I’ve got some publishing news to share today. Yay!
I’ve been working to get my rights back from older work I’ve published. I also have news regarding the stuff I never published, but I’ve got a steaming hot shower to enjoy so I’ll make this quick.
First, serial publishing.
I’ve always been interested in serial publishing. The platforms for serial publishing though were remarkably bad design, and they wouldn’t let me retire my books if a traditional publisher wanted to pick it up. Serial publishing has always intrigued me, but I just never liked any of the apps and or websites until, well, I found Leanpub.
I created an account and started publishing stuff on there. What’s really great about Leanpub is they let me retire my book if I want to take it elsewhere. They allow a lot more stuff for authors. Readers can get a lot out of them too. They were the only serial publisher with an accessibility statement. Is there site perfect? No. Still, all the books are DRM free, and I can even opt to do Creative Commons work if I want to.
The point is to read books as I update them. You get to watch a book being crafted as it’s actively being written or edited, and you get the ability to share your email with the author if you want to follow them on their mailing list or something.
Also, Leanpub is also DRM free!
Because I’m traditionally published, I don’t know how much I’ll use this, but still, it’s something that caters and or even welcomes romance and erotica books, which is vastly different from a lot of other platforms.
My plan is to publish a mixture of fiction and nonfiction books on Leanpub so check out my Leanpub store here.
Pay what you want for short stories and novellas.
I tried making my own store on this website but it got to be to much hassle. I wanted an easy way to host stuff I wasn’t able to sell elsewhere so people could buy them if they wanted to. After much deliberation, I went with Gumroad even though they do take a percentage of my earnings. Honestly? That’s fine with me since they take care of all download management and otherwise. Gumroad isn’t perfect, accessibility wise, but you can see how Gumroad approaches accessibility here.
I figured, hey, I have all this trunk writing just sitting around so why not sell it, even if I don’t think it’s good. Besides, it could be a fabulous example of my growth and how I’ve become a better writer over time. So, yes, this is exactly what it sounds like. I’m publishing all my trunk writings. All of them, even the ones that are socially outdated and genres I try but never did well in. Why not, right?
These trunk writings can be purchased here. All of them are pay what you want.
Why are they DRM free? Well, technically speaking, DRM isn’t worth it for me. Accessibility is very important to me and DRM goes against every accessibility stance of mine. Moreover, I want to have people read these stories. In my experience, DRM prevents people from reading stories. Seriously, as a fellow reader, I can’t count how many hours I’ve wasted just trying to get rid of DRM crap so I could actually read the digital book I purchased. I don’t understand DRM and I don’t understand how it helps me as an author. It appears as though DRM was designed to keep people from reading the eBook they purchased. I just don’t get DRM. I don’t understand it. Moreover, putting DRM on stuff is too technically complicated for me even if I wanted to put DRM on my stuff. Besides, if people have to bypass tech to read my stuff, that’s time wasted they could have spent reading my work over the phone to a friend or similar. I’d rather people share my work than spend hours trying to crack it.
side note, I keep track of DRM free bookstores here.
Why are they pay what you want? Easy, because there are low income people that can’t pay for stories and their library probably doesn’t have my stuff so this way, you can buy it for someone else as a gift. Also, these are my trunk writings. You decide what they’re worth. I’ve written many things. If you like it, buy a thing for your friends or conference. Buy it for a stream party night where you scoff at my writing ability. Have fun with them. Go wild. If you don’t think I’m worth your money, fine. Download it for free. Maybe your friend likes me and wants to read my stuff. Buy it for them because they don’t have the money. Give my stuff to your friends and family. Perhaps they will like it and want to see what I’m doing now and perhaps they will want to support other work. Maybe you don’t like my older stuff, but you still want to support me anyway.
The above won’t replace my traditionally published books. I don’t like self-publishing. I hate it, actually. I like working with publishers and teams and literary agents. This is just in addition to all the other stuff I do. I’ve realized I just don’t have that much out there and this needs to change while people wait for publishers to edit my books on submission. Having more readers won’t hurt me, at all.