Welcome to The Inky Phoenix
Have you ever finished a spellbinding novel, only to set it down and think — how on earth can someone’s brain weave such magic? Or maybe you’ve wondered if that kind of storyteller lies dormant within you, waiting for a magical wand to boop you into action. Personally, I’ve found myself in both situations, and even answered the call of the magical ‘boop’. I wrote a novel in 2019, managed to score a literary agent for fiction, and submitted my book three separate times. Yes, you heard me: THREE separate times. First as a young adult novel, followed by an adult rewrite (which required chopping and re-writing roughly 30k+ words), and even re-structured it as a graphic novel proposal.
It was grueling. Over half of the editors never responded, and the passes, well — I’m not sure one ever gets used to the vulnerability of writing a book and inevitable rejection that dances in its wake.
Breaking into the published world of fiction is no joke, and it’s only getting harder. Roughly 85% of the books you see on the NYT bestseller lists are by authors who already qualify as ‘best-selling authors’. Many editors are so inundated with manuscripts that they won’t even accept new submissions, and if they do, may only read a few pages or chapter at most from the manuscript of a debut novelist. Assuming your pitch even fits somewhere on continuously shrinking lists.
I shelved my manuscript (for now: she WILL be in your hands someday). I kept busy with The Inky Phoenix community and started working on another manuscript. Then an email from Matt Kaye, former Head of Product at Patreon popped into my inbox. This is what grabbed me:
When I was recently Head of Product at Patreon, observing who was doing best on the platform, I couldn't shake an idea tied to my publishing roots - a way for people like you who have built thriving bookish communities to essentially lead your own branded publishing imprint would help you engage more deeply with your community all while helping to elevate deserving authors.
After many calls, Zooms, and brainstorming sessions, his vision — along with co-founder Meg Harvey, came to life: Bindery Books. A membership platform empowering book tastemakers to become publishers. And yes, that’s me — a tastemaker (I can’t help but giggle at the word), and through this partnership, we’ve created a subscription platform for The Inky Phoenix along with our own publishing imprint, Inky Phoenix Press. With the help of our thriving community, your input and monthly subscriptions will allow us to publish books! And in true Inky Phoenix/Haus of Phoenix style, it’s all about creating this magic as a whole; a community; a coven.
How does it work? The Inky Phoenix is now a subscription platform that allows us to pay authors a 10k advance plus 50% of net royalties. That equates to over 2x the industry-standard-per-book earnings. And with a passionate army of supporters behind our authors (that’s us!), writers get to do what they do best: write! And we get to do what we do best: share our love for books loudly from the mountaintops and help our beloved authors succeed!
And what are the levels? $5, $12, and $25. You can visit inkyphoenix.binderybooks.com to learn about the benefits to each tier (Zoom conversations, loads of exclusive content from me, Free Cookies bonus content, author interviews, helping with publishing decisions, a private Discord community, swag, etc!), but just know: for less than the price of one hardcopy book a month, you can help make an author’s dreams come true, all while having a front row seat to the publishing experience, surrounded by your amazing Inky Phoenix family.
Don’t have extra funds but still want to be part of the club? Don’t worry: I’ll still post all of my regular content and monthly picks on our Instagram page and www.theinkyphoenix.com. Want to support us? Please share with all of your bookish friends! It’s all about word-of-mouth.
So what do you say? Wanna help us blow up old norms and make the publishing world a more equitable place? Let’s GO!