Instar Ink

What is this?

Instar Ink is a newly proposed platform for hosting digitally published fiction, one that will allow authors to retain their rights over their work and creative freedom over the subject matter. I want to open the door to writers from all backgrounds, but especially to LGBTQIA+ writers and readers who are tired of having to move platforms.

Why are you building it?

Twenty years ago, when fan fiction spaces were threatened with censorship and deletion and were forced to migrate platforms, a question was asked: why don't we build our own home?

We are living in an era where the free expression of artistic thought is being threatened, and it's more important than ever that we stop relying on platforms that are built by people outside our community. LGBTQIA+ authors are intimately familiar with how our art is often first on the chopping block when it comes time to make a platform more attractive to venture capital, advertisers, payment processors, or hosts.

Who are you?

I'm a queer woman who has spent decades in fandom communities and the literary circles that sprang up from them. I've lived through the FanFiction.Net purges, Strikethrough and Boldthrough, and FanLib, and I was an early adopter of Archive Of Our Own — there in the first wave of invites.

Why not just stay on AO3?

Archive Of Our Own is great, but there is one thing that it rightly does not let anyone do: get paid for their writing. Allowing an avenue for authors to get paid would undermine AO3's core mission of providing a free fanfiction archive and could get them into legal trouble.

I don't want to replace AO3. I want to be in conversation and partnership with them. There's going to be some content Instar just can't allow, and AO3 is going to remain the home for that.

What kind of content will Instar ban?

This is a question that can easily be conflated with a moral judgment, so I want to be fully transparent about Instar's goals and why I've made the decisions below. A platform that does not process payments can be completely content neutral, but a platform that does unfortunately has to tread carefully in the current political climate. I believe artists should be able to express themselves in any manner they see fit, and that all forms of art have merit, including erotic art. Sexuality is an important part of the human condition, and Instar wants to support the free expression of it.

Unfortunately, because of the political attitudes of the place I live and where the site will be hosted, Instar has to draw some bright lines to avoid issues with hosting, payments, or legality.

• Fan fiction is not allowed on this platform. This includes novels that take place in copyrighted universes, even if they involve no recognizable characters. This is a space for hosting original works, and putting fanfiction in proximity with monetization is a legally risky prospect. You'll have to file some serial numbers off. Transformative works that draw from the public domain are fine, as long as the source material is out of copyright and trademark.
• Fiction about real people who are still alive is not allowed. Real Person Fiction or RPF about living subjects that is also monetized can be a legally precarious area and we do not want to challenge it. Historical fiction — fiction about real subjects of note who are no longer alive — is permitted.
• Content generated by AI is not allowed. Instar is for writing by human authors. That's a statement about what this place is for, not a claim that I can catch everything — but work determined to be AI-generated will be removed, and accounts that keep posting it will be closed.
• All participants in explicit erotic scenes must be over the age of 18. This was the hardest policy to decide on, and I understand that many authors in fandom spaces will disagree with it. I believe there are reasonable arguments for artistic merit that can be made to allow the exploration of sexuality with underage subjects. In the end, I made this decision to balance authors' ability to write teen romance with industry standard fade-to-black scenes against having to fight legal battles I don't have the money to withstand.

What kind of content is allowed?

Everything that isn't explicitly banned above can be assumed to be allowed. Yes, that includes content that's normally banned on other fiction publishing plaforms (for example, noncon).

How are you planning to keep the lights on?

The plan is to offer two types of monetization for authors: chapter purchases and tip jars. The site will take a modest fee for both.

Authors can choose to gate everything past the first chapter behind a paywall, and users will need to pay a small fee to access them. This charge is on a per-chapter basis, and would not be automatic - if you put a story on your bookshelf, you'll be notified when a new chapter posts, and will be able to choose to buy it at that time.

If an author enables their tip jar, it will be automatically attached to every story they write (except if they opt out of tips for that specific story). Users can leave any amount, large or small. This tip jar will be automatically cashed out on a regular basis.

I am also considering selling ad space on a case-by-case basis to things like indie presses, podcasts, conventions, artist, sensitivity readers, etc. the way it was done for magazines and newspapers in the old days. I don't want to work with any ad agencies that blindly serve ads, because those are the drivers of censorship and content restriction.

Can I get involved?

I'd love to add you to the mailing list for updates on Instar Ink. And I want to hear from you — tell me what you're excited about, or what you're critical of.