Trying to predict the marketable is a fool's errand, for a number of reasons.
(i) Publishers (the big ones) have already decided what that is and it's celebrity authors, so the likes of you and I have no way in to that market.
(ii) It won't produce good literature. I firmly believe that no matter how good an author is at mimicking a genre or utilising its tropes, they will only produce great work when they're doing something they're invested in. Passion shows. If I'd try to write a fantasy western because fantasy westerns were popular, I'd have produced something flat and uninspiring (if I'd even produced anything without getting bored halfway through). I wrote Greyskin because that's what I wanted to write and if it's a genre nobody wants to read, then I need to suck it up.
(iii) It genuinely is very difficult. For all that some genres seem super marketable, in reality connecting with people is a crap shoot. Every bandwagon started, by definition, with a single, unpredicted success.
Write what you want - none of us are going to make any money at this anyway, right? So speak in the voice you want heard and it's bound to resonate with someone.
Terrific post, Simon. I may have to give book funnel a look.
One thing I've struggled with in pitching any of my novels is that I don't have good comp titles. I personally think this is a GOOD THING. And it boggles my mind that a publisher wouldn't want to be responsible for putting out the NEXT BIG THING with a story that hasn't been written fifty times already. But that's sadly not how the biz works. They buy what sells, even if what sells is recycled trash. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I've never written a book thinking about how I would market it later, and maybe that's a mistake. But if I don't have the freedom to build the world and characters and conflict organically, I don't have the joy or the feel the urgency to continue writing it.
I'd rather enjoy the process and produce something that isn't a reproduction.
I fretted over this question for a number of years before I decided that, personally, there is no point in writing if I can't just write what I want regardless of whether or not the story is marketable. It turns out that the older I get, the less I like being told what to do too, so since writing is one of the few things in life where I can do what I want without getting into too much trouble for it, I've decided to just run with it and have fun. You can't please everyone anyway. I've had one reader tell me that the teenagers in my young adult dystopian trilogy are too polite and another deduct a whole star from a review for the smattering of mild swear words, so... to swear like a sailor or to not swear at all is apparently THE question 👀 like you, I mostly just hope that if I enjoy what I write then there must be at least one other person out there, somewhere, who will enjoy it too.
A lot of things I like and want to make are inherently not that marketable, the changes to make them broadly appealing would make me no longer like them. Serial fiction styled like a game guide is not something that has mass appeal. But I know there are some people who hate how generic and marketable a lot of things have become. My ideal level of popularity is cult classic anyway, I wouldn't really want to be a major hit with all that comes with it.
I've also seen with video games that sometimes a game will get a remaster or remake that butchers what makes it unique in the name of marketability. Each new version of Persona 3 for example tears away more and more design decisions that made it distinctive to try and make it more of a standard RPG.
I don't factor in the marketing, though I do think about the audience. I write the story I want, and hope there are some people who want to read it too.
Yeah, ultimately I think that's the only way to do it and remain sane. :D Though it does likely mean that writing will never be an actual living for me - but I think I'm OK with that trade-off. The treadmill Amazon model of publishing multiple books per year seems highly lucrative, but isn't for me.
Nor me. I love writing. I would love to have an audience, but if I had to crank out formulaic stories (regardless of genre) the joy would leave and it would become a task.
I struggle with this too as a lover of weird fiction (writer and reader). I find it challenging to find that niche I fit into as a writer, especially because my projects can vary by just enough to put it in a different sub-genre
I enjoy writing what I want to write though. I don't want to make my stories more marketable. This means the likely hood that I'll be a full time author is really low. That's the compromise I make. My writing goals reflect what I enjoy writing
Unfortunate for me, I just can't write about anything I'm not interested in. Doubly unfortunate, I can't start anything without some serendipitous real life happening that gets me rolling. Also my wife tells me my bellybutton is on crooked which is a Japanese euphemism for somebody who doesn't like stuff that's popular.
I realize that this is first and foremost a conversation, but very close behind that is an urgent need to make sure I write about things I enjoy. This slight tension encourages me to explore junctures- areas I am passionate about that fit in with the questions my readers are asking.
To be frank, the further I go along, the more ideas I get from my readers. It's a (hopefully) mutually beneficial feedback loop, something I desperately wanted to create years ago.
