[tjwell01]

If you're an aspiring scifi writer or are really into YA fiction, I strongly recommend checking out InkPop.com. It's run by Harper Collins and the user base is super interactive, but the best part is real HPC editors are reviewing your work which means your scribbles could get published if its good enough. It's fiction, non-fiction and poetry--everything goes and the features are slick.

I work for the site, full confession, so if you have questions, hit me up.

[Laer Carroll]

InkPop.com (http://InkPop.com) is a Harper Collins web site dedicated to teen fiction. It was created in early 2007 and went online in a big way in late 2009. Since then it has had a couple of major revisions and a number of important enhancements. It has several parts: a blog, a set of forums, and an interesting hybrid of slush pile, workshop, and contest.

The blog is a few dozen page-or-less entries each month. These include items of industry news, advice from established writers, author interviews focusing on how their first books or series got published, and bios/interviews of InkPop members. Most of those seem to be bright and energetic early-teen girls, with a smattering of boys and people in their 20s and 30s.

The forums include general writing topics and the different teen genres. Very confusing is the sci-fi forum. Until recently it is was sci-fi/fantasy, but when the fantasy forum was created the fantasy threads were left in the sci-fi forum, which has few sci-fi threads.

The slush/workshop/contest has three parts: poetry, short works, and books. The books must be complete works. Members willing to criticize do so, and a book can receive several hundred critiques. Each critic rates the entries. At the end of each month the five top entries are read and criticized by HC editors. An increasing few authors are offered publishing contracts.

Overall InkPop is an interesting experiment which other publishers may emulate. At the very least it offers a new way for writers to enter the ranks of the published. I would suggest that any writer who is offered a contract consult a good experienced agent. There are many pitfalls in contracts which only sound advice may help the writer avoid.

Lastly I have to mention a subjective judgment of mine. The typeface is tiny sans-serif I find hard to read, and the colors strike me as ugly. You, of course, may love what I hate.