Grubbing for Money in Textual Places
As long-time readers of my assorted blogs will be aware, I’ve been engaged in large-scale worldbuilding and committing occasional acts of fiction for many a year. Thus far, except for that one competition, it’s been just for my own personal benefit, it being a satisfying creative outlet in itself. I like building things.
However, I feel the time has come – especially now that I’m dabbling in actual plot – to begin moving towards professionalism in this venture; meaning, in short, money. The world is in flux as regards the methods of turning written words into cash, and while traditional publishers and short story markets are by no means out of the question, I believe they’re far from the only options at this point.
So, having introduced the concept, here’s my first experiment in this realm: stories-by-subscription. Several authors have done this, including Diane Duane writing an entire novel this way, and Elizabeth Bear, just this week, putting out an announcement that rather inspired this one, in its own way and with a little spousal prodding.
(Go there and check those out, by the way. I bet they’ll be well worth the money.)
So, here’s the deal, and it’s rather similar – albeit at a somewhat reduced price due to they being Actual Published Authors and me being, well, not: For the low, low price of $10 up-front, you will receive a minimum of twelve pieces of flash fiction/short fiction/nanofic or extended worldbuilding vignettes (i.e., not the “dry” encyclopedia entries, but the somewhat moistened ideas-in-use kind) over the next year, which for convenience of calculation I’ll say ends May 1, 2012. This is the minimum – you’ll receive at least twelve, but anything else I write over the next year that isn’t being submitted to An Actual Publisher is included in the deal; so they’re at least under $1 each, and possibly well under. Not a bad deal, eh? And at the end of the year, if it turns out that I have enough volume and like them enough to collect them into an actual e-book, everyone who’s subscribed during the year will receive a free copy of the final product.
If you’ve enjoyed reading the snippets and other fiction-related posts over the years – or some topic that comes up in my Trope-a-Day catches your attention – this is for you!
On technical notes: distribution of the goods will be through a closed mailing list, and your e-mail address will not be shared. I’d thought to do the distribution in .epub and .pdf formats, but I’m by no means limited to those; if you’d prefer a different format, drop me a line and I can probably add it.
If you’re reading this post late (but still before May 1, 2012), you haven’t missed out: if you subscribe late, you’ll not only get everything that comes to the list after that time, but I’ll send you everything that you would have received from Day One.
Any questions? My contact address is: avatar@arkane-systems.net
And this PayPal button will tell you you’re paying Arkane Systems. That’s my business name, so no need to worry. If you’d like your subscription sent to an address that’s not your PayPal address, please include it as “special instructions”. And if you’d like to subscribe but can’t or would prefer not to use PayPal, drop me an e-mail at the address above.
