Just some quick facts on this change, just in case followers of the thread feel like their questions weren’t answered:
1. The change to the royalty structure was announced on July 31st before the contest began.
2. You can find a breakdown of this in Adam’s Medium article here.
3. Work is still being done behind the scenes on what the new offerings will be for Quill authors, but for the moment our information is that Quill authors receive the same structure as fully funded Inkshares authors.
4. Much of the basis for the royalty structure was based on information Inkshares gleaned through two surveys they sent to the authors who already have funded books, as well as a hangout they held to talk to their authors directly.
5. The royalty restructuring is a direct result of a change in leadership at the company that happened a few weeks ago. Former CEO Jeremy Thomas was replaced by current CEO Adam Gomolin.
6. The reason for the change to a profit-sharing model is explained in the article in detail, but can be summed up as: Sharing revenue was draining money from the company, so they are switching to sharing profit so that the costs of making a book are taken care of before either the company or the author receives money from a book.
@Luke Fellner if you have a link to the post maybe we can give you more information. Inkshares is a sort of turn-on-a-dime company, and as such have made big changes to how they work throughout their existence. For instance, their original concept was closer to Kickstarter, where the authors would fulfill backer rewards, but it got to be such a hassle for the writers they changed formats fairly quickly from what I understand. My gut says that if you saw a thread talking about 250 and $20 a book, that’s the old discussion on what eventually became Quill because initially they were talking that ebooks would be $20 and paperback $30, which the community let them know was too hard on our supporters to sustain.
@Darcy Conroy It’s totally valid to have concerns, and while the company is in this chrysalis stage it’s natural to wonder about all the changes, particularly if you came in during the midst of it. Many of the current stable of writers are just as trepidatious as you are. No one likes changes, and we’re still waiting to see what everything looks like in the end. I honestly don’t anticipate the royalties dropping below 35% simply because at that point (as some have mentioned you’re getting much less than that since it’s a split of net profits) it just doesn’t make sense to stick with Inkshares. Adam mentioned in his email that they wanted to make sure their writers were still making double what they could at an old school publisher, and I think anything below 35% would put that in jeopardy.
My personal experience with the site is a little less brilliant than @Mike Mongo or @JF Dubeau . I have failed two campaigns and completed two, once of which was an anthology that won the last contest. The book that I succeeded with on my own only hit Quill funding (that 250 mark), but I did get the honor of being selected as a Sword & Laser collection book. I am more tied in with the writer community than the "excellent services" that Mike and JF have experience with. My little book is still in the editing phase, so I will probably land in the new version of Quill, whatever that will look like. But I’m sticking around for the authors I’ve met, and all I’ve learned from them. I have faith in what they are building here at Inkshares, but I am not so tied in that if the deal stops being good that I’ll still stay. Crowdfunding is rough business for introverts, and if I’m going to push past my social anxiety, it’s gotta be worth it.
I hope the OP’s (and therefore also my) question itself isn’t being taken as some kind of attack on Inkshares because it’s truly not - and I’m sure Adam (as a lawyer himself) and the Inkshares staff, when they get back from the weekend, won’t take it that way.
Asking a question about a change to the legal terms to which we have agreed to abide should we reach our funding goal is not putting money above all else, or being ungrateful for all the other benefits of the contract and the site, or even being ’disgruntled’. It’s just a question about the one clause that was changed. Had another clause changed, questions about that would be fair enough, too.
It may not feel friendly or warm (like the rest of this lovely site) but it is our duty to take the legal contracts on this site seriously and do our due diligence and there is a level of transparency due us so that we can do that. Many of us thought we had done that due diligence when we joined only a few days ago and now the terms have changed, in a way anyone would consider material, and many of us did not get any notice, so of course there are questions. But they’re not offensive questions, or even heated ones - just practical ones.
Inkshares have built a lovely community here - I’m enjoying it more and more every day - and usually that reflects the people who run a site, so I’m sure that when the weekend is over, the Inkshares staff will respond and put it all to rest :)
This has kind of made my heart sink. I only discovered Inkshares through Geek and Sundry’s competition and over the last few days have been quietly falling in love with the whole site and concept - a site where writers can post work, support and critique each other but, unlike other sites, the site owners don’t expect to never pay for their content. In good faith, they provide a transparent path to "traditional" level publishing with a fair royalty percentage. Amazing! The perfect halfway point between old exploitative publishing and self-publishing!
But a few days ago, when I and probably hundreds of people signed up via the competition, the site information said the royalties were 50% for print and 70% for eBooks of gross receipts. Now suddenly it’s down to 35% for both and of ’net receipts’.
It’s great to hear how well the guys below have been treated and that you feel/know how much Inkshares has invested in your book and publicity (which is the one thing we can do with self-pub) but, let’s face it, writers are used to being screwed and anything over the 8-12% net contracts with their outrageous non-compete clauses is going to be lauded. This is an enormous drop and I find it hugely disappointing. The same % drop again would get us to similar levels of the current traditional publishing boiler plates.
Were the original royalties unsustainable or just not enough profit? (They are two different things.) Bookcouture, Sourcebooks and many other digital first and POD imprints are chugging along happily offering 50%...
I’ll search for other threads on this but if there aren’t any, I’d really like to be pointed toward something showing the reasoning behind the drop and particularly the change to ’net’ - ’net’ allows a certain lack of transparency and has traditionally allowed both music and literary publishers to exploit their artists by adding costs before royalty calculations which can leave an artist that’s selling well in debt to their publisher.
Before I get too far into this comp, I’d really like to hear the philosophy behind this move - and I really want to be happy with it because I’m loving the quality of the work, here - quite aside from my own project, there is so much good writing and good will - it seems a truly lovely community that deserves to be well treated.
Eli, a gifted mage, swore to be a healer. With civil war engulfing the nation and his mother lying on her deathbed, he discovers an ancient magic can help him save lives. Eli must ask himself: in order to save, what is he willing to destroy?
I just put up another draft project and I need some critiquing of the story. I haven’t had much luck at getting people to read it. Even my sister hasn’t braved it. (Or so she says.) It is an odd story. And I want feedback on on it.
I only have the first chapter up now but will add the 3rd chapter later Friday. Please read them both and let me know what you think of the style and concept. Also read the "About" info at the bottom of the page and tell me what you think.
https://www.inkshares.com/books/the-black-madonna
ps- In posting the chapter, I noticed that I start sentences with "but" way too often. I will try to fix that, for the more literary types. But it is the way I speak...
