Fernando Crôtte liked the forum thread, change in author royalties? when?
First time poster, long time lurker. As many of you may know, I am author of The Astronaut Instruction Manual. Seeing as this change in author royalties has a rather profound affect on me, I feel qualified to interject on this topic.

Essentially, the change is active immediately. And in nearly all cases–including for the larger part my own–this will be consensually retroactive.

Meaning, new terms have been created for authors and funding writers and they are going to affect new deals as well as established successes.

So you would think I’d be upset about that, right? Well, surprise, I’m not upset. In fact, I’m thrilled.

In a past life I did businesses. Lots of them. Some losers. Some winners. Some even lucrative. All–and I mean all–were great learning experiences.

When I got my deal with Inkshares I thought this is crazy. It was literally too good to be true. You cannot run a company on those margins. It is impossible. After the process of creating my funding book, I knew I was right. There is no doubt in my mind, Inkshares put around $30-$50k into my book while pulling only about $10k in funding and pre-sales. I’m no math genius but I’m a whiz at addition and subtraction, and those numbers don’t match up.

Retrospectively, even now, going into our third printing of The AIM, I know Inkshares hasn’t made its money back. Yet.

Of course, if I were an evil genius I’d being going BWAA-HAA-HA-HAA-HA right now. However, I’m not an evil genius. I’m not even a genius. I’m an astronaut teacher and author and Inkshares is my publisher who has done an absolutely astounding job of impacting the marketplace with my book: Third printing, audiobook deal with Penguin Random House, and of course the tv series deal with Legendary. Plus the creative freedom and rights I retain as writer and creator? Plus we are now working on THE COMIC BOOK (!!!)? 

Wow.

To quote from Kurt Vonnegut, "If this isn’t good, I don’t know what is."

Without Inkshares, I would have none of this. I LOVE INKSHARES. I WANT INKSHARES TO SUCCEED EVEN MORE. So if I have to make fair adjustments to secure and guarantee even more and greater success, I’ll tell you what I told  @Adam Gomolin:

“Count me in.”

And Adam had made it very clear. If the deal didn’t look good to me or if I thought I could find a better deal somewhere else, he’d help me with an exit strategy. 

PFFFFFFFFFT. Me exit Inkshares? Yeah right! No sir-ree-bob, I’m here to stay. I love the culture, I love the attitude, I love my fellow authors (@JF Dubeau, @Jamison Stone, @Gary Whitta, @Jim McDoniel I’m talking to you), I love the camaraderie, I love the community, and most of all I LOVE BEING AN INKSHARES AUTHOR.

The most telling fact I can share is everyone I know and love is staying put. What more, last week I think Inkshares had over 1000+ new book campaigns started. That means even more new awesome authors to share in this wonderful new model. ("Traditional publishing with crowdfunding front-end" I tell my friends.) We started Inkshares together. We have succeeded together. And we are now evolving together. Yes, I’m staying.

Heck, where would I go that is any more fun (and profitable and empowering and authenticating) than Inkshares? Like Montgomery Scott says in JJ Abram’s 2009 Star Trek reboot, "I like this ship. It’s exciting!"


–

PS one last thing. Speaking of awesome new authors, while I’m here I just want to shoutout a book and author being funded that has caught my (generally behind the scenes) attention. It is @Evan Graham’s Tantalus Depths.
Being an established author around here means you get to call the actual Inkshares’ Head Honchos and say, "Hey, I think you should take a look at this project." Which I did today about Tantalus Depths.
And like I told Adam, and while it may be early and maybe I’m wrong what do I know but in my opinion I think Evan writing and dialog is terrific and I think Evan has what it takes to win a Hugo.
We’re Inkshares. Like a big extended family or even a non-sucky high school. Let’s see what we can do about getting Tantalus Depths funded, ok? He’s close! Back Tantalus Depths and then spread the word on FB and Twitter. 
Alright. Thanks and keep up the good work, everybody!
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    Fernando Crôtte liked the forum thread, change in author royalties? when?
    I don’t post much on forums. I don’t even lurk. I probably should because. Who is this asshole injecting his stupid opinion into our forums, right?