For me, I appreciate the niche and knowing what it is because it’s an easy blueprint that readers will I understand and already buy into. I don’t think, for instance, the reader if a cozy mystery, is going to find fatigue when they find that section (intentionally) in a bookstore and buy a dozen more. Sure, they know the formula. But it’s because of that formula familiarity that they go back for more. I love a cozy mystery: fast read, funny, great characters, easy to settle into locations, and my ultimate favorite part, it’s got a mystery to solve!
It’s a similar blueprint to a Hallmark or Lifetime channel. They double and triple down on the movies they make because the audience eat it up. No fatigue there. The people demand more corny! More dramatization! More! More! More! I’m currently into HGTV home renovation and Food Network cooking. I can’t get enough of the sameness of the new shows. I know what I’m going to get. And it feels like home.
If that is writing with the market in mind, it’s a killer strategy. But, like you, I do want to do a tweak on what I expected and that might cause my readers to feel deceived. Or, if I do it well enough, open their eyes to something new that they’ll didn’t realize they were ready for and they stick around.
Jumping back to cozy mysteries for a minute. I aim to write. Series but with a character who’s more along the lines of Nero Wolfe in a Noir style. The only real cozy part I’ll be incorporating is the same location and length of book. Very short. Not so much a thriller and not as calculating as, say, Sherlock Holmes, but witty like Poirot and punchy like Nero with a bit of me thrown in and a female solver of mysteries. Will the audience I assume will like it go for it? I have no idea. It might turn out to be a hard sell but it’s what I’ve always wanted to read but could never find! I realize that’s because the universe has been waiting patiently for me to just write it!
I think a LOT about discoverability, which is getting worse these days instead of better thanks to closures across the whole sector, pay-to-play, etc. I wish there were a way to find these stories that authors themselves may think are too weird for the market, because every time the story is intriguing even if it's not a genre I usually go for!
Maybe someone with more time and spoons could start a Substack that highlights great indie reads. I think with enough people on the editorial/curation side it might not be too hard a lift, and you could solicit a lot from the writers themselves. (Maybe submissions go into a lottery and get matched with a similar author, those authors interview each other about their work?)
There are some efforts along those lines from Fictionistas, S. E. Reid and Erica Drayton (for example), but it's definitely a challenge.
That said, while the numbers I have here aren't as huge as on Wattpad back in the day, I do feel that they are more meaningful. That some of my readers choose to support my work with paid subscriptions is an indication of thd quality of reader, I think
I've been thinking about this ever since you published it, alternately fuming and giggling inwardly. My experience with submitting my manuscript for The Hanged Man, which I'm serializing here on Substack now, was salutary. Very little, maybe nothing, about this manuscript fits into the current frame for a marketable traditional book. I knew this, of course, before I submitted to 50+ agents, publishers, and editors! However, this is the book I wrote. This is the book I wanted to write. Furthermore, this is the trilogy I'm writing. I've had it professionally edited -- twice -- with feedback that it's excellent, doesn't need to be cut, and is completely unpublishable traditionally. That feedback cost me thousands of dollars because of the length of the manuscript. So, thanks ... I guess. Publishers know what sells, and they stick to it. I can't blame the business model, but as you point out, doesn't that make things a bit repetitive? If writers (or other creators) are forced to stay within the same tried-and-true frameworks for the sake of marketability (read profit), where's the freshness? Where's the terrible fresh work, and where's the great fresh work? Where's the inspiration and motivation to make terrible fresh work better? Do we not trust readers enough to take a chance, to be presented with something new, whether it be content, format, length, or whatever? I LIKE out-of-the-box reading, which I why I'm here on Substack.
Also completely up my nose is the comparative thing. Every article I've ever read about writing a query talks about the importance of having read new books in our genre, and comparing our work to some "successful" author's work. One of my biggest motivators in writing is to write the books I can't find! The whole point is my work is NOT much like anything I can find. Who has time to read all the latest sci fi and fantasy? I write. I have a bread-and-butter job. I reread as well as consume new writing, digitally and online. It's ridiculous to expect writers to have all the latest work in their genre read and reflected upon. I can't genuinely compare myself to any writer, no matter how beloved or admired. I don't have the hubris, for one thing.
Also, like you, I have a tendency to ... let's say disrespect genre boundaries. I write speculative fiction, fantasy that becomes science fiction, poetry, personal essays. My fiction deals with emotional intelligence, systems science, mythology and religious frameworks, oral tradition, folk and fairytales. Yes, it fits under broad headings of speculative, fantasy, sci fi, whatever. But it's more than that, and the more than that counts. It's important.
