You received The Prologue to my gothic novel Obscurity on Friday at midnight—and you’ll receive a new chapter every Friday at midnight until… October, when chapters lock down for paid subscribers only. Read these next few chapters and see if they’re something you’re into. If you want to keep reading, or even just want to support my newsletter, become a paid subscriber and receive new chapters every week through June of 2022.
I am going to publish more fiction at igreviews.substack.com as soon as I get some original art. I'll also serialize a novel or two. It'll probably be completely free! Good luck, Elle.
Congrats on your launch, Elle! I've been reading your articles and interviews all summer and you've inspired/convinced me to serialize my books on Substack later this fall.
Looking very forward to get reading! I have one question about the subscription model though: Is it possible to purchase the 50$/year thing first and then - if lets say I would love the book - to switch to the 200$ one?
Ok I checked with the Substack support team to be sure, but the answer is yes! If you purchase the $50/year plan, and then eventually upgrade to the $200/year plan, you'll be refunded the original $50 and charged $200.
It begins! Huge congratulations on reaching this milestone, this must be a very exciting month for you. :)
I thoroughly enjoyed the prologue and am looking forward to what comes next. I'm also, of course, keeping a very close eye on your release strategy and the nuts-and-bolts of how you're going about this, as I'm hoping to start serialising my next book at the end of this month.
I like the accountability and transparency you've put into this intro post. Rather than going down the hard sell, or trying to make it sound like everyone will love your book, you're going down a route that gives readers a much better insight into your character. Which I'm sure is strategically very deliberate, but it works well. ;)
Thank you so much! My "release strategy" is definitely a work in progress. This morning my husband had me amend this email because it started off even more self-depricating. But marketing a book is tricky because it could be a really great book and still not appeal to most people! I am very aware that many, if not most of my newsletter subscribers, might not be into my novel--and that's totally normal! It's all a gamble trying to find the ones who might be!
That's something I'm still wrestling with - the people who are attracted to my non-fiction list, which is more about writing craft, won't necessarily be interested in my fiction, and vice versa.
Well yes that's true. But I do think the author is the common thread. After I read your article about how travel influences your settings and characters, it made me want to read your book in those setting and characters. And if you've already read the book, it might be fun to go back and read behind the scenes, what inspired those settings and characters! So I'm thinking they WILL be more complementary in the long run as subscribers and readers start to be one in the same!
Good point. And the kind of readers we're talking about with this whole model are those who are very enthusiastic about the creator's work from start to finish. The equivalent of people who buy expensive DVDs and blu-rays to get the behind-the-scenes stuff, even if they're not actually filmmakers themselves.
Thanks for inspiring me to publish my novel(s) on SubStack. I appreciate how you laid out your approach and hope that it was really successful!
That's so cool!! Good luck with your novel!!!!
This is great. You're going to have much success with Obscurity.
Wow, thank you so much Bill!
I am going to publish more fiction at igreviews.substack.com as soon as I get some original art. I'll also serialize a novel or two. It'll probably be completely free! Good luck, Elle.
I love the art for your welcome page! And definitely share your serial with me when you have it all set up!
Please subscribe and you'll get all the updates including my original fiction and reviews. Thanks, Elle.
I am soooo super excited for this!!! And congratulations!!
Thank you so much Shifra!!!!!!
Congrats on your launch, Elle! I've been reading your articles and interviews all summer and you've inspired/convinced me to serialize my books on Substack later this fall.
Awesome!!!!!!!! That's so exciting! I just added you to my Twitter list so I can follow along....
Thank you!
Very excited to read Obscurity! Congrats on the release.
Thanks so much Winston!
I am rooting for you! 😀
Mazel Tov on the launch! 🥳
Thank you so much!
Looking very forward to get reading! I have one question about the subscription model though: Is it possible to purchase the 50$/year thing first and then - if lets say I would love the book - to switch to the 200$ one?
Hope your idea works out - routing for you!
Ok I checked with the Substack support team to be sure, but the answer is yes! If you purchase the $50/year plan, and then eventually upgrade to the $200/year plan, you'll be refunded the original $50 and charged $200.
Thank you so much! This is a very good question and I'm sleuthing it out right now. Will let you know as soon as I do!
It begins! Huge congratulations on reaching this milestone, this must be a very exciting month for you. :)
I thoroughly enjoyed the prologue and am looking forward to what comes next. I'm also, of course, keeping a very close eye on your release strategy and the nuts-and-bolts of how you're going about this, as I'm hoping to start serialising my next book at the end of this month.
I like the accountability and transparency you've put into this intro post. Rather than going down the hard sell, or trying to make it sound like everyone will love your book, you're going down a route that gives readers a much better insight into your character. Which I'm sure is strategically very deliberate, but it works well. ;)
Looking forward to Friday's chapter.
Thank you so much! My "release strategy" is definitely a work in progress. This morning my husband had me amend this email because it started off even more self-depricating. But marketing a book is tricky because it could be a really great book and still not appeal to most people! I am very aware that many, if not most of my newsletter subscribers, might not be into my novel--and that's totally normal! It's all a gamble trying to find the ones who might be!
That's something I'm still wrestling with - the people who are attracted to my non-fiction list, which is more about writing craft, won't necessarily be interested in my fiction, and vice versa.
Well yes that's true. But I do think the author is the common thread. After I read your article about how travel influences your settings and characters, it made me want to read your book in those setting and characters. And if you've already read the book, it might be fun to go back and read behind the scenes, what inspired those settings and characters! So I'm thinking they WILL be more complementary in the long run as subscribers and readers start to be one in the same!
Good point. And the kind of readers we're talking about with this whole model are those who are very enthusiastic about the creator's work from start to finish. The equivalent of people who buy expensive DVDs and blu-rays to get the behind-the-scenes stuff, even if they're not actually filmmakers themselves.
Exactly!
I love how you broke all of this down. :)