Hello my Dear,
Here to shed light on one of the places I am registered in as a writer/creator.
Today we shall explore website called Coverfly. ( https://www.coverfly.com )
Once you registered and opened the website you have a really huge bunch of options.
The biggest thing that is there for you if you’re dope at making SCRIPTS (I ain’t kidding here, yes SCRIPTS) – you can check out the possible competitions where you can throw your work in for possible review and good brownie points, as well as possible selection by the industry professionals to be either represented, having your work actually done or other prospects.
When you are a bit more like me – aka BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS person. You have same options of submitting the work for competitions and all, but the amount of competitions dwindles when it comes to. As scripts have more options out there in the wild.
But fear not!
As a writer you can explore the EXTRAS section that has a lot more going on.
There’s the mentorship options, the goodie nit bits of learning and more. If, for example, you have a script, but you don’t feel sure about it – there’s option to enrol into programme to boost your script and for you to learn to make it better. Giving it more options to be represented/accepted into large pool of creatives that seek good stuff.
There is also the PITCH WEEK. Which was a pay-per-entry thing at some point and became the free thing it is today. So – Pitch Week is held kind of twice a year – Fall and Spring /editions/ when you can enrol and see that you’ll be checked out by the Coverfly reps first, then if they like you, or you fit the bill of needs for someone higher in the chain – they ‘manhandle’ you and ‘pass you over’ to them up the chain. (If only it were that sexy at any point. >.<) And then, if the person likes what you have – they select you for representation, or making the adaptation, or whatever else you manage to negotiate in that pool of things.
There is also the CoverflyX – the place where you can get bisshslapped by peers in the way that – you review their work and you have to honestly be like – reviewing (think over 2-6k words of why’s and how’s and actual comments) their scripts, books, short stories, TV shorts, etc. But the same applies to you as well.
This part allows you to get to know how others write, how it is evaluated in between peers and what to expect when dealing with those above in the industry food chain.
Just so you know – the reviews can and will be brutal. Those who pick your work might come to hate it. SO there is that sizzle of the burn when someone gives a lot of words in review and the bitter “from 1 to 5 star” review that they must make. Oh the life that slaps you hard.
But fear not – that’s life. And in this fiction/writing industry you shall be slapped with both compliments and criticism. So it’s no biggie when someone disses your work. Because you grow to appreciate that a person who shat all over your baby actually spent good time READING it, then REVIEWING it and actually writing out all the nit bits that picked at that persons skin. Anything from punctuation, to character development, pacing, structure, how well each segment is developed, what would be ‘expected’ of certain genre, what is a flop, etc. AND YOU TRULY LOVE THEM FOR TAKING THEIR TIME TO WRITE ALL OF THIS OUT.
And why would you love it?
Because here on this platform – there are actual PROS that are there, so you might get all them commentary from a person with over 20-30 years experience in the industry giving you really good insights about your work. But as well as that – you will get newbies that just came in that also share their POV of what they think. And that’s amazing! Coz you’ll never know for sure, but after a bit of trials and errors – you learn how PROS speak/comment and how the newbies do. So you get to come to love how spidey senses tingle.
But when it comes to Pitch week – you have to be ready to wait. I mean – months on end. Coz after living in this industry for a bit like a ghost of magic – I got to know that waiting is the norm in here. From waiting for 2 weeks to 6 months for literary agents to reply, to waiting for 3-7 months for the contest results to show. It is all about waiting.
AS you are on this platform ONE thing that you MUST DO – is upload your works on it, if you want them to be discovered. That means that it is your thing you wrote/did and you let it roam in the wild.
The projects you upload in your profile are the ones you can SUBMIT TO CONTESTS and they are the ones REVIEWED FOR PITCH WEEK. So, if you have works – just put it out there, don’t be shy. People might love things that you felt are downright shabby.
You might ask WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE IF YOU DO COMPETITIONS AND REVIEWS… I got ya covered.
So taking my script for example. (Yes, I made a script eons ago).
You enrol it in competition – MOST OF WHICH ARE BLOODY PAID FOR. Yes, you pay for partaking in competition. Most of them might not even bother to reply to you with reviews, but some do their dues and share their insights about it and what could be good/bad/improved which you can implement in betterment of own work.
So depending in the enrolments and competition entries your work will most likely hit a thing by the name of “RED LIST”.
I had two of my works top of the list for a year at #1 and #2 in each genre. So, that also gives brownie points towards discoverability.
So here it depends on how you “labelled” your work and which genre it falls under. So that others can vote yer work up or down. But surely that gives you more options when you’re seen.
Biggest driver of the works rating – competition entries.
This is how “Acolytes” or the brownie points are shown alongside your work, once you have it enough times submitted to contests, enough times peer reviewed and just constantly thrown in peoples faces.
But then again – depending on interest you can “request” the work to be sent to you for your own review, taking reading in, so you get to know why that samanabiiish is so famous in the red list. But that depends solely on writer if they want to share it or not. (yes, that big red button)
And if you are lucky enough – you can find the same thing in the peer review.
That is how one side of peer notes looks like. And there’s a catch – you have to complete the READING of the work and it’s review WITHIN 5 DAYS. Or you get penalties for not doing the right by the “laws of the state”.
I ain’t kidding, THIS IN HERE IS SERIOUS AF.
You mess about with reviews – you get off the platform altogether. And let me tell you that if you are gone – registering again is really hard.
And this is the other side of peer notes – where you submit own work for review.
But here’s the catch: you can submit own works for review as long as you trade tokens for it. So, to get tokens – you review works of others. Makes sense, hun?
But yeah, you have to do a diligent job at reviewing. Why? Because the way you review the works is ALSO JUGDED BY THE AUTHORS. And the lower the score – the less manuscripts/scripts you get to review, the less tokens you get to have own work reviewed. (As you can see my reviews rating is 4.20 out of 5. not too shabby, dare I say)
Tokeeens.
But when you submit your work for review there is a thing that pops up:
And you must fill it in to the best of your abilities. So that the person reading is not met with a cryptic thing that they must decipher. Most peer review people and even these above – don’t have that time of the day to go through deciphering someone’s writing and then giving them reviews. So make it easier for them – almost spoil the whole thing, so they know where you’re going with this.
What shows here is the “notes for reader” or the short description. SO that is all that you get as you go into claiming the thing for review.
This is the other one for comparison.
And that’s all that a reviewer is having to claim the work and be interested to read it or not.
So yeah.
Over all – Coverfly is pretty interesting platform to chill in and try to have “beta” readers and reviews that might be harsh to digest, but helpful in the long run.
So if you are interested – do check it out and give it a go.
Hugs & kisses,
Ana
ArcDreamer 
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