When it comes to creative work, I can only come from the heart. I long ago gave up dreams of being published in a book a reader could hold in their hands. My work is too challenging, too odd, too long, too sensual, too weird, too complex. I break too many rules, not very apologetically. The quality and nature of my work just doesn't fit into current traditional marketability. If I'm ever widely read, it will be through other channels, maybe through something more like Substack. That's OK with me. I don't think much about outcomes and I don't fantasize about being a rich author. The outcomes don't seem like any of my business. My business is the writing. I refuse to make myself small in order to try to convince traditional publishing I'm a moneymaker. I'm not as versatile as you; I can't do both. Or maybe I don't want to -- I'm not sure. Maybe I'm self-sabotaging? I'm really not sure.
What I do know is I'm happy on Substack. I have a lot of fun reading, interacting, and publishing my weird books, 10 pages at a time. I have comparatively few subscribers and readers, but that's OK with me. I've known from the beginning it would take a special audience to enjoy my work, so I never had grand expectations.
I, too, can only write the kind of books I want to read. Maybe that's a kind of creative masturbation. So be it. I can't write at the top of my game if I'm worrying about length, comparatives, not offending anyone, and marketability. Popular appeal. Do I WANT to be popularly appealing? I can do more than that. I want to do more than that more than I want the increasingly small amount of money I MIGHT receive from traditional publishing.
Thanks very much for this piece. It really hit home! I appreciate you.
I went and looked at the article you linked. Very interesting. And encouraging. I never considered indie publishers outside of the U.S., I'm ashamed (and amused) to confess! Thanks for posting the link!
I don't write for an audience or market, but I do present my Substack for an audience. I've written a few essays that aren't speculative, but I keep them to myself. Future Thief isn't a good fit. However, when I start writing a speculative short story, I'm only thinking about it's quality and it's interest to me.
Right - good point. The non-fiction stuff I put out here is clearly written with a particular audience in mind. It's all very targeted. I don't tend to go off on a random political rant, or talk about a holiday. Unless I can make them relevant to writing, at least. :P
The difference, I suppose, is that the non-fic stuff is intended to inform and educate, and so has to have an audience in mind so that it's pitched correctly. It's for other people; whereas the fiction I write is for me (and hopefully some other people will like it too).
While I do think there is a difference between apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic novels, writing to market works if you can do it and have a book that isn’t contrived. While tropes work, people don’t want to read the same exact story. They want similar vibes, but not the same. I’ve heard the “write to market” advice for a long time now. I am not someone who can do that, in part because I don’t write fast. Additionally, I tend to not really like what’s extremely popular. I want to write my own version of that and if people like it, great! If you really want your books to be moneymakers, and have it be as much of a guarantee as you can get in this business, you write to market. Otherwise, just write what you want to write and hope for the best.
I'm in your camp. I wrote a story that has elements of epic fantasy, thrillers, and action stories, and set it in a real world city with none of the usual urban fantasy tropes. I don't read "standard" urban fantasy books and don't have an interest in writing one. It's definitely harder to market and sell the series on Amazon because regular fantasy readers can't grasp is easily. But I've had more success on Kickstarter, where you can use more images and a bigger sales page.
I wouldn't want to change the story to make it more "marketable" but hope that more readers will discover it over time.
Happy to chat offline about running a Kickstarter, and you can also listen to this 2-part chat I did with another fantasy author last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKblVCIeG1Y
I missed thanking you for recommending Book Funnel to me as a service back when we did that Substack Launch program last year. I submitted by book on This Is England, and it was such a niche book that it didn’t resonate with the Bookfunnel crowd. Totally cool. I did gather about five long-term readers from that so it was completely worth it. I have kept it in mind for two fiction projects I have upcoming. You help us all be better writers, Simon. Thank you, brother!
Trying to predict the marketable is a fool's errand, for a number of reasons.
(i) Publishers (the big ones) have already decided what that is and it's celebrity authors, so the likes of you and I have no way in to that market.
(ii) It won't produce good literature. I firmly believe that no matter how good an author is at mimicking a genre or utilising its tropes, they will only produce great work when they're doing something they're invested in. Passion shows. If I'd try to write a fantasy western because fantasy westerns were popular, I'd have produced something flat and uninspiring (if I'd even produced anything without getting bored halfway through). I wrote Greyskin because that's what I wanted to write and if it's a genre nobody wants to read, then I need to suck it up.