    For those who don’t know, I’m JF Dubeau, author of The Life Engineered and A God in the Shed, proud participants in the Too Many Controller anthology. Unlike what some of you might have heard I have not sold any rights to any of my properties YET, but I think it’s been made clear that things are moving in that direction.

    The changes don’t bother me. Some of you may (and already have) rolled their eyes saying that, of course I don’t mind the changes. After all, I’m one of the privileged few.

    Fair enough! I am so far very lucky. I can’t deny my good fortune and while I’m nowhere near the level of success some have assumed I’m enjoying, it’s been a good run and that run is all because of Inkshares. As a quick clarification, I’m still working full time as a marketing director. I have yet to receive any sum of money that would be considered life-changing and the number of groupies that knock on my door is still at a manageable two or three per day. Perhaps four on weekends.

    And that’s the crux of it really. If you’re anything like me, an aspiring writer who’s only just starting to build his career and reputation, money shouldn’t be your focus. If it is, more power to you and I get that the changes in royalties are a concern but money isn’t part of my plan at this stage. I’ve so far not made that much money from royalties anyways, so moving the dial 15-30% one direction or another has very little impact on my life. The visibility, contacts, opportunities and pure, distilled experience I’ve gained so far however? I can’t even begin to put a price on that. Money will come. I have no doubt. If I put in the work (20-40 hours a week on top of my current job) and I keep learning and growing as a writer, I’ll either build up to where I have enough fans of my work that I can do this full time, or I’ll get a lucky break that will allow me to move ahead in the industry.

    I’m very lucky so far because I’m (hopefully) following in the footsteps of the incredibly talented @Mike Mongo, but I’m looking forward to the next writer who’ll be following in my footsteps (unless these footsteps lead off a cliff. DO NOT follow these footsteps!). Then the next writer. And another. Because that’s what’s being built here. There are a ton of people on this platform who are embarrassingly talented and creative. I feel ridiculous being a trailblazer for them, knowing that they will outshine me like the sun outshines the moon. I’m hoping to ride their coattails like a bronco into the sunset.

    So yeah, I’m cool with the changes. I can’t ask you to be cool with them, but I can tell you where I come from and hope you understand and maybe share my feelings. I’m even cool with the lack of transparency. Why? Because Inshares isn’t a vanity press. They’re not a self publishing service either. In other words, I’m not an Inkshares client. They don’t owe me transparency and in many ways it is a curtesy that we get as much as we do (truth is that it’s a synergy thing where they benefit from our feedback, but the bottom line is that transparency isn’t owed to us).

    I’ve written this stupid essay three times, each from a different angle and each time with a different level of aggression.

    The big takeaways are these:
    • The terms are what they are and they’re not aimed at ‘screwing us over’
    • The invitation to leave isn’t meant to be dismissive but at the same time there’s only so much resources that should be put into keeping a disgruntled supplier, especially in such a saturated market
    • The increased revenue from getting a bigger share of royalties will help make books more financially viable on their own, keep investors happy, allow for growth so that more services can be added and the current ones improved. It’s an investment by the authors in the future not of Inkshares but of their success as authors on Inkshares
    • Communication is nice to have and I believe it is Inkshares’ philosophy to have as much of it as possible, but if they don’t have time to tell us everything they’re doing I’m fine with that too. I’d rather they work on publishing, marketing and selling books
    • Every success on Inkshares benefits all of the authors on the platform. The rising tide lifts all boats

    An extra note: Each book, from my understanding, is looked at individually for how it should be handled in the secondary markets. Mike Mongo and I are living vastly different experiences and I expect that will be the case for everyone who gets this opportunity. Which means someone is siting down, looking at each property and deciding whether to pursue it at this time (The Life Engineered is not being pursued as far as I know) and then building a plan on how best to do that. Aside from the fact that this is a time consuming aspect of the work I hadn’t really considered before, I am FASCINATED by it and want to learn more.

    This is a cool platform in its infancy. It’s growing in interesting ways and I’m happy to be along for the ride because I’m a writer in his career infancy and I want to grow right along with them in interesting ways. So no, I’m not exiting. I might ADD to what I do with Inkshares with other projects, but I know that these are just more opportunities that my experience with this platform have created.

