Power up, aspiring novelists, because we’ve got a brand new Inkshares contest theme kicking off this morning: Video Game Adventure! Yes, this time we’re looking for novels inspired by the pixelated quests of video games, from classic arcade-style to virtual reality to eSports to anything in between. You can choose any genre, any time period, any style — the idea just has to be inspired by video games. And this time, we’re kicking things up a notch: the author with the most unique pre-orders will not only get their novel published and get a chance to join the Nerdist Collection… they’ll also win an Oculus Rift!
But let’s rewind a bit here. As you may know, we (along with our pals at Geek & Sundry) have teamed up with Inkshares, an online crowdfunding publisher, to find undiscovered talents in the literary space. (What can we say? We love books!) Every few months, we throw a big contest where authors can submit pitches, sample chapters, concept art, videos, or their full novel — as long as it fits the current contest theme. Authors share out their submissions to get as many unique pre-orders of their book as they can (that means you can’t just have your mom order a billion copies), and the top three books with the most unique pre-orders will be automatically funded. Those three books will get amazing support from Inkshares throughout the entire publishing process, from editing to marketing and everything in between. Nerdist (that’s us!) then selects their favorite book of the bunch to join the Nerdist Collection.
So far we’ve fought zombie hordes and entered a real-life LARP world with the first two Nerdist/Inkshares contest winners, Welcome to Deadland and It’s All Fun and Games, and explored the vast depths of space with the winner of our Space Opera contest, Champions of the Third Planet. Now, we’re taking to the virtual world to find our next Nerdist novel. Three lucky winners will get their novel published, with a chance to win an Oculus Rift AND join the Nerdist Collection. So what are you waiting for? Press play and start writing!
More details about submissions, contest rules, and more are all available on the Nerdist Video Game Adventure Contest Page, but please reach out to us on Facebook or Twitter if you have any questions at all. We can’t wait to see what adventures you come up with!
Image: deviantART/Vandrell