(iii) It genuinely is very difficult. For all that some genres seem super marketable, in reality connecting with people is a crap shoot. Every bandwagon started, by definition, with a single, unpredicted success.
Write what you want - none of us are going to make any money at this anyway, right? So speak in the voice you want heard and it's bound to resonate with someone.
So what you're saying is we should all do this:
Step 1: Become a celebrity
Step 2: Get someone else to write your book
Step 3: Success!
Terrific post, Simon. I may have to give book funnel a look.
One thing I've struggled with in pitching any of my novels is that I don't have good comp titles. I personally think this is a GOOD THING. And it boggles my mind that a publisher wouldn't want to be responsible for putting out the NEXT BIG THING with a story that hasn't been written fifty times already. But that's sadly not how the biz works. They buy what sells, even if what sells is recycled trash. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I've never written a book thinking about how I would market it later, and maybe that's a mistake. But if I don't have the freedom to build the world and characters and conflict organically, I don't have the joy or the feel the urgency to continue writing it.
I'd rather enjoy the process and produce something that isn't a reproduction.
I use book funnel. It's great! The creator is a writer and it shows.
I fretted over this question for a number of years before I decided that, personally, there is no point in writing if I can't just write what I want regardless of whether or not the story is marketable. It turns out that the older I get, the less I like being told what to do too, so since writing is one of the few things in life where I can do what I want without getting into too much trouble for it, I've decided to just run with it and have fun. You can't please everyone anyway. I've had one reader tell me that the teenagers in my young adult dystopian trilogy are too polite and another deduct a whole star from a review for the smattering of mild swear words, so... to swear like a sailor or to not swear at all is apparently THE question 👀 like you, I mostly just hope that if I enjoy what I write then there must be at least one other person out there, somewhere, who will enjoy it too.
A lot of things I like and want to make are inherently not that marketable, the changes to make them broadly appealing would make me no longer like them. Serial fiction styled like a game guide is not something that has mass appeal. But I know there are some people who hate how generic and marketable a lot of things have become. My ideal level of popularity is cult classic anyway, I wouldn't really want to be a major hit with all that comes with it.
I've also seen with video games that sometimes a game will get a remaster or remake that butchers what makes it unique in the name of marketability. Each new version of Persona 3 for example tears away more and more design decisions that made it distinctive to try and make it more of a standard RPG.
I don't factor in the marketing, though I do think about the audience. I write the story I want, and hope there are some people who want to read it too.
Yeah, ultimately I think that's the only way to do it and remain sane. :D Though it does likely mean that writing will never be an actual living for me - but I think I'm OK with that trade-off. The treadmill Amazon model of publishing multiple books per year seems highly lucrative, but isn't for me.
Nor me. I love writing. I would love to have an audience, but if I had to crank out formulaic stories (regardless of genre) the joy would leave and it would become a task.
I struggle with this too as a lover of weird fiction (writer and reader). I find it challenging to find that niche I fit into as a writer, especially because my projects can vary by just enough to put it in a different sub-genre
I enjoy writing what I want to write though. I don't want to make my stories more marketable. This means the likely hood that I'll be a full time author is really low. That's the compromise I make. My writing goals reflect what I enjoy writing
Unfortunate for me, I just can't write about anything I'm not interested in. Doubly unfortunate, I can't start anything without some serendipitous real life happening that gets me rolling. Also my wife tells me my bellybutton is on crooked which is a Japanese euphemism for somebody who doesn't like stuff that's popular.
Ha, I love that phrase!
I realize that this is first and foremost a conversation, but very close behind that is an urgent need to make sure I write about things I enjoy. This slight tension encourages me to explore junctures- areas I am passionate about that fit in with the questions my readers are asking.
To be frank, the further I go along, the more ideas I get from my readers. It's a (hopefully) mutually beneficial feedback loop, something I desperately wanted to create years ago.
For me, I appreciate the niche and knowing what it is because it’s an easy blueprint that readers will I understand and already buy into. I don’t think, for instance, the reader if a cozy mystery, is going to find fatigue when they find that section (intentionally) in a bookstore and buy a dozen more. Sure, they know the formula. But it’s because of that formula familiarity that they go back for more. I love a cozy mystery: fast read, funny, great characters, easy to settle into locations, and my ultimate favorite part, it’s got a mystery to solve!
