The Melbourne Writers Social Group is an ever-expanding group of creatives based in the heart of the city of Melbourne run by Mat Clarke. With over 5,000 members, we are a diverse hotpot of bubbling talent involved in a wide variety of enjoyable events.

 

Our collaborative group helps to inspire all levels of writers. New writers, intermediate writers, as well as our experienced writers with many titles under their name.

 

These events embrace everyone. The many variants of writers' genres, the many creative talents our members enjoy, and the regular people who would just like to get together and share experiences.

 

Our aim is to cultivate a group where we can meet often and with an openness that creates an atmosphere of cooperation that will lead each person to their individual goal. Which could be to become published. Or to get that book out of your head on to paper that you have always wanted to write. It may be that you have been writing alone for so long that you need other people around you so that you know you are not alone. Whatever the reason, you and all people are welcome to attend.

 

As well as our regular meets where we chat and read out our work, we run writing games, which is lots of fun and can get you out of your writer's-block rut. We run writing time where people get together and just write. Being around other writers while writing is an amazing experience.

 

Our supportive and fun events have been designed to run during the week as well as weekends so that everyone can make it regardless of their busy schedule. Come along and talk to other writers, or listen to our writers as they read out their work.

 

If you are not able to attend our events, there are many great resources that can be accessed through our Facebook & Meetup links.

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www.meetup.com/The-Melbourne-Writers-Group

www.facebook.com/MelbWriters

www.facebook.com/groups/169777419779168

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Melbourne Writers Publishing on Smashwords

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Melbourne Writers Social was created to help build a network of creatives who may not otherwise have the opportunity to socilaise with others who share the same dreams and passions in writing. Considering our Facebook group where we interact each day and enjoy poignant questions posted by our hosts on Mondays, plus the Meetups we take part in that are in person, I think we have accomplished this.

We also created the World Writers Collective in order to allow authors to connect with readers. It was a bold move and has given many writers the opportunity to create a platform where they can launch their writing and become searchable entities online. It has given everyone the ability to post up their profile, promote their book launch and post links to their author blog, which a few of you have taken full advantage of.

Next move: We want you to get your work out there and online. We are not a publisher, but we like the idea of helping writers publish. It's not a paid gig, but it does provide you with some good benefits as explained below. Any money that is created from the venture will go toward paying our Meetup.com fees that pop up every six months. If, however, your book suddenly starts making loads of cash, we will not keep that money. We will forward it on to you somehow (there may be tax issues if the money becomes too great), and you can set it up to collect and pay tax with your regular income. In fact, if your book suddenly gets hundreds of downloads, we will advise you to either contact a publisher or agent, or/and move your book to your own online store. Having too much money coming in would confuse us. We have never had money, so we would not know what to do with it.

Benefits:
1. If your book is on our Smashwords site and has the words: Brought to you by Melbourne Writers Social on the cover, plus in your book and also in the heading, then you will get free World Writers Collective membership.

2. You will learn how to publish your own book via Smashwords. There are already step by step instructions supplied by Smashwords, but we can also help you out by answering any questions you may have if you get stumped. We can even help you find a cheap cover designer on Fiverr (if we have a little money coming in from this venture then we may even be able to pay for the cover to be created for you - for now you'll need to pay the $20 or so to fund the front cover design).

3. We will help you advertise your book (and all the other books) on our Smashwords library.

4. You will become a hero because you have self-published your book.

5. You'll be a part of the Melbourne Writers community of authors with their book published via our Smashwords site. Our Smashwords site will be promoted throughout all our social networks. This means you will be promoted too. If some money is coming in from the sale of the books, then we will run some paid Google Ads. We will never keep any money for ourselves. It all  goes back into paying for fees.

6. You can post up your work anonymously or with a pseudonym. Our Melbourne Writers name is already there to promote you, so you can choose to include your own name or not.

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Conditions:
1. This is not actually our condition, but a Smashwords condition: they do not allow anyone except the person who runs the Smashwords store to be on the front cover. So instead of having your author name on the front cover, it will be inside under the Author's introduction heading. That is where you will talk about yourself and have a link to your webapge etc. The front cover will have your title at the top, then say: Brought to you by Melbourne Writers Social

2. We do not want other books being chosen over yours due to a lower price, so all books will be priced at $2USD. Please do not post up a single poem. A collection of poems would be better so that people will be happy to pay $2 for your work. Or a collection of short stories. Or a good-sized nonfiction book or a novel or whatever it is you are looking to promote. The $2 cost is a small amount, we understand that. But we are not here to get rich. Instead, it's to show you will not give your work away for free. As mentioned earlier, if you suddenly start getting lots of downloads and therefore lots of money, then it's time you get in touch with a publisher or agent. Also, you will want to move your book to your own Smashwords site so you can put up the price of your book and start collecting the money yourself.

3. Promote your book via all your social networks with a link to our Smashwords site so that people learn of your book and all the other writer's books. If everyone does the same then we should get many people coming and reading the books on our site. You may even want to spend a little money to promote your book via Google Ads or similar.

4. You must be willing to have your book edited Editing Tips. The first step to this will be to attend a group that helps you edit your work. I am looking to start up our own editing group, but I will need to speak to some other writers to see if they are willing to help. For now, Fernhill Writers is a great group and I have attended many times. They allow you to send your work in via email if you prefer. Please contact Jeremy: fernhill.writers@gmail.com They will give you great feedback and help you polish your work. They likely won't read your whole work all at once. Ask Jeremy how many words they are happy to read. You will also be expected to give feedback on other people's work too. If you prefer, you can pay to have your work edited. This will be a good final step. For your book to be accepted by us it will need to be of regular published works quality, which is quite high. World Writers Collective has a very cheap editor you can get in contact with. However, Alby will only edit works that have been beta read by at lest one other person to ensure it is of at least medium quality: Alby - Editor