FoundryInk Academy Academy / Run your studio
Run your studio

Find collaborators

The best books often need more than one pair of hands. The Collaborate Console is the colleague side of FoundryInk (separate from your fan-facing audience): find creators, connect, and message them. Here's how to build a team.

Read time about 5 min

1Find your people

Open Collaborate and go to Find: search the collaborator directory by name, and filter by specialty, Artist, Writer, or Critic. Each result has a Message and a Connect button. Want to be found yourself? Flip List me in collaborator directory on in your public profile. This same one directory is also where paid hiring starts: turn on the Available for hire filter to narrow it to freelancers you can book, then read Hire a freelancer for the full flow.

Find Collaborators: the All roles menu and the Open to collab and Available for hire filters.
Find Collaborators: the All roles menu and the Open to collab and Available for hire filters.See the full screen
Your profile's List me in the collaborator directory box, under Bio.
Your profile's List me in the collaborator directory box, under Bio.See the full screen
This is the colleague side, not the fan side. There's deliberately no message button on public profiles; you reach people to work with here. There is only ever this one directory, collaborators and freelancers appear in the same list, sorted apart by filters, never a second page.
Pro note
List yourself in the directory with your specialties filled in. Half of collaborating is just being findable.

2Connect up

Send a connection request, and manage incoming ones (accept or decline) in the Connections tab. Once you're connected, direct messaging opens up. Connecting is what turns a name in a directory into someone you can actually plan a book with.

Pro note
Send a warm, specific first note: what you're making and why you'd love their help. Generic asks get ignored.

3Talk and make

The Messages tab holds your direct conversations (plus a private Personal Notes space for your own drafts and links), and Projects gives every studio you're in a chat channel. The composer does Markdown, emoji, image attachments, @mentions, and even asset references, so you can point a collaborator straight at the issue you mean.

Group messages: a #general channel for each studio and project you are in.
Group messages: a #general channel for each studio and project you are in.See the full screen
Personal Notes with the Reference an asset picker open from the message composer.
Personal Notes with the Reference an asset picker open from the message composer.See the full screen
Pro note
Use a project channel instead of scattered DMs once a team forms. One place, everyone, no lost messages.

Build a team

From solo to crew. Links into the app. Saved on this device.

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Quick questions

The Collaborate Console is for colleagues, people you make work with. Your audience side (follows, subscriptions, public comments) is for fans. There's no DM button on public profiles by design.

Turn on 'List me in collaborator directory' in your public profile, and fill in your specialties, so you show up when someone filters for an artist, writer, or critic.

You can message from the Find tab, and connecting opens ongoing direct messaging. Connections also let you accept or decline incoming requests.

Yes. The composer supports asset references, so you can link a collaborator directly to a specific issue, plus Markdown, images, emoji, and @mentions.

Yes. The same Collaborate directory has an Available for hire filter that narrows it to freelancers who have opted in and published services. From a freelancer's profile you can book a paid, escrow-backed job that runs in the Engagements portal. See Hire a freelancer for the studio side, and Get hired: go freelance if you want to take paid work yourself.

You've found your crew

Directory, connections, and channels, everything you need to make work with other people. Next, run a media desk from your studio.

Open your own media desk →