It’s a similar blueprint to a Hallmark or Lifetime channel. They double and triple down on the movies they make because the audience eat it up. No fatigue there. The people demand more corny! More dramatization! More! More! More! I’m currently into HGTV home renovation and Food Network cooking. I can’t get enough of the sameness of the new shows. I know what I’m going to get. And it feels like home.
If that is writing with the market in mind, it’s a killer strategy. But, like you, I do want to do a tweak on what I expected and that might cause my readers to feel deceived. Or, if I do it well enough, open their eyes to something new that they’ll didn’t realize they were ready for and they stick around.
Jumping back to cozy mysteries for a minute. I aim to write. Series but with a character who’s more along the lines of Nero Wolfe in a Noir style. The only real cozy part I’ll be incorporating is the same location and length of book. Very short. Not so much a thriller and not as calculating as, say, Sherlock Holmes, but witty like Poirot and punchy like Nero with a bit of me thrown in and a female solver of mysteries. Will the audience I assume will like it go for it? I have no idea. It might turn out to be a hard sell but it’s what I’ve always wanted to read but could never find! I realize that’s because the universe has been waiting patiently for me to just write it!
I think a LOT about discoverability, which is getting worse these days instead of better thanks to closures across the whole sector, pay-to-play, etc. I wish there were a way to find these stories that authors themselves may think are too weird for the market, because every time the story is intriguing even if it's not a genre I usually go for!
Maybe someone with more time and spoons could start a Substack that highlights great indie reads. I think with enough people on the editorial/curation side it might not be too hard a lift, and you could solicit a lot from the writers themselves. (Maybe submissions go into a lottery and get matched with a similar author, those authors interview each other about their work?)
There are some efforts along those lines from Fictionistas, S. E. Reid and Erica Drayton (for example), but it's definitely a challenge.
That said, while the numbers I have here aren't as huge as on Wattpad back in the day, I do feel that they are more meaningful. That some of my readers choose to support my work with paid subscriptions is an indication of thd quality of reader, I think
I've been thinking about this ever since you published it, alternately fuming and giggling inwardly. My experience with submitting my manuscript for The Hanged Man, which I'm serializing here on Substack now, was salutary. Very little, maybe nothing, about this manuscript fits into the current frame for a marketable traditional book. I knew this, of course, before I submitted to 50+ agents, publishers, and editors! However, this is the book I wrote. This is the book I wanted to write. Furthermore, this is the trilogy I'm writing. I've had it professionally edited -- twice -- with feedback that it's excellent, doesn't need to be cut, and is completely unpublishable traditionally. That feedback cost me thousands of dollars because of the length of the manuscript. So, thanks ... I guess. Publishers know what sells, and they stick to it. I can't blame the business model, but as you point out, doesn't that make things a bit repetitive? If writers (or other creators) are forced to stay within the same tried-and-true frameworks for the sake of marketability (read profit), where's the freshness? Where's the terrible fresh work, and where's the great fresh work? Where's the inspiration and motivation to make terrible fresh work better? Do we not trust readers enough to take a chance, to be presented with something new, whether it be content, format, length, or whatever? I LIKE out-of-the-box reading, which I why I'm here on Substack.
Also completely up my nose is the comparative thing. Every article I've ever read about writing a query talks about the importance of having read new books in our genre, and comparing our work to some "successful" author's work. One of my biggest motivators in writing is to write the books I can't find! The whole point is my work is NOT much like anything I can find. Who has time to read all the latest sci fi and fantasy? I write. I have a bread-and-butter job. I reread as well as consume new writing, digitally and online. It's ridiculous to expect writers to have all the latest work in their genre read and reflected upon. I can't genuinely compare myself to any writer, no matter how beloved or admired. I don't have the hubris, for one thing.
Also, like you, I have a tendency to ... let's say disrespect genre boundaries. I write speculative fiction, fantasy that becomes science fiction, poetry, personal essays. My fiction deals with emotional intelligence, systems science, mythology and religious frameworks, oral tradition, folk and fairytales. Yes, it fits under broad headings of speculative, fantasy, sci fi, whatever. But it's more than that, and the more than that counts. It's important.
