We’re thinking about how to make RedBubble a better place for writers
The Unleashed short story competition attracted a lot of talented writers, but to be honest we haven’t done enough since then to support them on RedBubble. That will change.
Initiatives in the pipeline for writers include:
1. A new competition for short stories and poetry
2. Redesign site – ‘gallery’ probably splits into ‘art’, ‘writing’, ‘t-shirts’.
3. Distinguish between ‘written works’ and journal entries/blogs
4. Reaching out to writers already on RedBubble for their input
It will take some time to get all these done, but we’re keen to launch the competition and get lots of input on improvements ASAP.
If you feel strongly about making RedBubble a better place for writers, now’s a great time to speak up!
Let us know what you’d like to see – be it new features, website changes, community activities, etc. Also check out this forum topic seeking input from writers.
gaypony, about 1 year ago
maybe have an option for written works to be sold as mini books
with the cover a picture form that persons portfolio.
so say put my brumby poem as a mini book and a picture i choose to go with it on the cover
Marilyn Brown, about 1 year ago
That sounds like a great idea gaypony.
Anne van Alkemade
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about 1 year ago
The thing that has stuck in my mind and I’m hoping for is the “books on demand” idea that I think I read on RB somewhere. Also, making separate areas for t-shirts, creative writings, and artworks is an excellent idea – different links on the home page perhaps.
I was wondering if RB will also have a link for individual projects such as Cherububble?
And I’m hoping for collaborations between writers and illustrators.
Chris White, about 1 year ago
This is great to hear Xavier. It’ s really frustrating to labour over a piece of writing only to have it sink amongst journal entries about someone scratching themselves (no offence intended, it is a journal and that’s a valid use!). I’d love to see more competitions and stronger links through collaborations between the written and visual. Some artist’s work here lends itself to projects like graphic novels for example.
One other thing it would be great to see is the option of adding words to cards, perhaps by having a gallery of poems or sentiments by theme that can be chosen by the customer to be added to the card.
In fact, this could possibly be extended to all formats here?
Cheers
pinkelephant, about 1 year ago
First of all, thanks RB for so cool! It is great that members can have so much input:)
I like the idea of running themed weekly or fortnightly challenges, not to be judged or anything, more as writing exercises to encourage people to get outside their comfort zone. It could involve visual artists, too. I find creative exercises open my mind up when I’m stuck for ideas and improves my abilities overall, I don’t know how everyone else feels…
Anyway, it’d be cool to have a special area on the site where the current comps and challenges can be easily viewed. It could do a lot to attract more artists/writers.
Jo O'Brien
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about 1 year ago
Just thought I’d mention that there has been quite a few people wanting to separate their card designs from the rest of their art. Maybe have Art, Card, Ts, Writing + separate journal? Too many?
Nina Cullen, about 1 year ago
So many great ideas! Thanks Xavier for getting the ball rolling again for the writers.
I definately think that a distinction between journal entries and other pieces of written work is a great idea. I also love Pinkelephant’s idea of themed challenges, a good reason to stop the procrastination and write something.
Anne van Alkemade
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about 1 year ago
Would adding A’s poem to B’s image to create a unique card be above and beyond Redbubble????? For a commission as specified by the writer/poet as artists currently do re markups? (hope this is making sense). It would be so awesome to see how an ‘outsider’ would match up your words with someone else’s image or vice versa.
With a separate area for written art, perhaps it could be structured as an index of first lines for poetry (as is done in many poetry anthologies). I think also the different types of written work needs to be distinguished i.e. short story, poetry, longer story, haiku (hmmm, perhaps this is still poetry). But you see what I mean. If people are looking for something quick to read, they don’t want to be clicking backwards and forwards around longer stuff – if they are looking for a short story they probably don’t want to be clicking on poems. etc.
kseriphyn
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about 1 year ago
Your suggestions are great. On my way to the forum post to add others.
Durotriges, about 1 year ago
Don’t discriminate against non-fiction writing. Speaking personally, I have consciously tried to create my journal entries as if they were, say, a column in a newspaper or something. Whether I have succeeded in that, I’ll leave to you to decide, but don’t ignore me just because I haven’t written any fiction (yet). :-)
davecurtain, about 1 year ago
this is great news xavier. if at all possible, it would be great to develop something which could showcase more serious writing, to help writers develop. is there any way redbubble could set a list of topics (could be determined by suggestions from writers) together with required word length parameters, for publication in a “bubble wrap” type email which could be distributed on a regular basis? realise you have limited resources, but if the word lengths/format were standardised, might it be possible to essentially automate a template? i have no idea whether this would be difficult to set up, just throwing it out there…
Damian, about 1 year ago
Great news! The initiatives in the pipeline cover my main troubles :)
Splitting the written works away from the blogs will make finding the writing easier, without travelling through a stream of port’s to find them.
