Our Slack Community
Beyond our virtual critique group meetings, we share information, connect and learn from each other in our Slack workspace. We have focused rooms based on the needs of our community so people can participate where they get the most value.
Benefits of a community in Slack:
Focused rooms to eliminate "noise"
Can create threads within the focused rooms to stay on topic
One-on-one messaging and video calling.
All files uploaded are searchable as all conversations. No more digging through dates and files buried in posts like old-school forums and loops.
Private rooms are available for safe spaces and invite only conversations.
We have a specific community agreement in here that all are required to abide by or they will be ejected from the community.
When you join our Slack Community, you also agree to abide by our IRP Code of Conduct.
Best Practices to get the most out of Slack
New to Slack? No problem! It's like old school chat that's been nourished with fun features to help you minimize group noise and have more meaningful connections!
Our Current Focused Channels:
#general: Town Square (everybody's here!) General announcements from founder, event posts, new member introductions and general member questions.
#mentalhealth: Space to talk openly and offer mental-health check-ins for members as we write. Daily insights provided in this channel on topics of perfectionism, self-awareness and challenging negative self-talk
#social-justice-inclusion: A space for discussions around diversity, equity and inclusion in our writing, the publishing industry or even the world in general. We have open discussions and help those who want to write more inclusive and avoid stereotypes.
#publishing-marketing: This channel covers topics of: agent experiences, editor experiences (good and not so much), trad pub wins, indie/self pub tips, pitches and queries for submission. Also to nurse our wounds of rejection and celebrate our wins.
#member-meetups: Channel where you automatically get introduced to other IRP member every two weeks so you can meet and grow your network. We currently use the Donut app to facilitate introductions.
#accountability-group: A space for writers to find mentors or offer themselves as mentors. Treat it like a social mixer of sorts and talk about what you're looking to learn and connect with others who can help you.
#wip-critique: If you have a work in progress (WIP) and would like some feedback, join this room. This is also our official chat room for the virtual critique group. To learn more, visit here.
#watercooler: Wanna share a recipe? Talk about the last show you binged? Random topics and questions are expected to be rattled out in here so the focused rooms don't get too noisy.
Community Resource Groups:
#rainbow-romance - Space for all authors, allies and enthusiasts of LGBTQ+ romance including author resources and events.
#black-writers-matter - Safe space for Black authors to heal during these times along with healthy conversation on the nuances of writing while Black, editor and author resources, including events.