This is it. It is time.

No, I'm not just gonna give away the announcement I've been teasing for weeks in the subject line

Today, the teasing ends. Today, we go all the way.

I'm publishing a book.

One of my biggest goals for the second half of 2023 was to publish a collection of my novellas and short stories.

So that's what this is. I don't have an exact date yet, but it'll be before the end of the year, possibly before the end of next month.

In total, there will be 2 novellas, and 12 short stories. All but one of them first appeared here, but it's a good bet most of you haven't read any of them, since most of you are new.

I've finished compiling, editing, and formatting all the material, and the brilliant artist who designed the logo for Dispatches from Inner Space is currently creating art for the book.

As for the title...anthologies are tricky. I might do a poll or something. Would you be into that?

When you say publishing...?

I mean self-publishing. I had neither the time nor the appetite to court publishers, since I'm less interested in selling a bunch of copies than I am in having the thing finished.

Why?

Well, that brings me to my next (and potentially even bigger) announcement:

I’m turning on paid subscriptions.

I'll get to how this connects to the book launch in a minute, but first I want to explain my thinking.

Actually, I want to let someone else explain my thinking:

I've been part of the Substack community long enough to see a very large number of pitches on this topic, and what has become abundantly clear is that writers have a hard time asking for money. Each of them struggles to find an angle in their comfort zone, and a lot of what they come up with ends up sounding at least a little apologetic.

Which sucks.

I love these people, and I hate that they feel like they have to apologize for asking for money.

Here's my angle

I work really hard at this stuff. If you really like it, and if you can afford to, you'll support it with actual money.

I don't think this is gross, I think it is beautiful.

Speaking of being able to afford it, I am painfully aware of how tight finances can be. There are dozens of writers on Substack I would pay for if I could.

In fact, full disclosure, a significant percentage of whatever I collect from my own paid subscribers will go right back into the ecosystem.

Probably the rest will go toward this book launch.

Speaking of which

Anybody who gives me money will get the ebook.

Anybody who becomes a "founding member" will get a signed physical copy of the book. That might take a couple more months to get sorted, but Christmas seems like a reasonable target.

As for other paid perks, the only one I'll commit to at the moment is access.

I would love to reply to every email and comment, and dive into every opportunity for a deeper conversation, but that becomes less possible with every passing week.

Hence my commitment to paid subscribers. If you give me money, you deserve my attention.

Time for the Button

I’ve made my pitch. So if this is you

Then click this

Either that or absolutely roast me in the comments. Totally up to you.

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All My FUQs

At this moment, answers to these (dangerously open-ended) Follow Up Questions will also guarantee my immediate attention:

About the book:

• It's been a while since I've done this whole self-publishing thing. Got any tips?

• Did you want to maybe help me brainstorm some titles?

• How much more (or less) likely are you to read an ebook than to just go digging through my archive?

About the money:

• Assuming you're one of the many, many people who have been just dying to give me your money, what other kinds of perks would you like to see as a paid subscriber?

• I mentioned using some percentage of the profit$$$ to support other writers. How important would it be for you to know the exact allocation? Would that influence your decision to become a paid subscriber?

• Why do you think it's so hard for writers to ask for money? I have my ideas, but I want yours. Also, what would you tell them?

• I don’t really plan on putting any of my posts behind a paywall, but if I did, what kind of posts do you think should be paywalled?

About fish:

• Do you like them? Why or why not? Plus, aren’t we all actually just fish, swimming around in different kinds of water?