All posts by Thinking Ink Press News

Thinking Ink Press Awarded a Fiscal Sponsorship

We’re excited to announce that we recently signed an agreement for a fiscal sponsorship with the nonprofit organization Independent Arts & Media (IAM)!

This arrangement makes us eligible for grants, lets us receive tax-deductible donations through IAM’s nonprofit structure, and gives us access to new tools, mentorship, and networking opportunities. 

Our partnership with IAM will help us fulfill our purpose of publishing inclusive books. We’re still Thinking Ink Press and we’re not becoming a nonprofit.

Until this opportunity came up we didn’t even know what fiscal sponsorship was. Wikipedia has a longer explanation if you’re curious to know more.

We’d like to extend special thanks to our publishing mentor Johanna Vondeling, who recommended that we apply for a fiscal sponsorship and then helped us during the application process. Johanna became our mentor through the Innovative Voices Program at the Independent Book Publishing Association (IBPA). We learned so much from her! We also appreciate the support from Lisa Burger, the Executive Director at IAM, who answered our many questions and explained all the things that IAM offers.

Check out this cool new widget.

You can also see it in the sidebar on the right.

Clicking the widget takes you to our new Flipcause donation page, which accepts contributions to Thinking Ink Press using IAM’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. IAM will accept, process, and acknowledge contributions to support Thinking Ink Press made via this page. This includes issuing receipts for tax deduction purposes.

Buying Thinking Ink Press books and products—whether through our website, in person, or at bookstores—is still a great way to support our press and our authors directly. Thanks for buying our books! If you feel moved to support our purpose even more, now you can make a tax-deductible donation, thanks to IAM. Only donations through our fiscal sponsor are tax-deductible. 

New Book: The Neurodiversiverse

A Hopeful, Empowering Science Fiction Anthology

“This collection is a dazzling exploration of the extraordinary potential within the neurodivergent mind.” —Erin Garcia, host of the podcast ASK! Autism Support and Knowledge

A book cover of "The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters", a science fiction anthology. Background is stylized art of an astronaut meeting an alien in outer space. Art by Barbara Candiotti.

Do you love science fiction, aliens, or neurodiversity?

Well, you’re in luck: Thinking Ink Press is proud to announce the release of The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters, a science fiction anthology available everywhere matter exists, bits are transmitted, and books are sold. 

 

Would neurodiversity be an advantage in an encounter with aliens? Let’s find out!

  • Heartbroken starships.
  • Human-sized hamster balls.
  • Superpowers unleashed by anxiety.
  • A planet covered in mathematical fidgets.
  • And we finally learn why aliens abduct cows.

A diverse, hopeful anthology of neurodiversity-themed science fiction short stories, poetry and art for anyone who loves science fiction, who cares about neurodiversity, or who wants to see optimistic visions of the future.

Featuring stories, poems and art from Tobias S. Buckell, M. D. Cooper, Ada Hoffmann, Jody Lynn Nye, Cat Rambo, and nearly forty other contributors, The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters was edited by Anthony Francis, author of the award-winning urban fantasy novel Frost Moon, and Liza Olmsted, editor of the writing inspiration book Your Writing Matters.

The Neurodiversiverse includes themes of autism, ADHD, PTSD, OCD, synesthesia, several kinds of anxiety, avoidant attachment disorder, dissociative identity disorder, and more. 

You can get The Neurodiversiverse directly from Thinking Ink here on our website, or in the format of your choice at your retailer of choice

 

Go Neurodiversiverse!

Kickstarter funded!

The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters.
Coming soon!
Image shows the book on a background that matches the book cover.

The book cover shows a figure of an alien and a figure of a human in a space suit, facing each other, on a background of a dark and colorful nebula in space.

Available to order now. Release date: August 6.

Thanks to all of our backers who helped us raise over $8,000! Now we can pay our authors and artists more.

If you missed the campaign, you can still get the book. Preorder now and it will ship by August 6.

The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters

From: $9.99

 A diverse, hopeful book of neurodiversity-themed science fiction short stories, poetry, and art for anyone who loves science fiction, who cares about neurodiversity, or who wants to see optimistic visions of the future.

Read more

A book cover of "The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters", a science fiction anthology. Background is stylized art of an astronaut meeting an alien in outer space. Art by Barbara Candiotti. Kickstarter “project we love”.

The Neurodiversiverse is a Kickstarter “project we love”!

Halfway through our campaign, over two-thirds to our goal!

Our Kickstarter campaign for The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters has already reached over $3,400 of our $5,000 goal, with just over two weeks left! Thank you so much to everyone who’s backed, you’re helping to make sure we’ll be able to pay our authors and artists professional rates!

This is a larger funding goal than we’ve had for any of our past crowdfunding campaigns, so having made it this far is truly wonderful.

Selected as a Kickstarter “project we love”!

Project we love. Kickstarter. Circular badge with a heart in the middle and words around the outside.

Kickstarter has a magical, behind-the-scenes mechanism where someone decides a project is a “project we love”. We don’t know how it happens, but we’re so pleased it happened to us! What it means is that now new people will see the campaign, and may be inspired to back it.

Announcing our stretch goals!

Once the Kickstarter campaign hits its funding goal, that means we’ll get the money that is raised. But if we exceed our goals, we’d love to give our backers more. We’ll unlock additional stretch goals as the amount raised reaches new dollar amounts.

