Inkshares Funding Goal Announcement

All:

We’re excited to announce two changes across the Inkshares platform that we believe will allow us to publish more books and grow even faster, all while staying true to our mission of publishing books that readers want. These changes are significant, comprising a new funding goal structure and a refined credit system.

I usually don’t write this many words at once but there’s a lot of important stuff to cover here. Please don’t hesitate to be in touch with me at jeremy@inkshares.com with any questions or feedback.

New Funding Goal Structure

In 2014 our funding goals were expressed in dollars. Authors were, essentially, asking people for money, and readers could contribute as much as they wanted. In early 2015, we switched this model so that the funding goal was, instead, expressed in copies pre-ordered. We also limited the number of copies an individual could buy. Your mom could no longer “tip” your project with a large bulk order. The pre-order price per copy was set at $10 – a cost that would cover ebook production and provide a steep discount on a print-book. This model better reflected our philosophy: we want to publish books readers want, so counting pre-orders instead of dollars better fulfills our mission.

A book costs, on average, about $20K for us to produce and market. Our 50% royalty structure is built on the idea that pre-orders get us close to covering production costs, thereby reducing risk. In order to build a sustainable company, we need to update our model so that we can continue to   offer authors industry-changing royalties for a traditional publishing experience, including wide distribution and marketing.

We consulted our authors with the options we were considering, and after a positive and lengthy discussion we’re ready to share some upcoming changes:

  • We will remove the ebook-only tier entirely. 
  • Every author who hits the new pre-order goal will receive a trip to San Francisco to sign copies for their backers, including a round-trip ticket, one-night’s hotel, and lunch with the Inkshares team.
  • Pre-order prices (which include both an ebook and a signed first-edition physical book) for trade paperbacks will be set at $20, trade hardcover at $30, children’s books at $30, and graphic books (cookbooks, art books) at $50.
  • The new pre-order goal will be 750 copies for all books.
  • If authors want to offer an additional incentive (for example, a t-shirt, poster, mug, coloring book) at the 10 copy pre-order level, we will create these upon request. The author will be solely responsible for fulfilling all promises made at that level.
  • We will begin charging a $15 fee for international shipping across all Inkshares titles. Domestic shipping will remain free.

We also know it’s hard for a lot of authors to reach 750 pre-orders. So we’re rolling out a new, dual funding tier. Any project that reaches 250 pre-orders will qualify for the “light-publishing” option with a new, yet-to-be-named Inkshares collection. These books will receive a light edit, an ISBN, and limited distribution  (including physical and digital on Amazon.com). Backers will receive physical copies printed through our print-on-demand service. We will reserve the right to push any of these books through our full production process, and as with all of our books, the rights will remain non-exclusive if the author wishes to publish elsewhere.

We’re going to roll out these changes on October 30, 2015, at noon PST.

If you are currently funding a project, you have a choice. If you do nothing, your book will automatically convert to the new model on October 30. All $10 pre-orders you received, including from now until October 30, will still count as a copy sold – meaning it’s a great week to get the attention of new readers while prices are low. After the conversion, all pre-orders will cost at least $20, and you will be published if you hit 750 copies pre-ordered or above.

If you prefer to keep the current $10 and 1,000 pre-order model that you signed on for when you started funding, we will honor that. Email us at hello@inkshares.com and we will ensure your project retains that funding model. We can also change your format, if you so choose.

We know this is a big change, but based on both author feedback and pre-order data we are confident this will be a true a win-win. It will help more deserving books reach their goal while also helping us make deeper investments into our platform and our books.

Credit System Tweaks

Our credit system was designed to increase the number of new readers coming to Inkshares while encouraging them to engage with, pre-order, and refer the projects they love.

As currently structured, we’ve found our credit system can be exploited for purposes outside of its intent.

Starting immediately, and to better match the intent of the program, we will offer credits as follows:

  • $5 for any new reader to Inkshares
  • $5 for any reader’s first review of a project
  • $10 for any referral of a project that leads to a purchase. These will be capped at one redemption per project, meaning you can continue to earn credits by referring books across the Inkshares platform, but can only earn referral credits once on any individual project.
  • $10 for backing any project that hits 2K copies ordered, and then another $10 if that project hits 5K copies ordered

Almost there…

A year ago we were a crowdfunded book publishing platform, and today we are a community. Through the publication of over a dozen books, multiple contests, new features, and the addition of tens of thousands of new readers, there is now a big, diverse, raucous, thriving community of readers and writers all committed to the same cause: finding and publishing books readers want.

So thank you again–for your commitment, enthusiasm, patience, and continued support. This is only the beginning…

Cheers,

Jeremy