I just entered a short story in their science fiction contest.  They contacted me on Twitter.

The site itself looks good, sort of like Wattpad, but I think the contests could be handled better.  Basically, once you enter, you're taken to a screen that recommends you ask for votes on your social networking sites.  Only those stories with the top 10% number of votes get looked at by the editors and have a chance to win.

In other words, it seems like the first half of the contest is based on who has the biggest social media reach rather than on writing merit.  I personally don't care for that and it's not just because I suck at social media.  I do feel bad for writers who don't have a lot of Facebook friends or fans who will vote for their story.  They could have an awesome story that will never even get looked at by the editors. 

 

I wouldn't submit to a contest that has to beg for submissions...

 

They contacted me through Twitter, but I saw they were doing the same with any author they could find, so I ignored it.

 

Three months in a row, whenever they start a new contest, I've been contacted on Twitter and via E-mail. The first Twitter one I responded and thanked them for the offer but I didn't have time. Since then, I've just ignored them.

A tad annoying that they keep sending messages out. But I'm also not a big fan of voting, and since anyone can sign up, any story up in a contest can be read by anyone. Since some of my stories are still making the rounds in slush piles, I didn't want to touch that gray area of does this count as published or not. Plus I don't want to beg people to vote for me.  I'd much rather indie publish my shorts than try to take part in a popularity contest.

Just how I feel, though!

 

I wondered about the Wattpad comparison myself, and would probably like the site more if they were a lot like Wattpad, only based in Germany with a lot of English reading Germans. Thanks on letting me know what's going on here. I'll pass on this. Save myself some trouble.

 

And now I got a PM here from them. *sighs*

 

I wouldn't submit to a contest that has to beg for submissions...

I wouldn't join a club that would have me as a member.

 

And now I got a PM here from them. *sighs*

I just got a PM from them, too. Never heard of them until reading their message and seeing this thread (I must have missed this thread originally).

 

*glances around meaningfully at the walls and ceiling*

Ahem. Instead of sending messages to random people whose emails you've lifted from their kboards profiles about placing their unpublished work on a site most of them have never heard of, perhaps a better strategy would be to start a new topic in WC to talk a little about your site and explain what's in it for them to provide you with what amounts to free content. It looks a lot less scammy that way, and given the number of people out there who try to prey on indie authors, appearances can make a big difference in how you're received around here.

Just sayin'. Hypothetically. In case anyone happens to be listening.

 

I just got a PM from them, too. Never heard of them until reading their message and seeing this thread (I must have missed this thread originally).

Not even just a PM -- a PM from an account with zero posts (for me, anyway).

 

Heck, even I got a pm from them. Do I look like an author? 

I didn't know one could send pm's without at least having posted once.

 

Not even just a PM -- a PM from an account with zero posts (for me, anyway).

Yeah, zero posts when they sent the message to me, too.

 

Inkitt is a slick-looking Wattpad site. Kinda cool, but they probably have audience issues, and they're going about getting an audience the worst way possible: by spamming their authors.

An example is their contest system. The only purpose of their contests is to have entrants spam social media to tell people about Inkitt.

And like someone else in this thread mentioned, Inkitt spams authors who create accounts and enter their contests. I get tons of emails from them that don't have unsubscribe options. If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't have uploaded my short story for that reason alone.

Ultimately there are too many sites like this. I fall they're gonna do is ask authors to generate their traffic, they're gonna fail.