Briefly, our stretch goals are:

  • $7,500 – Bookmarks! We’ll include a bookmark for every backer who’s selected physical rewards.
  • $10,000 – Mystery Swag! We’re really excited about the additional goodies we have planned for backers if we hit $10k – but we’ll announce them when we hit our funding goal of $5,000.
  • $12,500 – Even More Fun Stuff! Ditto! We’re working on secret plans to fill out backers’ goodie bags and digital inboxes, but we’ll announce this stretch goal if we reach our funding goal!
  • $15,000 – Audiobook Edition! We really want to produce an audiobook edition, both because we love audiobooks, and because we know so many readers need an audio edition for accessibility. If we raise this much money, everyone backing for $10 or more will get the digital audiobook when it’s ready.
  • $20,000 – The Neurodiversiverse: Binary Stars! If we hit this amount of money, we’ll not only be able to pay for this book, but also put the rest toward a sequel anthology!

So, please back the Kickstarter campaign to help us achieve our stretch goals, and share it with your friends who love bookmarks, audiobooks, and/or neurodiversity!

You can read all the details about our new stretch goals in our latest campaign update.

A book cover of "The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters", a science fiction anthology. Background is stylized art of an astronaut meeting an alien in outer space. Art by Barbara Candiotti.

Our Kickstarter is now live for The Neurodiversiverse

Why are we running a Kickstarter campaign for The Neurodiversiverse?

We believe that creators should be paid like professionals for their work.

Thinking Ink Press is a small publisher, and we want to increase the amount we’re paying the authors and artists of The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters for their work from “semi-pro” to “SFWA” professional rates. To make that happen, we’re running a Kickstarter campaign!

Backing the Kickstarter campaign at any reward tier will help us a ton, and you’ll be able to get great rewards like a copy of the book (of course!), a vinyl sticker or enamel pin of the snazzy logo designed by Kimchi Kreative, a tote bag, and more!


Books and swag with the Neurodiversiverse logo, designed by Kimchi Kreative.
Books and swag with the Neurodiversiverse logo, designed by Kimchi Kreative.

The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters is is a hopeful, empowering sci-fi anthology of short stories, poetry, and art. It’s an #OwnVoices extravaganza with neurodivergent editors, authors, and artists. The anthology offers many different answers to the question: Would neurodiversity be an advantage in an encounter with aliens?

Backing now helps our Kickstarter campaign be more visible, enabling us to reach more supporters. We’re a small press, and need your help to reach our ideal readers.

Coming soon: A neurodiversity-themed sci-fi anthology

Thinking Ink Press is excited to announce The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters, a science fiction anthology to be released August 2024.

The Neurodiversiverse is a book for anyone who loves science fiction, who cares about neurodiversity, or who wants to see optimistic visions of the future. It’s an #OwnVoices extravaganza with neurodivergent editors, authors, and artists.

The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters is a hopeful, empowering sci-fi collection of short stories, poetry, and art. This anthology offers many different answers to the question: Would neurodiversity be an advantage in an encounter with aliens?

Featuring short stories by:

Edited by Anthony Francis and Liza Olmsted.

With stories, poetry, and art by 44 creators about:

  • Autism
  • ADHD
  • PTSD
  • OCD
  • Synesthesia
  • Anxiety of various flavors
  • Avoidant attachment disorder
  • Dissociative disorder
  • And more.
Cover not yet final

Heartbroken starships.
Human-sized hamster balls.
Superpowers unleashed by anxiety.
And finally we find out why aliens abduct cows.

Be the first to hear when it’s available for purchase

The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters will be available where books are sold. Sign up for our mailing list so we can let you know when it’s available for everyone to purchase! You’ll be subscribed to our general mailing list, which includes news about other books we publish.

 

Sneak peek at inspiring quote tote bags and stickers

We will be developing three more original postcard designs for our Inspiring Quote Kickstarter campaign rewards. In the meantime, the sample tote bag and sticker arrived. Here’s a picture of them with a copy of Keiko’s book Your Writing Matters so you can get a sense of scale.  

To read the full update, visit the Kickstarter campaign.

Our Inspiring Postcards for Writers Kickstarter succeeded!

Three-quarter view of a white card propped on a little easel. The card has quilling of flowers and curls in a rainbow of colors around the outside, and in hand-written calligraphy the text "You deserve to create what's in you to create", with the attribution "Keiko O'Leary". In the lower left corner are the artist's initials "JM". This is the image on the first of the four postcards.
The original quilling & calligraphy art for the first quote postcard, by Julia Macek. Isn’t it beautiful?

Thanks to everyone who backed our campaign and helped us reach our funding goal and even a stretch goal!

Because the Kickstarter campaign succeeded, we are developing a set of four postcards with inspiring quotes for writers from the book Your Writing Matters by Keiko O’Leary. The postcards feature new original quilled art and calligraphy by award-winning artist Julia Macek, with art photography by visual designer Caroline Sanney. The campaign unlocked a stretch goal, to create bonus 3 x 4 inch vinyl stickers.

Once the campaign rewards are finished and sent out, we’ll announce when the postcards and stickers are available for everyone to buy.

The four quotes are:

  • You deserve to create what’s in you to create
  • Your writing matters. Your life matters. Your stories matter.
  • What you create could change someone’s life
  • Have faith that what you create could touch someone

We love sending postcards in the mail, and we’re so excited that these beautiful images are going to be available to inspire writers and creatives alike!

Be the first to hear when the postcards are available for everyone to purchase

If you’re not already on our mailing list, sign up so we can let you know when they’re available for everyone to purchase! You’ll be subscribed to our general mailing list, which includes news about other books we publish.