some really big news but you have to subscribe to my newsletter to receive it.

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How Writing a Novella Helped My Writing


REMEMBER SHADOW OF THE WICKED is available on Amazon. Read the FREE preview below and get your copy today!

Since publishing Shadow Of The Wicked, I’ve had a lot of people asking me why I chose to write a novella instead of a full-length novel. I’ve had people suggesting it to be too much effort, or was I looking for a specific target audience. The truth to why is below but first, if you’re new to this term novella, I’ll discuss what it is and then answer, why I chose to write one.

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Writing The First Draft

REMEMBER SHADOW OF THE WICKED is available on Amazon. Read the FREE preview below and get your copy today!

Now that Shadow Of The Wicked is complete, I have been working with my editor for my next novel, To Wield The Stars (if you remember me talking about it) to be published by OMAMPublishing. But while I was waiting, I have had the feeling to fall back into the Three Kingdoms (Shadow Of The Wicked) world and do a full featured novel and possibly series to explain a lot of the lore and history.

So on my on Instagram I posted that I have started that series. I’m not sure what the title will be but I have a grand plan for it to be epic and grim. However, writing the first draft has always been the most daunting part of writing a novel for me.

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GIVEAWAY Time!

For the release of my of my debut novella, SHADOW OF THE WICKED, I’m doing a HUGE giveaway!

It’s open for everyone, internationally. There will be 2 winners. 1 for Instagram and 1 for Facebook. The details are below but if you want to be a part of it, you have to go to my social media pages and follow the rules to enter and have a chance to win a $50 AMAZON GIFT CARD!

Winners will be announced via my Youtube channel on the 1st of July, 1800 AEST. Make sure you have subscribed and turned your notifications ON!

INSTAGRAM GIVEAWAY

FACEBOOK GIVEAWAY

YOUTUBE CHANNEL

1st PRIZE will receive:

🎁 $50 Amazon Gift Card; and 

🎁 A signed physical book!*

The next 5 winners will receive a FREE EBOOK copy of SHADOW OF THE WICKED!*

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To enter:⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

1️⃣ Follow me at @douglas.w.t.smith or @authordouglaswtsmith

2️⃣ Like this post⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

3️⃣ Comment TWO FRIENDS 

For an extra entry, tag DIFFERENT FRIENDS in a separate comment, or SHARE TO YOUR STORY AND TAG ME (@douglas.w.t.smith or @authordouglaswtsmith).

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Good luck!!

*Must be willing to give out full name, address and email to receive gifts. Not affiliated with Instagram, Facebook, Amazon or any other company.