Mike Mongo 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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People who have liked this comment in the forum thread, change in author royalties? when?

    Mike Mongo liked the forum thread, change in author royalties? when?
    I don’t personally have an issue with the changes that have been made. It seems like a bit of a drastic shift, but 35% is still definitely reasonable. Also, I have recently been made extremely aware that there have been some pretty significant issues with inkshares users abusing the free credits system, which probably costs the company more money than I can begin to comprehend. I’ve come to really love this community and the mission Inkshares has to bring new authors into an industry that otherwise just doesn’t take much interest in newcomers. On the whole, I get it. I think Inkshares needed to make some changes to stabilize itself financially, and I think they’re taking reasonable steps to that end.
    The one thing I do find discomforting is the lack of communication about this. It doesn’t sit particularly well with me that news regarding changes to author royalties didn’t really come to inkshares’s own site until it trickled there through the grapevine from other sources. Usually the Inkshares staff is very open and communicative, and engages directly with the community, which is one of the things I really love about this company. Yet if there was any kind of official announcement about this change on Inkshares itself, I must have missed it. I can’t help but feel like something of this nature should really be brought to our attention more transparently. Again, I don’t have any real issue with the changes that have been made; it’s just the lack of communication that’s bothered me.
    Also, @Mike Mongo, you’re too kind. I really hope Tantalus Depths gets a proper chance to not quite win a Hugo award, so you won’t be proven terribly wrong. Aim high, right? :)
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    People who have liked this comment in the forum thread, change in author royalties? when?

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      Mike Mongo liked the forum thread, change in author royalties? when?
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      People who have liked this comment in the forum thread, change in author royalties? when?

        Mike Mongo liked the forum thread, change in author royalties? when?
        @Mike Mongo could not agree more! And by the way, LET’S SCIENCE! 


        Sorry could not help myself! Took that picture last week after my live FOX News Interview  (thank you Inkshares!) and have been waiting for the right time to post it. But as another fellow Inkshares author @Rick Heinz says, "THE TIME IS NIGH!" or something like that...  Hard to understand him through that thick "Chicago Dude" dialect.

        Buuuut back on topic. I’m stoked about the new royalties. When I saw the details of the old royalty model (and credit system) I knew for a plain fact it was unsustainable. But this new model will let Inkshares print more copies of Rune of the Apprentice and get them into even more bookstores across the country, and dare I say, WORLD! (Wink, wink @Adam Gomolin got my fingers crossed.)

        Oh, and by the way, @Mike Mongo SUPER excited to read the comic, watch the TV show, and HOPEFULLY wear the super cool space suit pajamas you all better be making! Like seriously, I don’t need a full bedspread (but that would be cool!) I just want a pair of super comfy astronaut suit flannels!

        SO, LET’S SCIENCE (AND WRITE SOME GREAT BOOKS!)

        Oh, and p.s. @Tal M. Klein you can science, too, if you like.
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        People who have liked this comment in the forum thread, change in author royalties? when?

          Mike Mongo liked the forum thread, Large Accounts leaving Inkshares
          Let me start by saying that I appreciate your pro-Inkshares stance. There is a lot to be gained by having authors in the community stand by each other and by the platform that Inkshares represents. I’ve been pretty vocal myself about the role I think Inkshares plays and will play in modern publishing and I clap my forearms together giggling with glee every time I’m proven right somehow.

          Be that as it may, keeping in mind that I agree with the spirit of what you say, I think you need to ratchet it back a little. Not saying it to contradict you but rather to assuage your wrath and smooth your anger. Writing books is stressful enough, you don’t need that kind of emotion in your life. 

          So let’s unwrap this a little, shall we?

          First, let’s look at whether or not these authors, or any writer that builds a following and leaves, are doing any harm to Inkshares. I’m going to say that the final word should be from Jeremy or Avalon or Matt, maybe even Adam! Probably not Thaddeus though. I like to think they keep him too busy for that. But in my opinion there is no harm. When a writer leaves Inkshares and takes a mailing list with him/her/it (robots!) it’s not a zero-sum situation. Inkshares retains those names too and more importantly, so do all the other authors who have these readers as followers too. While there is some degree of promotional and administrative investment that is lost, the readers these vile deserters have brought are still a benefit to Inkshares and other writers.

