Well met, space cadet! I had intended to make World of Westward a weekly update, but the season has been so busy that it’s been all I could do to keep up with the serial entries. That being said, I’ve continued to think about strategies for attracting more readers in 2024, and here’s the initial plan:
I’ll be compiling Hollow Worlds and With What Strange Eyes? into an eBook on the Amazon Kindle store, and that book will be available as a printed paperback as well. I’d like to give the book away, but the lowest price Amazon will allow me to set is $0.99, so that will most likely be it. The reason I’m thinking of using Amazon for this is because it has a broad market reach and it facilitates reviews. The book will essentially act as Page of Pulp’s flagship—an easily shareable and accessible unit designed to attract the attention of potential readers and bring them onboard.
I’ll be putting up a website for Page of Pulp that is separate from Substack. This website will contain lore and information about Westward, a link to the book, and probably at least some of the serialized fiction. How much? Well, that’s the major question I still have. On one hand, Substack limits the ways in which I can present the serialized fiction, and it acts as a barrier to entry for people who would be interested in Page of Pulp, but aren’t in Substack’s bubble. On the other hand, Substack’s email features are very valuable, as are its insights into readership and engagement. There are good cases to be made for putting all of the serialized fiction onto the new site, or none of it, and everything in between. So if you have an opinion on this, I’d value it; send me a note!
While I work on implementing these two new endeavors, I may end up dialing back Page of Pulp’s publishing schedule temporarily to, say, three entries a week for a little while. It won’t be long, though, because I want to keep up the pace as Ziggurat nears its home stretch. One thing that is helping with that is my recent introduction to a new writing tool called Novelcrafter. The tool has some amazing features that make it much easier for me to see the Westward story from a high-level and to keep track of plot developments as the serial progresses. I’ve found so far that being able to really immerse myself in the world and lore of Westward has made writing that much more enjoyable.
With that, all I have to say is thanks for reading, and I hope that the remainder of the Holiday season brings you great joy and gratitude! Be seeing you.
-ETT
Lovely update and in short: investing time in overview and enjoyment is worth the short-term reduction in output! Loving the stories so far and while I long to see Ziggurat's completion, I definitely understand you also need to keep investing time in getting more readers and republishing the previous material is a brilliant way to get more people invested in these stories. I'll be sure to look into getting a review in once the story is on Amazon or elsewhere!
The first two books are already sold on Amazon right? I think that's how I got my copies