Inkshares

Early history

Inkshares was founded in April 2013 by Thad Woodman, Lawrence Levitsky and Adam Gomolin, with the aim of creating a platform that would eliminate the "slush pile" of traditional publishing through the use of crowdfunding mechanics. After some initial planning by the three, the fourth founder, Jeremy Thomas, joined the team as CTO in November of 2013. As reflected by the company name, the original intention was to sell actual equity shares of books, but this notion of equity crowdfunding fell away early on based on the uneven implementation of Title III of the JOBS Act by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Democratizing publishing

As the model changed from the original plan to get a share of the book profits, Inkshares moved in the direction of sharing in a more traditional sense of the word. In the early stages of funding, there were no funding goals set by pre-order, but by financial backing similar to Kickstarter. This changed in early 2015 to be a pre-order based system with a base price of $10 USD for a physical copy of a title. The first major title to launch and fund under this model was Star Wars: Rogue One screenwriter Gary Whitta's Abomination.

Platform changes

In late October 2015, Inkshares raised the price of the pre-order from $10 to $20 USD. They also began to charge for shipping outside of the United States. Other changes included dropping the funded threshold down to 750 pre-orders from 1,000 and introducing the "light publishing" option of 250 pre-orders.

Move to Oakland, CA

Inkshares moved its base of operations from The Vault (in the old Ghiradelli building) in San Francisco to Oakland as they out grew the space available. The move took place in February 2016. They are presently located at 99 Linden in the historic 1899 Standard Underground Building that also hosts The Linden Street Brewery and Michelin-starred chef Jame Syhabout's restaurant The Dock.

Fully funded

There are two tiers of funding from Inkshares. Full funding is defined as reaching a pre-order goal of 750 copies. Once you reach this stage your book goes into production.

Quill Collection

The "light publishing" goal is better known as the Quill Collection. It is an imprint created by Inkshares to help publish books that reach a lower number of pre-orders. The pre-order goal is 250 copies.

Ideas

The Ideas section of the cite is where you can post any random thoughts that could form into a full story. It is similar to Twitter in the fact that there is a limit on how much you can post. The limit is 20 words to sell the idea to potential backers. The initial idea can be followed by others and the author will keep the following once into the drafting or campaigning stages.

Drafts

Once a potential author has decided to use Inkshares platform, they can create a draft version of their campaign page. This provides authors with the chance to hone their skills as a campaigner and build a following before launching the official campaign.

Syndicates

The syndicate feature is one in which people band together to support one project per month. Anyone can join in any syndicate by pledging a small portion of money to back one book per month. Most syndicates are themed. Some of the more popular ones are the "CEO Syndicate" led by Inkshares CEO, Jeremy Thomas, "Break the Bechdel with Strong Female Characters" led by Janna Grace, and the "Nomad Syndicate" led by Gary Whitta.

Collections

Collections on Inkshares help new authors sell more books and are usually managed by notable entertainment companies with large audiences. The collections can be thought of as imprints under Inkshares publishing. In August of 2015, Legendary Entertainment's digital arm joined as Inkshares lead science-fiction-and-fantasy imprint. In September of 2016, Eli Roth and Jason Blum backed Crypt TV joined as Inkshares horror imprint. In November of 2016, Launchpad, Ridley Scott, and Energy Entertainment frontman Brooklyn Weaver joined as another Inkshares imprint.

Rights Management

Unlike a traditional publisher, Inkshares helps authors also manage the adjacent rights in their book. This includes audiobook, foreign rights, film, television, merchandise, and other areas. Inkshares provides literary management services and agenting via its relationship with United Talent Agency. Inkshares film and television deals are lawyered by a notable Beverly Hills firm that represents some of the most premier actors, writers, and producers in global entertainment.

UTA

On October 1, 2015 Inkshares signed a representation deal with the United Talent Agency for film and television

Properties

In June of 2016, Inkshares launched Properties, a portal via which producers in film and television, along with acquisitions editors outside of the North American print and digital markets, could search available Inkshares titles. Gomolin developed the idea for Properties to make the company's rights sales in conjunction with UTA more efficient. By establishing direct and curated relationships with producers, Properties circumvents the "secondary slushpile" in TV and film. Thomas and Woodman built the first version of Properties in less than one week.

