Hello Simon. This is a comment in response to your (at time of writing) most recent post, but I can't comment on that because comments are locked to non-subscribers: Have you ever considered that the amount of content you have produced for Triverse in serial form could allow you to use a rapid release indie ebook series publishing model to re-release it and have quite a lot of success + make some money that way? See the book WRITE, PUBLISH, REPEAT where the authors use as an example of their successful publishing model their dividing up a serial that was *only* 250,000 words long and rapid releasing it as a series of Amazon ebooks (the UNICORN WESTERN series). See also my article 'How to make money as an indie author' in the 'Articles' section of my substack. This has occured to me several times on reading about your stuff before, so I just thought I would share the idea--I do not stand to gain from this suggestion at al.
This is a really valid provocation and has got my brain racing. Thanks, Faenon. :)
It makes a lot of sense - in my head I was imagining turning it into an ebook/paperback once the whole thing was done, but it's a) going to be a while and b) going to be very long as a single volume. Splitting it down into shorter collections would make a lot of sense.
Will definitely put some proper thought into this. Thanks!
Nov 28, 2023·edited Nov 28, 2023Liked by Simon K Jones
I am in a similar position, so now I have started writing with a view towards stockpiling for future ebook series release on Amazon etc. I have 100,000 words of serial published on substack so far, with another 150,000 words in the bank ready to serialise, and more in progress. There is lots of stuff out there to research about people who do this--write their web serial and then get it professionally edited (some not even that) and then publish it in rapid-released shorter-chunked ebooks, to great success if they play the system right. There's more on this in my susbtack article 'How to make money as an indie author' I mentioned. I think there is even a lady who offers a paid video course about how to do it this way, though I can't remember her name and need to find it again! What shocked me looking into it is just how small the books are sometimes e.g. UNICORN WESTERN is 250,000 words *total*, but I have that much already for what *I* would consider only two volumes' worth. Another person I have recently discovered did this is John Cronshaw--who is quite a big/successful indie fantasy author, looking at the numbers that are available. His tomes are actually relatively short--but they were written as a massive serials first, and now he sells the first-in-series ones dirt cheap or gives them away, to hook people into buying the following volumes, and also sells them all together as a boxset (which is like selling your entire serial as one mega ebook). I have thought your work could fit this model many times, but didn't want to mention it as it felt like giving a trade secret away that could help a competitor. That's not very generous or kind though--and a rising tide lifts all ships--so I decided to share today; so there you go!
Yeah, fascinating! And I don't think any of us should worry about being each other's competitors. There are enough readers to go around.
I actually rather like the idea of releasing it as a series of novellas. That seems to better retain the spirit of the serial rather than presenting it as 'a novel'.
The newspaper format added an interesting dimension (pun intended) to your storyline. Made it seem more real somehow, not just words on a page for your real world readers but a report that would have been read by Triverse residents with the real world reader looking over their shoulder on the tube. Great stuff!
Thanks for the lead to Canva, Simon. I was curious about that and thinking of ways I could use it in my 1930s series. Looks like I have some more learning to do.
Hello. I'm new to your publications and so I'm a Triverse Virgin. As a fellow fiction writer, this is just up my street. Loved this. I shall go and read previous chapters!
I really like the newspaper. Fun and realistic enough to make it feel real. I haven’t read your other stuff on this, yet, but this feels like a prequel to the horrors of 1984. I also see that I should be learning Canva.
Hello Simon. This is a comment in response to your (at time of writing) most recent post, but I can't comment on that because comments are locked to non-subscribers: Have you ever considered that the amount of content you have produced for Triverse in serial form could allow you to use a rapid release indie ebook series publishing model to re-release it and have quite a lot of success + make some money that way? See the book WRITE, PUBLISH, REPEAT where the authors use as an example of their successful publishing model their dividing up a serial that was *only* 250,000 words long and rapid releasing it as a series of Amazon ebooks (the UNICORN WESTERN series). See also my article 'How to make money as an indie author' in the 'Articles' section of my substack. This has occured to me several times on reading about your stuff before, so I just thought I would share the idea--I do not stand to gain from this suggestion at al.
This is a really valid provocation and has got my brain racing. Thanks, Faenon. :)
It makes a lot of sense - in my head I was imagining turning it into an ebook/paperback once the whole thing was done, but it's a) going to be a while and b) going to be very long as a single volume. Splitting it down into shorter collections would make a lot of sense.
Will definitely put some proper thought into this. Thanks!
I am in a similar position, so now I have started writing with a view towards stockpiling for future ebook series release on Amazon etc. I have 100,000 words of serial published on substack so far, with another 150,000 words in the bank ready to serialise, and more in progress. There is lots of stuff out there to research about people who do this--write their web serial and then get it professionally edited (some not even that) and then publish it in rapid-released shorter-chunked ebooks, to great success if they play the system right. There's more on this in my susbtack article 'How to make money as an indie author' I mentioned. I think there is even a lady who offers a paid video course about how to do it this way, though I can't remember her name and need to find it again! What shocked me looking into it is just how small the books are sometimes e.g. UNICORN WESTERN is 250,000 words *total*, but I have that much already for what *I* would consider only two volumes' worth. Another person I have recently discovered did this is John Cronshaw--who is quite a big/successful indie fantasy author, looking at the numbers that are available. His tomes are actually relatively short--but they were written as a massive serials first, and now he sells the first-in-series ones dirt cheap or gives them away, to hook people into buying the following volumes, and also sells them all together as a boxset (which is like selling your entire serial as one mega ebook). I have thought your work could fit this model many times, but didn't want to mention it as it felt like giving a trade secret away that could help a competitor. That's not very generous or kind though--and a rising tide lifts all ships--so I decided to share today; so there you go!
Yeah, fascinating! And I don't think any of us should worry about being each other's competitors. There are enough readers to go around.
I actually rather like the idea of releasing it as a series of novellas. That seems to better retain the spirit of the serial rather than presenting it as 'a novel'.
Stumbled on this at work today and it seemed relevant to our chat: https://open.substack.com/pub/ashmann/p/to-unbundle-or-not-to-unbundle?r=18lvub&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
The newspaper format added an interesting dimension (pun intended) to your storyline. Made it seem more real somehow, not just words on a page for your real world readers but a report that would have been read by Triverse residents with the real world reader looking over their shoulder on the tube. Great stuff!
Thanks for the lead to Canva, Simon. I was curious about that and thinking of ways I could use it in my 1930s series. Looks like I have some more learning to do.
Hello. I'm new to your publications and so I'm a Triverse Virgin. As a fellow fiction writer, this is just up my street. Loved this. I shall go and read previous chapters!
Hi, Debs! Glad you enjoyed that. There's a lot to enjoy in the archive. :)
I'm working through it slowly and enjoying what I'm reading 😊
I really like the newspaper. Fun and realistic enough to make it feel real. I haven’t read your other stuff on this, yet, but this feels like a prequel to the horrors of 1984. I also see that I should be learning Canva.