Q&A with John Robin: A Pillar of the Inkshares Community
Inkshares aficionado and author of Blood Dawn, John Robin, talks crowdfunding, creativity, game development and more in this fascinating interview.
New or hopeful authors, you’ll find some amazing tips for how to succeed in fundraising by leveraging the community and creativity at your finger tips.
Q: How did you first come to Inkshares?
A: I discovered Inkshares after doing some research on Partnership Publishing, a trend I read about in Writer’s Digest back at the end of 2014. Though I was only about 100 pages into Blood Dawn, I was already thinking about what publication would look like, particularly because it is an epic fantasy book and I planned to write true to the epic tradition – a book well over 120,000 words that would make finding an agent and publishing traditionally quite difficult.
I knew I didn’t want to self-publish. I wanted to have professional services on par with what Tor Books would give me – including distribution. What I loved about Partnership Publishing was the idea of combining self-publishing with the traditional industry. After doing some research, I found Inkshares.
What stood out about Inkshares over other companies doing the same thing was how they were focused on building community around your work. Inkshares offered me the opportunity to build an audience while I completed my draft, and that, for me, was the selling point.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your book.
A: Blood Dawn is set in Gholheim, the former seat of Azzadul, the god-king who once ruled the world with a vision of hope and a promise of eternal life to his people. Gholheim is now dark and all hope in Azzadul’s vision has been lost, and in the midst of dark Gholheim, a young woman named Rena with an inborn magical ability expressed through weaving soon discovers she is the long-lost daughter of Azzadul. Rena wants to live in obscurity and avoid the conflict her gift and new-found identity threaten to bring into her life, but she is pulled into the heart of intrigues hatched by ambitious men and women, some who wants to set her on the throne to rule as their puppet, others who want to kill her to prevent her from becoming too powerful. The worst of them, a rogue ruler of the Underworld who calls himself Zavram, wants to steal her power to amplify his own dark arts. If he succeeds, he will become like a god, more powerful than Azzadul. Amid the struggle for power, Rena must master her gift, rise up above them all, and claim her destiny, but if she succeeds, will she restore her father’s vision? Or will the immensity of her power make her just as terrible as Zavram?
Blood Dawn is a grand fantasy epic told in the tradition of my favorite fantasy authors – J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Jordan, and George R.R. Martin – think Game of Thrones set in a more modern time with a fair helping of magic and Tolkien-esque myth-building. Rena’s story is at the heart of it, but there are six other characters whose lives are interconnected with hers, and I explore the theme of free expression versus conformity through each story line.
It is actually my fourth novel – the first three I consider practice novels which, although it grieved me to part with them, taught me what I needed to know to make Blood Dawn into what it now is. I’m very proud of it and excited to share it soon with fellow epic fantasy lovers.
Q: You’ve helped organize some of the pillars of the Inkshares community, like the Goodreads forum, syndicates, and the review-a-thon–what inspired you take lead in this way?
A: At the heart of all I do has been my desire to bring like-minded people together and create community around the potentially isolating act of self-promotion. When I joined Inkshares, I felt alone, even though there were other project also funding. It felt like there wasn’t a way for us to connect, and I wanted to change that.
The big step for me was breaking outside my box and trying to start working with other authors who were also funding. I started backing other books. I got “thank-you” emails from many of those authors. I turned this into an opportunity with a simple phrase: “if there’s any way we can work together, let me know.” The response to this led to lots of correspondence, Twitter connections, email threads, but still disconnection.
Joe Terzieva had the brilliant idea to start a Goodreads group for us. This group then caught fire and it feels to me like right there, the Inkshares author community was born. Through continued involvement with this community, some of us came together to help moderate and direct it (presently, there are four of us – Cara (A.C. Weston) and Christine Brennecke), and out of our behind the scenes discussions on Slack came more great ideas. The review-a-thon (that was Cara’s), Johnslist (that was also Cara’s doing – I just started the movement, she named it), the coloring book (also Cara’s idea!). Really, it’s our teamwork that’s at the heart of what’s happened – teamwork which through bringing us together allows all of our strengths to come out.
To borrow from the core message in Cara’s successfully funded book, She Is the End, we can’t do this alone, we all need to work together to succeed. That is the core drive I brought here from the time I joined, and it’s clear to me this motive exists in the many others who gather together to contribute to our continued evolution; that is the motto of our community, and in my opinion, in the spirit of that motto, Inkshares will continue to grow and change around this synergistic vision.
Q: You’ve been funding on Inkshares through a period of tremendous growth. What do you think are some of the most positive developments? What new features do you think we should be building?
The most exciting development for me was the creation of the Quill imprint and the start of the Inkshares forum.
The Quill imprint makes it possible for books to get started. One of the biggest difficulties funding a book on Inkshares is “book sales” on the platform don’t necessarily reflect book sales in real life. People who buy a book on Inkshares reflect early adopters (most of whom are family and friends of the authors) – it’s not common for people to buy a book before it’s even published. But put a book in book stores and you can give it a conservative push.