The first major sale via Properties was J.F. Dubeau's A God in the Shed to Skydance with Akiva Goldsman set to produce. Gomolin and Energy Entertainment's Brooklyn Weaver had planned to bring the unfinished manuscript to Goldsman, but after launching Properties on June 15, Goldsman's creative executive Alexandra Neal was matched with A God in the Shed on June 16 via Properties algorithms created by Thomas and Woodman.

Notable Film and Television Deals

Inkshares first major television deal was for Filip Syta's The Show. The book, narrated in first person by the protagonist Vic, follows his ongoing disillusionment after he goes to work at a fictional search-engine company. Syta is a former Google employee. The book rapidly drew comparisons in the New York literary community to Dave Egger's The Circle, Jay McInerny's Bright Lights, Big City, and Brett Easton Ellis' American Psycho. The television rights were sold to Blackpills, a new direct-to-mobile streaming service in a widely reported six-figure deal. The audio rights were thereafter acquired by Penguin Random House in another six-figure deal, and the book was sold into multiple foreign territories.

Other prominent sales include Mike Mongo's The Astronaut Instruction Manual to Legendary Entertainment, where it will be produced for television by former Sony President Matt Tolmach and EVP David Manpearl. Quickly following that, Inkshares notched the sale of J.F. Dubeau's A God in the Shed to Skydance with Academy Award-winning Akiva Goldsman attached to produce.

Sword & Laser - SciFi & Fantasy

This was the first contest that Inkshares attempted. They partnered with the Sword & Laser Podcast to help promote the contest. Sword and Laser was given their own collection which Inkshares printed as a separate imprint. It was held in April and May 2015. The top 5 most pre-ordered books would go into full production even if they didn't hit the full funding goal (at that time it was 1,000 pre-orders). Then, one book out of the top 5 would be chosen to be the first publication in the Sword and Laser Collection. When the contest ended at midnight on June 1 there were SIX selected books. Veronica and Tom of the Sword and Laser podcast would go on to choose TWO books for there collection. They would later add a third.

The top 6:

Ageless by Paul Inman

An Unattractive Vampire by Jim McDoniel ^

Asteroid Made of Dragons by G. Derek Adams ^

Lost Generation by Joe Terzieva

Practical Applications for Multiverse Theory by Nick Scott and Noa Gavin

The Life Engineered by J-F. Dubeau ^

^ - Chosen for the collection

Nerdist - SciFi and Fantasy

For the second contest from Inkshares they partnered with Nerdist. It worked very much the same way as the S&L Contest earlier in 2015. The top 5 most pre-ordered (by unique reader number) would go into production regardless of where they were in their campaign. The first Nerdist Contest ran from August to September, 2015. It brought many new authors to the platform and has been the largest contest that Inkshares has held to date with over 300 entries. Like Sword & Laser, Nerdist chose to add two entries into their collection.

The Top 5:

Welcome to Deadland by Zachary Tyler Linville ^

Rise by Brian Guthrie

The Seventh Age: Dawn by Richard Heinz

These Old Bones by Andrew J. Ainsworth

It's All Fun and Games by Dave Barrett ^

^ - Chosen for the Collection

Sword & Laser - The Sequel

The second Sword & Laser Collection Contest Contest ran from December 2015 through January 2016. This time around only the top three books were put into full production with Inkshares. Sword & Laser's Tom and Veronica then chose one of the top three to be added to their collection, expanding it to four total books.

The Top 3:

The Animal in Man by Joseph Asphahani ^

The Last Machine in the Solar System by Matthew Isaac Sobin

The Bones of the Past by Craig Munro

^ - Chosen for the Collection

Nerdist - Space Opera

On February 1, 2016 Inkshares announced its new partnership with Nerdist and Geek and Sundry for six new contests over a 12 months. Each one will have its own theme related to SciFi and Fantasy. Nerdist kicked off the new partnership with the first of the six contest using the theme of space opera. Again, Inkshares pledged to publish the top three books and Nerdist chose one of the three to add to their collection on Inkshares.

The Top 3:

Champions of the Third Planet by Christopher Leone ^

The Madness of Mr. Butler by Michael Haase

Space Tripping by Patrick Edwards

^ - Chosen for the Collection

Geek and Sundry - Hard SciFi

The first Collection Contest sponsored by Geek and Sundry is currently underway. It began on April 4, 2016 and will conclude on May 16, 2016. The theme of this contest is Hard Science Fiction.