About

About This Site

Collective Inkwell serves as a place to showcase our work, our services, and articles, links and tips to help guide you towards publication and success with your book (or ebook). As we shift gears in 2010, you can expect more tips and interviews with writers who are finding success on the new publishing landscape.

Our Story

David Wright and Sean Platt have spent the last year helping give shape to one another’s individual dreams, while providing the tools needed to make them happen.

The road to becoming a successful author is long, winding, and littered with trial and error. Though the possibilities for a modern writer to reach the masses have never been more abundant, the journey is a confusing boulevard with too many intersections amid an avalanche of decisions.

Though some traditional publishers are imploding, in many ways it’s never been easier for the average author to grab their attention. Writers using modern online tools such as blogging and social media are now able to foster an audience throughout the writing and publishing process. This allows the smart author to get known before their book is ever released.

Even if an author doesn’t sell their book to the publisher the first time around, a modest self-published success can lead to a book deal.

“Self-publishing is like the new minor leagues for authors. It’s a lot easier for us to take a risk on an author who has already spent the time to establish an audience,” so said a vice president from one of the nation’s major publishers during a casual lunch with Sean this past fall.

Authors are increasingly heading down the independent route, thus allowing them to maintain full copyright and creative control over their work. What these authors sacrifice in the long arm of a major publisher’s distribution and promotion, they can make up for with a far higher percentage of the overall sales.

Many emerging authors understand that nowadays, publishers expect them to do their own marketing.

Fortunately, marketing for an author has never been easier. Writers are natural communicators, and there are plenty of tools available to help you communicate in the ways that is most natural for you. Blogging and podcasting are both incredibly powerful tools for broadcasting your message and building your audience in a relatively short period of time, giving you more time to do what it is you really want to do – WRITE!

Before they met, David and Sean both wanted to be successful writers, but were playing Pin the Tail on the Online Donkey. They knew where they wanted to go, but were blindfolded without a clue how to get there. Sean had raw talent, but lacked the seasoning which can only come with experience. David had an impressive portfolio as a newspaper reporter and columnist, but had more ideas than time to execute them and wasn’t sure how to feed his momentum.

Even without knowing one another, their thoughts were the same:

Can I make it?
Will my words ever find a wider audience?
Am I just wasting my time?

Once they met, each writer had the perfect partner they hadn’t even known they were looking for. Things immediately started to click into place.

A natural ear for language met with AP Style Guide precision.
A quiet artist met with a natural ability to connect.
Raw talent met with a relentless excitement.

Timidity gave wave to confidence, taking fear along with it. In no time, manuscripts were finished, ISBN #’s ordered, and books were on their way to the printer. Previous dreams became present reality and the future grew limitless.

What we can do for you:

We know what it takes to get the manuscript from your mind to the printed page. From helping you with your story to building a beautiful website that will help you sell it, or devising a marketing strategy and then implementing the necessary tools to carry it out, we know what it takes to get your book finished and in the hands of readers.

We help you by being the silent partner we never knew we needed, but could never have done it without.

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David Wright is a former newspaper reporter and editorial cartoonist with a knack for breaking down complex issues and delivering them in an easy-to-understand format. His specialty is writing with heart and humor, which he has been doing at Blogger Dad since summer of 2008. He also loves to write dark stories which his mother refuses to read.

His comic strip Todd and Penguin has been syndicated by KeenSpot Entertainment site since 2005 and has appeared in several newspapers and collected in the book Todd and Penguin:Embrace Your Inner Dork published by KeenSpot. He also draws at IDrawComics on a regular basis.

David lives in Florida and is married with a two year old son and two insane cats. Between the cats and his son, David spends way too much time disposing of poop.

Sean Platt started out with a bang with Writer Dad late in the summer of 2008. He spent the following year building websites, writing copy, and working on books with his partner, David. In addition to running a syndicate of online sites with Dave, Sean is also a frequent contributor to Copyblogger.

Sean lives in California with his wife, daughter and son. He has no cats.