Thread: Eskimo Midgets and Penguins

I don't have anything to show just yet but wanted to ask a few questions as I plan out my site.

I have a lot of concepts I'm working on, shorts, ebooks, serials, novels.

My current plan is:

1. to give the shorts free on the site to gain some interest in my writing.

2. run two simultaneous eSerials, not sure if I should leave them free at first or dive right into the rss subscription fee realm. Maybe one free and one pay. Not sure for a new writer which would be best.

3. I've been looking at smashwords and liking how it's set up so will probably use them for my ebooks.

4. Novels are the ones I hope to eventually publish the old fashion way but I know that's down the road a bit and they can always be ebooks if all else fails. Only reason I want to try traditional first is it's a pretty long epic fantasy/sci fi series and would love to see them in actual print.

The format I'm thinking of going with is wordpress blog. Separate the stories and serials with their category system, General for blog posts about my upcoming or new work, and then the rest by whichever category they best fit.

That's all I have so far, I plan on putting a couple shorts up on the site soon and going from there. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I'm very new to this concept and am learning as much as I can lately.

Thanks
Rory

uh... where's the question? exactly?

Sorry was kinda tired when I posted this. Basically it wasn't questions so much as how does it all sound, any tips or changes I should make.

Though one question was what people thought the best method on the serial for charging or not or when for a fresh unknown author.

The rest was more of a "hey does this sound good?"

It all sounds fine but everything depends on the quality of your copy. If you have that, then just get eyes on it.

Sounds to me like you're on the right track. Smashwords is great, having free shorts is an excellent, proven idea, perhaps as pdf downloads? Or as mobis for readers? Not that hard to generate.

Using rss with fees is kind of tricky, I think. There are other ways to look at. email subscription, for instance. A hybrid called "serial +" is interesting... you are running an online serial for free but at any point they can just buy the ebook. Part of the concept is a legend under the button that says like, It will take 23 weeks to complete the story reading installments, you can buy the whole damn thing right now, here.

If you run 2 serials, you might consider having two separate blog instances so the feeds don't get tangled. WordPress is almost certainly your best choice.
Interesting approach, and is certainly a great way to get a feeling for what's working, a "control group" as it were.


One of the main points of my ebook on this is that while getting a serial novel picked up by a publisher is a long shot, it gives you a better chance than just sending queries on something nobody has seen, read, or responded to.

And as you say, there's always the ebook fallback--which is guaranteed. And don't forget the POD print book alternative.
In my manual I mention creating a constellation around the author's brand. Being online, on Smashwords, mailing samples and shorts, having a POD book available on amazon...you just keep looking more "real thing" as you go.

Let us know as your progress with this thing.

Thanks for the responses.

Still reading through your manual, excellent info btw in there.

I was planning on the two serials being my Steampunk Fantasy story and a Zombie series of books I had planned. But I was thinking last night after I posted this that maybe instead of the zombie one just do my fantasy books and take my chances on getting a publisher later, I think that storyline would make for an excellent serial. Of course could just do 3 serials but not going to overload myself that early will probably just go the ebook route on the zombies.

I like the Serial+ idea but it wont work for me, my serials are going to be fairly long. I don't plan on finishing the story before starting to post either of them. The steampunk one is going to be an ongoing that may end eventually but at the moment I'm planning on it not. I have a lot of story planned out for that one and it can go on for a long time with how I want to tell it.

If I decide to go with turning my epic fantasy series into a serial instead of waiting for print I had the thought of as each book ends putting it out as an ebook. I have been outlining and note taking on that storyline since high school so it's fairly long, depending on if I include a couple of the side stories that tie in but aren't a must for the story it could be 15-25 books. So it will have an end but not for a few years at least. I might be able to use the Serial+ here but really I'd rather not go to far ahead of the storyline. I kinda like the idea of keeping just a few weeks ahead of what's posted.

One of the things about my writings though that I think might help build a reader base is that 75% or more of my stories are interlinked into that one epic fantasy book series. Shorts, and side books, and even the steampunk serial is a side story that uses the "alternate dimension" deal. So almost everything people read will somehow tie together, maybe not at first but as they read more stuff it will start to make sense. This concept has always intrigued me when authors do it, like Dark Tower or Raymond Fiest. It's cool to me to have an author somewhat dedicated to one "world" or "universe".

As far as the copy goes, I just need to make sure I have a good grammar freak go through mine cause I have major issues on that, but for the most part I've gotten positive feedback on my stories themselves just always with a, "your grammar sucks" attached lol I got the ideas it's just coherently writing them at this point.

Thanks again for the replies and tips.

I think Moderan meant "quality of writing and/or story" not editing. Especially since mentioned he's putting up drafts.
I thought that was nuts, but actually and kind of thinking of doing that myself on a project.

Well Zombies are kind of a national homeland for online lit. The biggest crossover success ever ("John Dies At The End" by David Wong) was a zombie book and zombies are HUGELY present in that form of writing. Which means a lot of online readers like them. It also might meant they're so done.

Without knowing anything about it, or your plans, I suggest maybe going with zombies for the freebie, see how much steam it still carries in WFG circles.

Steampunk, hard to say. There are a couple I know of on WFG, including the Arcadia Snips thing I mention in the "showcase" thread. No idea what the marketablility of that is.

In keeping with my "constellation" term, I think you'd do well to hook everything up with what you are kind of describing as your powerhouse bit...the fantasy epics.

And ebooks are the obvious first answer, all right. Have you done any conversions yourself? Mobi/epub stuff?

Another advantage to that is you are then also working that side of the street, pushing the ebooks on ebook sites, linkiing it all up.
If you don't have en ebook out yet, I'd want to have one as soon as practical. You'd be offering it to people reading your serial.
Having Book One available while serializing Book Two would be great, I'd think.

http://corycramer.com Cory is another guy whose serial led to a publishing contract and you can see how he's working the whole works.

Well story I'm pretty confident on, and I think the writing itself isn't bad. Usually my style is kind of a cross between Pratchett/Adams and Moorecock. Some humor but more of a dark humor and a brutal bluntness to how the characters are treated. It's always bugged me when authors hold back on their characters, I prefer the type where you really don't know if someone will make it to the next book, or at least without something missing if they do survive. My first Short I'm hoping to post in the next few days is a great example of all this IMO.

One of the reasons I'm holding back on Zombies is I love the topic but have only seen a few movies and read one book on them, World War Z, so I wanna do some more research on them before making my own.

Steampunk is one of my favorite under appreciated genre/topics. I'm writing that both because I love it and I think we need more of it out there.

Yeah the more I think on it the more I think I should focus on using this medium for my epic fantasy stories instead of waiting to publish traditionally. I'd love to make some money off them but I've always said that my main goal is to share my stories. Even years ago posting them online was always my fallback plan. I figured I'd try to get them in print then after a ton of rejection letters just post it online, long before I heard about New Media lol.

Interesting idea on doing book 1 ebook then serial the rest, I'll give that one some serious thought. I have it detailed in notes and outlines but not written yet but if I really get on it I could probably have the book done in a few weeks.

Thanks for the link I'll check it out.