6/24/2024

End of a Prelude to New Beginnings

I'm in the airport in Venice, waiting to fly home. While on vacation cruising the Adriatic, Ionean, and Agean Seas, I was struck with an insight for how fiction writers can better use Substack to gain an audience of readers who aren't all fiction writers themselves and, more to the point, consist largely of readers who are invested in the central core of the writer's work. This will result in a greater percentage of readers becoming fans and buyers of the author's work.

I entered into talks with two authors whose works I thought were prime to take advantage of this approach. One of those authors has agreed to work with me as a test model. I will be retooling my accounts as well. I had 3 (only one of which was the focus of my attention) and have added a fourth.

I've activated Stripe on this account today and set possible prices, but mostly that was to test the options given for publishing posts.

There are 3 central publishing options: Everyone, Paid, Founder-Only. A 4th options is for Free Subscribers-Only, however this is an email only and will not appear as part of the publication.

When taking pledges, the lowest Paid can be set for is $50, however, once Stripe is set up and Paid is enabled, the price can be set as low as $30.

My main account has my author domain but is titled Deeper Fiction. That will change. It will become my author under my name, and the new account will become Deeper Fiction and gain a new focus. This site will see modification and will become the center for all my meta content with a focus on this new publishing theory. The fourth account was set up for my novella series, The Sibyliad, and will retain that focus but gain a new purpose.

So far, this account has only been used as a gathering place for fiction writers to support one another in chat. That purpose will remain, but we will have to consider how our rules and efforts will have to change once this account starts growing. The good news is that growth shouldn't hit us until my theory has proved itself at the other accounts.

Much of what I've said here is vague, and that's intentional. Everything in its time.