I’m moving towards Indie publishing, in fact I’m aiming to release the first episode of my fantasy series, The Path of the Sword, in May. As part of this I’ve set up an account with Bookfunnel, a service that makes it easy for you to give away books or stories. I’ve got one on there now, called Who Runs From Heaven? It’s a 4500 word Sci Fi short story with a bonus chapter of the upcoming novella. Anyone can get it free by signing up to my subscription list. If you’ve come to my actual blog page you should have seen a pop-up that asked you if you would like to subscribe, if not you can do it here:

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‘Building my list’ is one of the strategies I have adopted from the book ‘Write, Publish, Repeat’. My aim here is to build readership among people who actively want to read books of the type I Write. This is likely to be a slow and steady process, but that’s fine. I am a slow and steady writer aiming to write 100 words per day (although last Thursady I went completely mad and wrote nearly 400!). I think it’s very important to adopt an strategy that suits you, that fits with your way of thinking, otherwise it probably won’t work.

The other point of this approach is that I don’t really want just anybody to read my stuff. I want the really cool people. The people who like adventures set in far away worlds. I want people who will enjoy my writing so much they tell their friends and blog about it and write positive reviews.

(by the way if you’re one of those people then sign up now. Please!)

Because people who don’t like that kind of stuff won’t like my books. I could kid myself that my writing is so wonderful that anyone could read one of my books and absolutely love it, but I won’t.

It isn’t true.

The Lord of the Rings has 96 one star reviews on Amazon. Go figure as they say in the USA.

So I don’t want to get my books in front of just anyone. If all you are interested in is, for example, cars then you probably won’t enjoy a book set in an alternative dark age about teenage boys training to become warriors and having a series of (hopefully) exciting adventures.

(by the way if you do like the sound of that then sign up now. Please!)

And if you don’t like it then you won’t tell your friends, or write a good review, or buy another of my books.

I bought a car off a guy once. I asked him if he enjoyed selling cars. He said what he really liked was when people came back again. “It’s when they buy their third car,” he said. “That’s when I get the satisfaction.”