Subscription and Billing
Choose a plan, start a free trial, and manage your subscription and payments.
Plans and Pricing
Inkwren offers two tracks. The Author track is built for individual writers managing their own stories and submissions. The Publisher track adds the workflow tools a small press needs — calls for submissions, contracts, editing pipelines, and a team.
Billing is handled by the workspace's billing contact. Only the billing contact can start, change, or cancel a subscription. Other members of a workspace can use every feature their plan includes, but can't manage the plan itself.
Author Track
| Bookworm | Quill | |
|---|---|---|
| Founding price | $20/year | $10/mo or $100/year |
| Standard price | $20/year | $15/mo or $150/year |
| Billing | Annual only | Monthly or annual |
| Workspaces / Users | 1 / 1 | 1 / 1 |
| Stories & publications | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Tasks | 100 | Unlimited |
| Free trial | 30 days | 30 days |
Quill adds task templates, recurring tasks, task attachments, custom saved task views, API access, and GEO page export over Bookworm.
Publisher Track
| Quill | |
|---|---|
| Founding price | $30/mo or $300/year |
| Standard price | $40/mo or $400/year |
| Billing | Monthly or annual |
| Workspaces / Users | 2 / 3 |
| Free trial | 30 days |
Publisher Quill adds Calls for Submissions, author invitations, contract management, editing workflows, publication submissions (the slush pile), royalty split tracking, and team collaboration for up to 3 members.
Annual billing saves roughly two months compared to paying monthly.
Footnote
Footnote is a free, read-only account for authors a publisher invites to view a publication. It isn't shown on the pricing page and isn't a plan you subscribe to — it's the view-only access that comes with an invitation.
Founding Member Pricing
Through September 30, 2026, paid plans are offered at founding prices. As long as your subscription stays active, you keep your founding rate for life — future price increases won't affect you.
Founding pricing applies to the Quill tiers. Bookworm is the same price either way ($20/year), so there's no founding discount on Bookworm.
If you cancel and resubscribe later, you'll be charged the standard rate in effect at that time. After the founding window closes, new signups get standard pricing, while existing founding subscribers stay on their founding rate automatically.
Starting a Free Trial
Every paid plan includes a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. A trial gives you full access to that plan's features within its limits — it's not a limited preview. You can create and edit stories, publications, and tasks just as a paying subscriber would.
There are two ways to start a trial:
- During onboarding. A new signup on a trialable plan starts a trial automatically.
- Later. Start a trial from a free account at any time.
Each user gets one trial. Once you've used your trial, you can't start another.
Subscribing
When you're ready to pay, the billing contact subscribes:
- Pick a plan and click Upgrade (or Subscribe).
- You're taken to Stripe Checkout — Stripe's secure hosted payment page — in a new window.
- Enter your payment details and confirm. During the founding window, the founding price is shown with the standard price struck through, and you're charged the founding price.
- Stripe returns you to a confirmation page, which verifies your subscription is live and sends you to your dashboard.
After you subscribe, billing is managed through the Stripe Customer Portal, reached from a link in the app. From there you can update your card, view and download invoices and receipts, and cancel.
Switching Plans
The billing contact can change plans at any time.
- Upgrading to a higher plan takes effect immediately. Stripe prorates the change automatically, charging the difference for the rest of the current period, and the new features unlock right away.
- Downgrading to a lower plan takes effect at the end of your current billing period. You keep your current features until then. Before scheduling the change, Inkwren checks your usage — if your workspaces or team members exceed the lower plan's limits, it tells you what's over so you can adjust first. See Tier Limits for each plan's caps.
- Switching tracks between Author and Publisher routes through the same upgrade or downgrade flow. Moving to Publisher unlocks the publisher features; moving from Publisher to Author reduces them.
If you switch plans during a trial, the change is free and immediate, and your trial end date stays the same — the clock doesn't reset.
When a Trial Ends
If you don't subscribe within 30 days, your trial expires quietly. There's no charge, since there's no card on file.
Your account becomes read-only. You can still:
- View all of your content
- Export your data
- Delete your account, leave the workspace, or accept invitations to other workspaces
Creating and editing — new stories and publications, adding members, uploading files — is paused until you subscribe. Your data is safe and stays exactly as you left it. A Trial Expired page explains what's available and links you to subscribe.
Payment Problems
If a renewal payment fails, Stripe marks your subscription past due and retries the charge automatically over the following days.
During this time you keep full editing access — you're not locked out right away. The billing contact receives an email with the amount due, a link to the invoice, and the date of the next retry attempt. If a retry succeeds, everything returns to normal on its own.
If every retry fails, the subscription ends and your account becomes read-only, the same as a cancelled subscription.
Cancelling
The billing contact can cancel from the app or the Stripe Customer Portal. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period, not immediately — you keep full access until the period you've paid for runs out, and you'll get a confirmation email with the end date.
You can reactivate any time before the period ends to continue without interruption. After the period ends, your account becomes read-only on your current plan. Your data is retained and remains viewable, and you can resubscribe whenever you like.
Resubscribing after cancelling is charged at standard pricing — a founding member who cancels and returns loses the founding rate.
Subscription Statuses
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Trial | Your trial is active with full access within the plan's limits. |
| Active | Your subscription is paid and current. |
| Past due | A payment failed and is being retried. You still have full access. |
| Cancelled | Cancellation is scheduled or complete. Full access continues until the period ends, then read-only. |
Tips
- Pick annual to save: Annual billing costs roughly two months less per year than paying monthly on the same plan.
- Lock in founding pricing: Subscribe before September 30, 2026 to keep your founding rate for life — but only while your subscription stays active.
- Try before you pay: Every paid plan includes a full 30-day trial with no card required, so you can explore your track's features before committing.
- Upgrade anytime, downgrade at period end: Upgrades unlock immediately; downgrades wait until your current period ends, so plan downgrades a little ahead.
- Designate the right billing contact: Only the billing contact can manage the plan, which matters most for Publisher teams where another member might expect to handle it.
- Cancelling isn't instant: You keep access until the end of the period you've paid for, and you can reactivate any time before then.