Seeing how our Goodreads author community came together inspired me to see how Inkshares platform users in general could interact more on the platform. My immediate thought was, “How can we make this happen on Inkshares itself?” That leads to several related questions:
How can Inkshares become its own Goodreads? How can it build on the existing functionality such as the ability to review and critique excerpts and add comments to page updates? How can users who aren’t authors (exclusively readers) have built-in functions that will encourage them to come back to the Inkshares platform? What about a user bookshelf where users can mark various books on Inkshares “to read”? What about an onsite forum that’s well-connected – users can see a “discuss this book in the forum” link on an excerpt page along with the “leave a review” option; users can see a “connect with this author on the forum” link below an author’s profile; users can rate Inkshares published books internally with a star review system, and Inkshares could encourage cross-rating to Amazon and Goodreads, as well as display Amazon and Goodreads stats with published titles.
I think there is so much potential around the idea of ways to build connections between Inkshares user on the Inkshares platform and I look forward to seeing how this grows.
Q: You’ve taken some creative approaches to the funding process, currently with your game of Blood Dawn Risk. What have you seen work best?
For me the most powerful tool has been direct outreach to my existing fan base. Since Inkshares notifies me of every pre-order and shares each backer’s email address with me, I am able to reach out with a thank-you email. Through this thank-you email, I’ve been able to open up dialogue and build a fan base. I’ve found focusing on ways to engage my existing fans and build more meaningful relationships with them has had far more impact than coldly reaching out to strangers and asking them to buy my (not yet existent) book.
This extends to fans who are also authors, which I’ve found comprises a large segment of my fan base. Forming strong relationships with author collaborators has very powerful benefits because authors finding ways they can work together creates community and buzz itself, which, in my opinion, is a stronger attraction for new readers than a solitary self-promoter.
I continue to invest in this and plan to carry on well past my funding goal. Being part of Inkshares is about far more to me than trying to fund a book. I’m building an author career for myself and would like to fund the books I plan to write more many years to come here. But I’m also building a fan community and would like to use this platform as a nucleus for that endeavor. I have an author website, but despite this, I still feel like my Inkshares project page is the heart of my platform.
Q: You’ve worked with a number of other Inkshares authors. What have you seen be most successful? What are some common pitfalls?
What I’ve seen work the best is when authors find ways to pool their resources together to help each other out. One of the most catchy trends I think has been Johnslist. This is a simple inversion of self-promotion: instead of someone putting up a thread asking for people to help them fund their book, let someone else put up a thread for that book and ask the community to come together. Let the author come on board, but let the community of fans around that book work together, the sort of equivalent of a launch team. I started this when I was particularly passionate about helping one book successfully fund for Quill, but thought, “why does this have to be just for one book? Anyone can do this, for any work.” It seems I wasn’t crazy – Johnslist has become a folder, and several other projects have succeeded. What’s also great, though, is that Johnslist creates a cohesion for the author who is being supported. Even if the book doesn’t fund, the thread stays around and the community offers to continue to support that author while they evaluate their next steps. If they plan to relaunch, they can draw on the community that’s gathered around their work for input to help them build a success plan.
I follow about 400 reader updates and in them I see lots of common themes. What I see most of us ineffective reader updates. A summary of what’s going on in your life. Where you’re at in your draft. Lots of dense text I don’t read. “Please buy my book.” Etc. I tend to delete these emails quickly. (I will note, I was guilty of that myself before taking some notes and making changes.) I think it’s important to recognize that you reader update is the equivalent to a newsletter and those who receive it are like your subscribers. Treat them right, remember when you send out an update, you’re on the air. Sometimes I think authors feel they must send out reader updates to sell books, but in my opinion that is a mistake and does the opposite. Send out an update to entertain, to inform, to engage, to excite. Send for the same reason you write: to give. If you don’t have anything to give, then hold back and wait until you have something. Pack your punches.
Q: What three books currently funding on Inkshares would you like to recommend?
Only three? Okay, here goes…
The first one I’m recommending because I’m biased! My husband, Patrick Jamison, after watching me grow on Inkshares the last year, just decided to put his book, Infinity Mind, up in the Nerdist Space Opera Contest. If you’re intrigued by a story about a telepathic assassin on a dictator-ruled Martian colony who must break his brainwashing before he murders his wife, then check it out.
I must also recommend Storm of Fury by Andrew Wood, simply because I am in love with the clarity of his prose and the epic fantasy kinship. If I were to imagine another book bundled together with mine, it would be Andrew’s – the story of a vengeful god who manifests as a storm who must be taken down by Kaven, who is better known for walking face-first into a door. I’m a sucker for the unlikely hero stories, especially when set in a richly imagined world like Andrew’s world of Lantrelia.
Finally, I’d recommend Joseph Terzieva’s Lost Generation. If you’re a fan of dystopic futuristic fiction akin of Children of Men, then this book is a must-read. Joe has also been a wonderfully generous leader in the Inkshares community, and I owe him a great debt of gratitude for all the help he’s lending me right now for the Blood Dawn Risk game we’re developing for the close of my campaign. Go and order Joe’s book if you haven’t already!