I’m thinking it will be great to have a writing section; will stop me being distracted by all the pretty images :)
The only thing missing is the ability for writers to sell anything.
Could short stories be bought by members, like an image, printed by RB and posted? Select a few stories and get it printed in a cheaper magazine-type format?
Love the competition idea, but also pinkelephants call for semi-regular themed creative writing activities. I don’t get to talk to anyone interested in writing in the real world, so that would be a buzz.
Cathie Sherwood, about 1 year ago
Yes! Yes! can we have the print on demand thingy available soooon! Have a few books on the ‘bubble’ and it would be grrreeat to have everything I do available thru’ you guys rather than have to go to Lulu or somesuch as well. The coffee books thing would be great too, oh boy – whatever you can come up with would be really good as this is so very much the bestestest site for all this ….
just love redbubble and want use it for everything! ‘specially as I get my completion rate up, up and away!
I have so much writing stuff going, would like to make the finished product out of it, is my goal in progress!
AbyssalSoul, about 1 year ago
I am all for essays-non fiction things. And would willing to try and write something. I can picture a mad book called “Also sprach Red Bubble” or “The Red Bubble Book of Thoughts” [ (c) 2007 by me hehehehehe ] where people feature several essays on certain topics (photography, art, writing, philosophy, etc.), reviews (of books, expositions, an analysis of an artist), notes (maybe recommendations and thought on a particular topic… I think these are called ‘factual works’, dang, forgot the proper word in english) and other types of non-fictional works.
And yup, a section for the writings would be amazing as, at the moment, the blog-type feature sometimes (sometimes) ends up either ignored or gets tricky to type thingies properly.
That’s all I can think for now… Oh, about contests, I think that, aside from money prizes, there is no better prize than getting published. So the more people who get published, the better. Especially if the stories they did are great. (30 stories were made for the last contest but only 15 were published right? Would’ve been cool to see the 30 in the same book =P) Maybe reducing the font here and there… wider text blocks, everything helps.
As an example, a publishing house makes an annual contest where it ends up publishing 100+ people in a single book (short stories, one page each). Personally, I reviewed some of the stories there and it was a great experience. Maybe the almighty RebBubble can do something similar? (obviously not in that mad scale… or maybe yes, mwahahaha)
That’s it for now. * adds to favourites *
Xavier Russo, about 1 year ago
Thanks everyone – what an encouraging response!
It sounds like there’s strong support for what’s in the pipeline, plus you’ve come up with a bunch of fantastic new ideas that we’ll seriously look into.
Some additional things (from your ideas) that we can do quickly:
We’ll also look into setting up a bubblewrap-style email showcasing the best writing (maybe drawing it from the regular writing challenges?).
As many of you pointed out, helping writers sell things would complete the puzzle, but this is relatively difficult right now. Print on demand books are still a fair way off, but we’ll look into poem/story/writing “postcards”, and greeting cards that combine images & writing.
Xavier Russo, about 1 year ago
Also, another idea that comes to mind: how about people write articles about other RedBubble members or collaborations? RedBubble could select the very best, and pay you some cash or bubblecash in return for letting us publish the articles on the PR newswires.
This would provide a way for writers to earn some money, raise the profile of interesting artists and members, and build awareness for the website overall.
Thoughts?
Michelle Rogers, about 1 year ago
I am very excited about all of this! I must admit I felt I was drowning in sea of digital art, and that writing was becoming a poor cousin to everything else that went on at redbubble… I am glad to hear that the lack of attention given to writers’ has been acknowledged and will be attended to!
I don’t have any startingly good ideas to add, but I certainly like what’s been suggested – bring it all on! Writing competitions and themes to generate ideas would be fantastic, it would give us writers more of a community feeling here at RB… this is all fabulous. As for getting mini-books printed… I’m salivating at the thought!
WRITERS UNITE!!
davecurtain, about 1 year ago
xavier, the idea about writing articles about other RedBubble members or collaborations is a beauty
Xavier Russo, about 1 year ago
Glad you like the idea, dave. There’s so much good stuff going on that deserves a wider audience. For example I reckon the art train collaboration would be a very interesting story.
AnnieC, about 1 year ago
Yay! Some brilliant ideas from the not only creative but VERY VERY bright brains trust behind redbubble. Sorry I was a bit slow on the uptake of this entry, but I really think the idea of distinguishing between ‘written works’ and journal entries/blogs is the answer. I also liked the idea of putting ‘for critique’ on pieces you require feedback on, but I don’t think it’s used all that widely.
Xavier Russo, about 1 year ago
there’s also the for critique forum and writers forum, which are the best places to ask for feedback on your work.