In the fast-paced ever changing landscape of the book industry, one company, Inkbok.com, is planning to shake things up a bit by first breaking all of the rules.
Set to launch March 28th, Inkbok will offer unlimited reading of thousands of books, articles, poetry, short stories and more on Android, iOS and web for $4.95 per month. Romance, mystery, children’s, self-help, business, fitness, science fiction and biography are a just a few of the over 50 genres represented on the site. Inkbok arrives on the heels of similar subscription-based e-reading services launched in the past few months, though at roughly half the cost - other services at $8-$10 per month and Inkbok at $4.95 per month.
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The question on everyone’s mind, however, is how could $4.95 unlimited reading possibly be good for publishers and authors?
“The truly unique and innovative aspect of Inkbok is our community model of business,” says 30-year-old entrepreneur, Joey Ebach, founder of Inkbok. “It allows us to meet our three foundational goals: low cost reading, fair royalties, and giving back.” For authors and publishers, this “community model” means sharing in the total gross revenue of the website, meaning every dime of member fees, advertising, email blasts, book promotions and more is shared with authors.
Each month, Inkbok takes the total gross revenue generated from the site and splits it three ways: 60% to authors/publishers based on how many times their work was read, 30% to Inkbok, and 10% to a charity that the community votes on. “As Inkbok grows, it will benefit all of our authors and increase our impact on the outside community. There is nothing like this in the literary industry today,” says Konrad Urbanowicz, Inkbok’s Vice President and head developer. With Inkbok taking only 30% of it’s gross revenue to cover all of it’s expenses to run the site, pay employees, and make a profit, Urbanowicz is certainly correct that there is nothing else like this.
This gross revenue sharing model is a new alternative to the traditional royalty system the publishing industry has used for years, and Inkbok may have struck a chord. In the past three months, they have gained 80 publishing partners and over a thousand authors. “The response thus far has been nothing short of amazing; our collection is growing exponentially,” says Urbanowicz.
When asked why a platform like Inkbok is needed, Todd Ebach, President of Inkbok, stated that people have a natural desire to search and discover, readers included, but they don’t want to pay for the process by buying each book. The team at Inkbok believes that offering readers the freedom to discover through a subscription model will result in more people reading and more exposure and royalties for authors. “We want to recapture that exciting feeling of spending hours in an old used bookstore and never knowing what you might find.”
The word “community” seemed to be the driving force of our conversation. When asked about this, Joey Ebach replied, “Reading is a conversation between the author and the reader. Our desire is to bring this conversation into real time, connecting authors with readers, and readers with other readers.” The team views Inkbok as more than just a business, but a place where stories and ideas are created, discussed and shared. “Early on, we chose not to seek out funding from investors or venture capitalists,” says Ebach. “If we did, they would have never allowed us to give 60% of our gross revenue to authors and 10% to charity; that’s not exactly profit maximization. Rather, we are a group of book lovers working to create the best reader writer community in the world.”
LAUNCHING MARCH 28TH. YOU CAN READ MY BOOKS RIONEGRO AND ZIPAQUIRA ON THIS SITE AS WELL AS FUTURE RELEASES.
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