One of the tougher publishing startups to get a handle on has been the three-year-old Inkshares, a book-crowdfunding operation rooted in Silicon Valley. Recently, it’s become apparent that the outfit had more than crowdfunding on its collective mind and, after a shakeup in leadership, has now firmed up the mission and set a course due south from San Francisco toward Hollywood.
Adam Jack Gomolin is now in the CEO seat. As Inkshares’ legal counsel, Gomolin has written management clauses into the Inkshares contracts. (As always, read those things well.) This relates to the fact that the company now thinks of itself as a publisher of properties it can manage—i.e., offer—to film studios for development.
Inkshares is not self-publishing. It’s two tiers of trade publishing, based on how well an author’s title crowdfunds. The author pitches an idea to Inkshares in twenty words or less, with a working title. (Think of writing it on a cocktail napkin, only digital.) Upload a draft, even of just a chapter, and Inkshares makes a page for it. When you’re ready, Inkshares will start selling preorders to your book. Get 250 preorders, and they’ll give the book “light editing,” an ISBN, and simple publication. Get 750 preorders, and they do a much more thorough publication: editorial, design, marketing, and standard distribution channels, including Ingram. (Both levels of service include print and digital publication.)
As the book project develops, Inkshares begins showing it to Los Angeles film types. Gamolin reports that he’s in Burbank several days each week, meeting with studio people and making deals. Hollywood media are following this. Two contests are underway, as well, one in cooperation with filmmaker Ridley Scott’s production company. A report in Deadline Hollywood says that Scott has committed to option at least one project from the Launch Pad Manuscript Competition, and Brooklyn Weaver’s Energy Entertainment management agency has committed to sign at least one writer from the contest.
Stick close to the FAQ. Things have changed at Inkshares over the years, including the royalty structure. It once was 50-50 on ebooks, 70-30 on print; now it’s 35 percent of net receipts across the board after the 250 or 750 copies have sold. More change may be ahead as the Hollywood-or-bust directive takes hold. And, fair warning, their site is complicated—it’s serving authors, book-backers, readers, and property scouts. Scroll to the bottom for an index of everything.
Bottom line: This is a startup clarifying, refining, and re-energizing its offer through experience. As of this writing, the company says 1,310 ideas (twenty words or less) have been logged, leading to 5,182 drafts (not necessarily of complete books), 75 of which are in production to publish and 41 of which have been released. Inkshares has sold 138,820 copies of books and has paid $453,630 in royalties. If film is your goal, this has become a fit-to-purpose approach. And even if you’re just looking for crowdfunded publication and not aiming for the big screen, it’s worth considering as a pathway that doesn’t just hand you the money to self-publish but does the job for you.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
