By Edward Nawotka

When it comes to crowdfunding and crowdsourced publishing there are many variables. Not the least of which is what happens if you support a book that never reaches its goal? What happens if an author you support isn’t quite as social media savvy as others and, like old lovers, you lose track of them online? Or if that author you supported migrates to a traditional publisher or format?

Inkshares — a site which crowdsources and crowdfunds books — thinks it has an answer. The two year-old startup allows supporters to “follow” a book project and/or author. In turn, an author can use this data to keep potential supporters aware of future developments.

Now, Inkshares is expanding on this concept, leveraging data on the site to help other Inkshares authors find potential readers (and funders) by looking at influential followers of similar books, or exploring the new Top Readers feature from the homepage. It is basic differential marketing and leverages the participation of existing users, who have already shown a predilection for using the site.  The system works like this:

Prospective Inkshares readers are automatically loaded into an author’s project dashboard:

Authors can also look for influential readers of similar books to pitch:

Which results in a pitch that looks a lot like this: