Why a Newsletter?

Hi folks, John here! The TL:DR is this: I love telling stories, and I want to tell great stories on my own terms (and never sell out the readers and listeners).

If you're a regular listener or reader and know all this you can join the community for free or click the 'Subscribe' link, or read on!

I've been podcasting my stories for 15 years. My first professionally published fiction was released in the early 2000's. I had a few other pieces published traditionally before switching to crowdfunding and releasing my stories on Indiegogo, Kickstarter and now on Patreon.

Indie authors like me have to find as many ways as possible to reach readers and listeners who enjoy what they make...but in the last decade everything has changed in tradpub and selfpub. That has made discovery even harder.

Discovery doesn't just mean selling books, it also means building a community of readers who look forward to new stories, get invested in your characters & imaginary worlds. That's why people write stories in the first place...to share them. Our brains love stories!

Getting paid is good too, but Amazon and Audible have offered less and less favorable terms for authors, and tend to reward volume over qauality.

Traditional publishing is undergoing a major sea change and a reduction of publishing houses, meaning less contracts for authors and less money for many, as well as sometimes sketchy contract terms.

Podcasting has changed, too: advertising has become the priority, where it used to be promoting your work to attract more readers and listeners.

Patreon supporters and donations on Paypal, Ko-fi & Buymeacoffee allow me to carve out time from work to keep telling stories...but I always want to tell more stories, bigger stories.

I hope this newsletter will grow that support without forcing me to put ads in my podcasts, or chase the lowest common denominator (the current Kindle ebook and Audible audiobook business strategies).

This newsletter has a free option: anyone who loves good serial fiction can get a few stories a year and sneak peeks at what's coming next. You can also support the work to get early access to serial instalments, audio episodes and other benefits.

I like the idea of a newsletters: receiving an email with good news or fun attachments, and I think my readers and listeners will, too.

So, all in all, a newsletter seems like a great idea. I hope you like the idea too. if you do, you can subscribe here, or click one of the subscribe links to join now.

Stay tuned for more!

-John