sharfluff

Some images may contain NSFW materials, as this is about a NSFW artbook produced by inkedfur. Most Proof is correspondence but a picture of the cover which could be NSFW is shown at more than one point. In short, I worked on this project with many other artists, 41 total. The book was produced by inkedfur, and we only ever got one payment of 7.30 The book was to be a limited run, but has been printed multiple times with out our consent and the company and owner has not been forthcoming with any information and infact has replied in very unprofessional ways. This is still an ongoing case and nothing has been resolved. This is something that started about a year ago, so I will do my best to break down the information and the context as I have it. I have not blocked out the name of the owner, because this information is available publicly and as his email signature. If staff would like me to edit that I can. For context, here is a link to the guidelines that all artists who worked on the book were to agree to. Kei, who was working as a partner with Inkedfur at the time, was the book lead and put this together for us. As being an employee of inkedfur and book lead, Kei was our middle man. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NjG7YIzK_F-482hajwZ5znTzvyj_-heQMPnlhcTzUAM/edit#heading=h.26re1e8okgjn Important note, this link has a link to the second document as well as the first. Deadlines changed and more information was added. So the first one you see is older and there is a link at the top for the 'newer' version. Both contain alot of the same info. Here are some important bits of the FAQ we were all given to review. The Timetable and payment. https://imgur.com/7yUf3P9 https://imgur.com/CnBgEi4 Later on we got an email with a breakdown of how the profits would work: Profits: https://imgur.com/XO0WBGC March 12th we get an email explaining there was a print delay and requesting info for payments. https://imgur.com/CjxG4Z9 March 18tth we have a break down of sales and book orders. Though now there is the mention of the costs for the artists books. https://imgur.com/tZbc9eT May 24th: We are in the black! First profits to be paid out will be soon. 606.90 total profits as of may 2018 to be paid in royalties! 12.91! This was less than I thought it would be, but the email states we -STILL- had books for sale at that point, and the pdf sales had not yet happened. https://imgur.com/1j7dE10 June 20th I admit this was a bit of a slap in the face, it was a bit less than I was expecting given the email and I personally took the tone of the note poorly. https://imgur.com/El6YfrA June 29th PDF is finally up! Apparently, the delay was because the new website they were working on didnt have support for digital products yet. So, it has been hosted on the OLD website, and we have links to it to post to. https://imgur.com/8MnLQzU https://imgur.com/5zigF7h And that was it. That was the last we ever heard on the matter, and the last payment anyone ever got. I confirmed this with several artists, I was a bit worried because I had -left- inkedfur (as no longer allowing them to sell my work) and I thought perhaps my royalties had been lost in the system somewhere. But turns out, no one else had gotten paid either. That brings us to Feb 2019. I contacted Kei after hearing back that no one else was being paid or getting royalties from the knottyboys book. Oddly Kei said that two payments of royalties were made and they had sold out of all the books. And that only 4 sales of the PDF were done. Checking the website, the Book is for sale, but the pdf is not. https://imgur.com/22CZ5e5 https://imgur.com/n1eR1Ll I was directed to contact inkedfur directly. And I did so on Feb 22nd. Knowing they were at a con and figured by the way Kei responded they knew I, and possibly other concerned artists would be getting in touch, i waited. https://imgur.com/1WqUXVG That brings us to march 3rd, 9 days later. And this is the responce, and our exchange. https://imgur.com/D4U1lmc https://1drv.ms/u/s!As3pUy5MCJSahc0ZPWLzK2skEHaszA <-- larger resolution This is my most recent reply from James. I can see we are going to have to go through math and I will now for a third time be requesting sales records. Im beginning to wonder if anyone actually reads the request because I was pretty clear on what I am wanting. You are a business, this should be pretty easy, No? https://imgur.com/pHJK4pc I'd just been taking some time to dig into things as I wait for James to get back to me with the requested sales figures. Some interesting things had happened in this time. The Inkedfur twitter account had made a public post, and Kei also replied. https://imgur.com/AD1z46w https://imgur.com/yB1ytO2 I would also like to quickly point out that both james and Inkedfurs twitter have referenced a 30% sale royalties, but in the telegram chat used by artists for the book, Kei, the book lead and someone who works at inkedfur, tells us its been upped to 35% https://imgur.com/VVQkjBA So, Inkedfur sold copies of the book to (two?) 3rd party places. This was never mentioned as possible in our FAQ/Guidlines which in this instance acts as our contract. https://imgur.com/einwivC https://imgur.com/qU8F1Ln Another artist has heard back from James and gotten a statment: https://imgur.com/sltejyN https://imgur.com/M03FYya Interesting things to note here, are the mention of additional bundles of books. James only mentioning one payment, the one we have been able to find and confirm vs the two payments that were previously quoted by Kei. Lastly, the fact that nearly a year later the site still doesnt have digital sales enabled, of which most of our profits were to come from. None of us were told this. As for the additional books, this is news to pretty much every artist I have spoken with. We were all under the impression this was a limited run. As proof we have these: https://imgur.com/cETHUSa https://imgur.com/gKvZFAC https://imgur.com/xmoLTZE After waiting several days and knowing he was responding to others, I emailed him directly to the email at the bottom of his signature. https://imgur.com/5QvwFdI https://imgur.com/j5QuzWd His reply: https://imgur.com/uu9w0vp my reply back: https://imgur.com/NXpJV6V And that's where we stand right now. Requests for numbers are going ignored or denied and the responses we are getting are very unprofessional. There are other grievances I have with this company ( daki promised to the client for free never delivered, problems with my final payout when I left, ect) But I am limiting this to information that is public and my own personal involvement with the book. I know this seems like super small amounts, but if you spread those nickels and dimes over 41 people, thats alot of money. We dont know how much we are really owed, because a second batch of books was produced, and no math is adding up because the numbers keep changing.