Inkpop

Since its soft launch in 4th quarter 2009, inkpop already has more than 10,000 members and nearly 11,000 submissions, including novels, poems, essays, and short stories. The visitors are teens ages 13 and older, from 109 different countries and territories.

Boy, I wish I had this when I was a teen...

I started my first novel in Mrs. Cochran's Novel Writing Club, back in middle school. The only resources we had at our disposal (remember, we were living out in the middle of the desert in Saudi Arabia)  was Strunk & Whites ELEMENTS OF STYLE, a prodigous school library, our teachers and our imagination for ideas. Now look at the resources available to young writers fingertips...

Inkpop, from HarperCollins Publisher's teen publishing unit, is a platform aimed at young readers and writers. It's a a combination of community publishing features, user-generated content, and social networking elements. There are thousands of young writers out there (Christopher Paolini wrote Eragon at fifteen) who now have the opportunity to showcase their work.

The launch of inkpop continues Harper Collins overall digital strategy designed to build and expand its direct-to-consumer business. Inkpop will be the anchor of HarperCollins's ongoing teen strategy, enabling the company to have a continuous dialogue directly with its audience to determine what the community cares about, as well as an unfiltered look at what's in and what's out.