This is not really an article, just an update on me, my writing, and what I plan to do in the coming year.
It’s hard to believe it’s been over a year since I published The Mark of Amulii, and I have been slowly (very slowly) gaining traction and publicity. Though recently, with the addition of the Story Archives section of the website, things have been picking up.
My Twitter following has been slowly growing as well, and I’d much rather have a small, organic following of readers than a bunch of bots and writers that will likely never contribute positively to my career. It’s why I don’t participate in things like “writer’s lifts” (I’ll rant about how useless that is some other time).
So, with that, I’m looking at alternatives for funding publishing, and someone had a great idea of using Substack. It’s similar to Patreon, but it’s a writer platform. I’m going to be honest, self-publishing is money sink without another source of funding. So I’m looking at better alternatives to keep things going.
I will be submitting The Varcross Key to a few independent publishers once I get it to a polished state, and if I can’t get it published that way, I’ll be releasing chapter by chapter on Substack. If I make enough income with that, I’ll look into using that money to officially publish the book. I’ll also be transitioning When Life Gives You Werewolves to a serial release, because that story is turning into a very long series and there’s been growing interest in it.
I’m also considering releasing the next book of The Mark of Amulii this way as well. I’ll still write the freebies to go on the website, but depending on how popular a story is will depend on if I decide to monetize it.
There will also be subscription perks, such as if I get enough subscribers to publish more books, I’ll also have enough banked to give signed books away, as well as other prizes and swag. The more books I have published, the more I can give away. If I find a publisher that wants to take me on, I’ll even have giveaways for ARC review copies and so on. There may even be art and posters and clothing, but that will depend on what deals I can cut with artists (just as with writing, artists need to be well compensated for their hard work).
Keep in mind that while I have a lot of plans, these are still very pie-in-the-sky, and are largely dependent on a larger following. If 100-1000 people support my writing through $2-$5 monthly subscriptions, then I can do a lot more investing in publishing beautiful, physical books that are fully edited. Editing, as I’ve mentioned in earlier blogs, costs the most.
Substack could be a platform where I release the first drafts of a future book, which means that anyone subscribed can give me ideas and suggestions to help shape the story. I’d also like to reward people who contribute and interact the most. I’m still mulling over what I can do to drum up more support and excitement for my work, and I’m always open for suggestions.
Feel free to leave me a comment below and tell me what you’d like to see more of, or leave me a comment on Twitter. I’m interested to know what people think of the Substack idea. And yes, I will add more free short stories in the future to this website, especially as I get more established and can devote more time and energy to writing. While I don’t think I’ll ever be able to make writing a full-time job to replace my current salary, I think this could be successful enough that I could split my time between part-time development and writing fun, interesting and good quality stories.
By the way, Substack is not set in stone. I’m still determining which one is better suited to what I do, Substack or Patreon. I need to do more research on both of them, and when I’m ready to go this route, I’ll make the choice then.
Anonymous
February 21, 2024 - 12:44 pm ·Hi Aeron. I Wien I Discovered you earlier, I would love to support you through Patreon. I thank all the supporters and you who actually released this book. I read the whole thing in 2 days, I could not let go until the end and I hope you will eventually work on the second book. I sat a long time and reflected afterwards, it was an emotional rollercoaster learning to take in Alex and Amulii interaction and how they learned from each other and grew as individuals but also as “mates” (as Amulii would say). This even though the necessity of each other and all the arguing, they prevailed eventually which made me happy. I’m reading through more of your work. Looking very much to the Varcross Key saga, keep up the good work!
Anonymous
February 21, 2024 - 12:44 pm ·Hi Aeron. I wish I Discovered you earlier, I would love to support you through Patreon. I thank all the supporters and you who actually released this book. I read the whole thing in 2 days, I could not let go until the end and I hope you will eventually work on the second book. I sat a long time and reflected afterwards, it was an emotional rollercoaster learning to take in Alex and Amulii interaction and how they learned from each other and grew as individuals but also as “mates” (as Amulii would say). This even though the necessity of each other and all the arguing, they prevailed eventually which made me happy. I’m reading through more of your work. Looking very much to the Varcross Key saga, keep up the good work!