When it comes to creative work, I can only come from the heart. I long ago gave up dreams of being published in a book a reader could hold in their hands. My work is too challenging, too odd, too long, too sensual, too weird, too complex. I break too many rules, not very apologetically. The quality and nature of my work just doesn't fit into current traditional marketability. If I'm ever widely read, it will be through other channels, maybe through something more like Substack. That's OK with me. I don't think much about outcomes and I don't fantasize about being a rich author. The outcomes don't seem like any of my business. My business is the writing. I refuse to make myself small in order to try to convince traditional publishing I'm a moneymaker. I'm not as versatile as you; I can't do both. Or maybe I don't want to -- I'm not sure. Maybe I'm self-sabotaging? I'm really not sure.
What I do know is I'm happy on Substack. I have a lot of fun reading, interacting, and publishing my weird books, 10 pages at a time. I have comparatively few subscribers and readers, but that's OK with me. I've known from the beginning it would take a special audience to enjoy my work, so I never had grand expectations.
I, too, can only write the kind of books I want to read. Maybe that's a kind of creative masturbation. So be it. I can't write at the top of my game if I'm worrying about length, comparatives, not offending anyone, and marketability. Popular appeal. Do I WANT to be popularly appealing? I can do more than that. I want to do more than that more than I want the increasingly small amount of money I MIGHT receive from traditional publishing.
Thanks very much for this piece. It really hit home! I appreciate you.
Thanks, Jennifer! Fuming and giggling is what I aim for with these posts.
I reckon small presses are doing a decent job of finding the new and weird stuff. The Guardian had a piece on that a couple of days ago; https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/16/uk-indie-publishing-mavericks-shook-up-books-booker-nobel-fitzcarraldo-sort-of-books-daunt
I was rather relieved that a reader gave me a comparison to use on the cover of No Adults Allowed, so I didn't have to think of one myself. :)
I went and looked at the article you linked. Very interesting. And encouraging. I never considered indie publishers outside of the U.S., I'm ashamed (and amused) to confess! Thanks for posting the link!
I don’t even like those flee-the-city apocalypse stories, so don’t sweat it
I don't write for an audience or market, but I do present my Substack for an audience. I've written a few essays that aren't speculative, but I keep them to myself. Future Thief isn't a good fit. However, when I start writing a speculative short story, I'm only thinking about it's quality and it's interest to me.
Right - good point. The non-fiction stuff I put out here is clearly written with a particular audience in mind. It's all very targeted. I don't tend to go off on a random political rant, or talk about a holiday. Unless I can make them relevant to writing, at least. :P
The difference, I suppose, is that the non-fic stuff is intended to inform and educate, and so has to have an audience in mind so that it's pitched correctly. It's for other people; whereas the fiction I write is for me (and hopefully some other people will like it too).
While I do think there is a difference between apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic novels, writing to market works if you can do it and have a book that isn’t contrived. While tropes work, people don’t want to read the same exact story. They want similar vibes, but not the same. I’ve heard the “write to market” advice for a long time now. I am not someone who can do that, in part because I don’t write fast. Additionally, I tend to not really like what’s extremely popular. I want to write my own version of that and if people like it, great! If you really want your books to be moneymakers, and have it be as much of a guarantee as you can get in this business, you write to market. Otherwise, just write what you want to write and hope for the best.
I'm in your camp. I wrote a story that has elements of epic fantasy, thrillers, and action stories, and set it in a real world city with none of the usual urban fantasy tropes. I don't read "standard" urban fantasy books and don't have an interest in writing one. It's definitely harder to market and sell the series on Amazon because regular fantasy readers can't grasp is easily. But I've had more success on Kickstarter, where you can use more images and a bigger sales page.
I wouldn't want to change the story to make it more "marketable" but hope that more readers will discover it over time.
That all makes it sound more interesting to me, rather than less.
Do you have a link to the Kickstarter stuff you've done? I've always wondered about going down that route.
Yep! Here's my most recent Kickstarter page: guildofmagic.com
Happy to chat offline about running a Kickstarter, and you can also listen to this 2-part chat I did with another fantasy author last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKblVCIeG1Y
Thanks, will take a look!
*quietly adds Jon's name to the list of people to get on the podcast*
I missed thanking you for recommending Book Funnel to me as a service back when we did that Substack Launch program last year. I submitted by book on This Is England, and it was such a niche book that it didn’t resonate with the Bookfunnel crowd. Totally cool. I did gather about five long-term readers from that so it was completely worth it. I have kept it in mind for two fiction projects I have upcoming. You help us all be better writers, Simon. Thank you, brother!
Thanks, JB! One of the best things about writing a newsletter, and about writing in Substack especially, is forming those long term connections.