    Cheers, and keep writing
    JF
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      Fernando Crôtte commented on Mission 51
      I have indeed learned a lot, and am definitely not discouraged. Au contraire, I am energized! Will see how I do in LaunchPad. Will use the time to finish/polish Mission 51. Then, if need be, I’ll be ready for another go on Inkshares when the right contest pops up! - Thanks for being there, @Joni Dee ! I appreciate you!
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        Fernando Crôtte liked an update for To Live and Die in Avalon

        THIS IS THE LAST DAY TO PRE-ORDER!

        One final push and then that’s it! We have mere hours left to make it to Quill, please help!

        So, what happens if we don’t make it? I can assure you it won’t be the end for To Live and Die in Avalon, but this is our last chance to have it published through Inkshares as part of the Quill collection. Depending on how things turn out I will have another update tomorrow and we’ll talk about where things go from here.

        On a whim, I entered the Nerdist Space Opera contest with what was only a rough idea for a novel and I have watched it grow and evolve over time into something I can really be proud of and determined to see published. As it stands the second draft of the novel is a little over 75k words and still evolving. I have learned so much about the process of writing and promoting a novel, made a lot of great friends in the Inkshares community and have seen the plethora of opportunities available for indie authors if they are brave enough to go after them. 

        I have a draft for a fantasy novel on the site which I’m debating entering into the Geek and Sundry contest, but contests are an all-consuming endeavor and I’m not sure I’m up to another one at this point in time. But, rest assured, that other novel will grow and evolve into something substantial over time, just as Avalon has, now that I have gained the skills, drive and support network that helped me complete my first book. You can check out that draft here: https://www.inkshares.com/books/aurasong-blue-sword

        That’s all I have for now. I will have one final update tomorrow, depending on the outcome of the campaign. Thank you all for your encouragement and support!

        Jason
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          Fernando Crôtte sent an update for Mission 51

          Overnight, the Mission 51 funding campaign came to an end, and the project is now in “draft” mode. We finished with a very respectable 183 pre-orders, though that was shy of the 250 required for Inkshares to publish. The book will not be published at this time.

          I’ll have to say, I am much, much more excited about the whole thing than I am disappointed. When I started, this book was not written. Now it is! - I became aware of Inkshares earlier this year, half-way into the Nerdist Space Opera contest. I had an idea for a book for quite some time, so I decided to jump in late in the contest, learning the Inkshares process as I went along. I basically started from scratch, hammering away madly, and by now have developed a solid story of which I am proud. Along the way, I have met a multitude of awesome people: readers, supporters, fellow authors, artists, and the folks at Inkshares. I am nothing but gratified and encouraged!

          The final tally for Mission 51 was 194 followers of the project, of which 128 wonderful people pre-ordered 183 copies of the book. I received 14 high-quality recommendations, was chosen as a “Staff Pick,” and received the support of the GREAT SCI-FI for the 21st CENTURY and BEYOND SYNDICATE. Wow! Thank you!!!

          Now that Mission 51 is officially in “draft” mode, all of the readers, who have my everlasting gratitude for your interest and generous support, will get their money back. The project will remain listed on Inkshares, will continue to gather followers, and I will be able to communicate with you through this forum, to keep you updated on the continuing progress of Mission 51.

          I will continue to revise, enhance and beautify the book, including the art. It is possible that I will engage in another funding campaign here on Inkshares, but I will not do it until the book is entirely finished, which it nearly is. I will await another suitable contest before that happens. When that moment comes, I will be completely prepared to deliver a top-notch product! I hope you will decide to support it again at that time.

          For now, I have entered Mission 51 in the 2016 Launch Pad Manuscript Competition. I’m pretty excited about that! It opens several other opportunities for publication. Please check out the link. I’ll let you know how that turns out.

          In any event, like I said before, I can assure you that this book will be published one way or another. I would love to have the backing and services of a formal publishing house like Inkshares, or some other publisher, but I have self-published several books before and I will self-publish Mission 51 if the need be.

          So stay tuned for future developments. I will keep you posted. I am not going away!

          Again, thank you all so very much for supporting me and Mission 51. I have truly felt the love!

          Peace!

          Ferd  :-)

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