          Second, leaving hurts these authors more than it hurts anyone else. Here’s why: Assuming they aren’t leaving because they were approached by an agent or a publisher, then that means they’re heading towards self publishing. I’ve self published. Pardon my french but Fuck. That. Shit. Sideways. With a crowbar. As much as I hate promoting a funding campaign (and oooh how I loathe it...) self publishing is that on steroids (TM Dan Carlin). It’s self promotion + investment + inventory management + distribution management + production management + no cookies. Ever. It’s the worst. But the real problem with abandoning an Inkshares campaign and running into the night with reader emails like the Hamburglar with a bag full of Happy Meals, is that there is no guarantee that everyone who pre-ordered the book on Inkshares is going to do so again on another platform. Especially those who paid with credits. And people who were following a book but hadn’t ordered it are even less likely to jump all over the self published version of that. So worry not my friend, if they ran to self publish I can all but guarantee some greek mythology level comeuppance to them. Real ironic stuff there.

          Now, if they are going away because they were poached by an agent or publisher, well, to be honest, that’s an opportunity that I feel even Inkshares will agree they’d be stupid not to take. Maybe if they had funded at the full 750 pre order level it becomes more of a grey area, but the Quill goal vs. traditional representation by a publisher? I’ll take the later. Sorry Inkshares. So I can’t exactly blame them. But, since as we’ve seen they’re not hurting the platform that much to begin with, I don’t think it’s too big a deal.

          Now, here’s where taking action to nip this in the bud is a touchy subject. I agree that an eye has to be kept on other publishers coming in to steal promising projects before they get funded. If Inkshares becomes a marketplace not for readers but for traditional publishers to shop around for talent, then it could potentially harm the platform that stands to revolutionize publishing as we know it(!).

          But we have to be careful... this is where my experience in marketing becomes valuable. Check it out:

          There’s this old saying: "Don’t cut your nose off just to spite your face". It’s not the best saying but it does illustrate a problem that some companies have where they will harm their target users just to deny abusers. That ain’t cool. That’s the kind of behaviour that makes it so we can’t have nice things. Allow me to illustrate with a personal example.

          This is my projected book schedule for the next few years:

          Notice the two books with really crude artwork instead of covers? The ones that look like napkin scribbles? Those aren’t going to be published on Inkshares. These are books I’m contracted to write for the awesome Ed Greenwood Group. Now, I’m going to assume that people who buy The Life Engineered (available on Amazon!) and A God in the Shed (not available yet! Pre-order now!) are going to be, to various degrees, fan of my work. I want to tell them about those non-Inkshares books and they want to hear about those non-Inkshares books. And I want to do it through another means of communication than the Inkshares updates for my current projects. I.e.: I need those email lists. Those lists are more useful to me (and Inkshares by association) than they are harmful in the hands of the Vile Deserters. If Inkshares removes access to those, they are harming me. They are limiting my access to my reader base. They are making my experience on Inkshares less pleasant and profitable. I get less value from it. All in the name of stopping the Vile Deserters.

          The point of that, and it’s only one example of how this can impede the ’good’ users, is that we have to be careful what we do just to protect ourselves from the potential and perhaps inconsequential threat of the ’bad’ users. Another example you demand? By all means! What if there’s an AMAZING author that is contemplating the platform in a few months and his book would be a NYT best seller. Just, the biggest thing. But what if it could go two ways; he jumps in and his book put Inkshares on the map so hard that they become the next RandomPenguinHouse OR he looks at the policies in place to limit abuse and decides it’s too restrictive and goes elsewhere. I mean, yay, we’ve kept the ’bad’ people out, but we’ve also shot ourselves in the foot.

          There are going to be people who are going to be dissatisfied with Inkshares. Or they’re going to find that the platform doesn’t suit them. Or they’re going to get a better offer somewhere else. Some will leave peacefully and some won’t. It’s gonna suck sometimes and we’re going to be angry for a few and happy for others, depending on context, but we can’t afford to let that affect the direction and goal of the platform.

          The takeaway for me is: don’t get mad about these guys. They’re not your problem and they haven’t harmed you in any significant way and they’re not hurting Inkshares, but please don’t advocate too hard for a tightening of the policies because I’m worried it’ll do more harm than good.

          Meanwhile, I’ll be extracting my email lists while I still can!
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            Mike Mongo liked the forum thread, The First Inkshares Forum Post!!!
            Hello Everyone and welcome to the very first iteration of the Inkshares Forum.  The current form is basic. The forum consists of four Topics - General, News, Books, Ask.  Any user can create a new Thread under one of these Topics, and any user can create a Post under a thread which functions just like other comments on Inkshares.  Moderators can move and/or delete Threads but cannot (yet) alter posts themselves.  

            That's the basic structure so far.  Obviously there's a lot more to do here and I'd love some feedback on what core features you'd like to see.  How about we use this thread as a means for providing feedback so we can be all meta-like!
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            People who have liked this comment in the forum thread, The First Inkshares Forum Post!!!

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