So, Thane Studios invited me to join their collective about a month ago. This was a big honor for me, because they seemed professional and obviously had more resources than I did-- which meant I’d have a higher chance of publishing The Last Faoii. When he invited me to join there was a lot of discussion on how they were going to help me get the necessary pre-orders to publish. In payment, they were to get 12% of the royalties of the books that were pre-ordered after I joined the collective. 

Today, exactly 18 hours and 29 pre-orders after the beginning of my campaign, Thane Studios said that they weren’t going to be able to help me market, after all, and told me that I could opt out of the collective. That’s all well in good, but Inkshare’s contract on the matter decrees that he still get his 12% within 30 days of me opting out (supposedly because it’s assumed that at least some marketing was done prior to this, and therefore at least some of those pre-orders could have been because of the collective’s influence). On paper, it makes sense. In reality it means that 12% of every pre-order thus far (and for the next 30 days) goes to these people who did absolutely nothing to assist with seeing The Last Faoii become reality, and that fills me with a rage I’m not sure I can adequately portray. 

Obviously there’s nothing that I can do about it now, and my Faoii army is just going to charge forward after this, regardless if someone else is profiting from our hard work. But if anyone who is reading this is trying to publish their own story through Inkshares-- I suggest that you do NOT sign a contract with Thane Studios. Because I really feel like I just got scammed and that hurts. Maybe I was just naive and shouldn’t have signed on the dotted line. But maybe this thread will help save other people who are naive, too. 

I have noticed many of you only have Twitter as the only option of anyone reaching you.  IMHO, (In my humble opinion) I do not think that is a great idea. You never know who from the outside may try and reach you and ask about your book. Sometime people ask questions before they commit. It maybe ok during the pre-funding stage while you are gathering your pages and editing your book  but once you start funding you need to open up all possibilities and avenues for anyone reaching you. For if a potential buyer click on your profile to ask a question and see the only way they can reach you is via Twitter; most likely they aren’t going to go through the trouble of signing in another account just to buy a book. Never, ever give a potential buyer an excuse to walk away.