Dear Readers, It's Time We Talked

So I thought it might be time for a little chat. Just between you and I, you understand. A little tête-à-tête, as it were, about the future and where you and I see ourselves between now and then.

I appreciate your loyalty. I've enjoyed and been deeply touched by your occasional emails telling me how much you liked this or that book. I've been even more touched by those of you who have chosen to give me the occasional small (and even not so small) contribution through the 'buy the writer a coffee' link. It makes me feel, in some small but important way, like what I do matters.

And things have been looking up: Newcon Press's decision to publish Ghost Frequencies sometime in the next year or so gladdens my heart, particularly since it's a terrific story - one of the best I've come up with, in my opinion.

In fact, I feel like my writing has grown from strength to strength over these last few years in particular. That knowledge, unsurprisingly, makes me want to write more - lots more. And there is a lot more to write.

But there are just one or two pesky realities getting in the way.

I've been coasting these last few years, financially speaking, on income from my ten books from Tor UK. And while I'm still a long, long way from being impoverished, I'm at the stage where I need to look ahead and decide sooner rather than later whether I can afford to keep on writing full-time. Or even part-time, depending on how you measure the hours.

Now, all this may change if or when I get a book deal for Echogenesis. Right now I make a little income from book doctoring and mentoring, but such work tends to be sporadic and it takes up a lot of my time. This is unfortunate, because the one thing I think I'm really good at is writing science fiction. I'd like to write lots more of it, and I'd like for you to get to read it. But I also need to eat and keep a roof over my head. I'd also like to be able to afford to attend the occasional Convention. And buy my dog Cooper the occasional tasty treat.

I also know some of you would really, really like to see a third book in the Extinction Game series.

So here's something you don't know: in August, I wrote the first draft of the follow-up to Survival Game in just three and a half weeks. I did partly in order to see if I could write a full draft of a book in less than four weeks. I also did it knowing that the chances of it getting professionally published are vanishingly small. Almost by definition, it would either be self-published or put out by a small-press.

And that's fine. But time is money, and if you want to see it come fully to fruition, I'm going to need your help. A fast first-draft is one thing, but the long, hard slog of the second draft is another, and always takes a great deal longer. And then there's the third draft, and beta-readers, and further revisions, and so forth - a process that can easily eat up most of a year. Not to mention that while all this effort will be going on, it won't be bringing me in any money.

For this reason and others, I've been thinking hard about sites like Patreon recently. I've seen really quite a lot of writers signed up to it, some very well-known indeed, some less so, but all of them skilled and talented people nonetheless.

As you know, I recently ran a poll for what you'd like me to write next, and space opera came out far ahead of everything else. Well, I love writing space opera, and I fully intend to write more of it (and indeed I already have, in Echogenesis, a planetary adventure in the classic mode).

But before I get to that, there's a few things I'd like to do first.

First, I'd like to finish that third Extinction book. Then, I'd like to write and finish Proxy, a near-to-intermediate future cyberpunkish thriller about identity theft and body-swapping.

Proxy isn't space opera, but between you and me it's a great idea. I have a twelve-thousand word outline for it that is, frankly, awesome.

So here's the deal. My plan is to write Extinction Game Book Three, then write Proxy (or possibly both at the same time), then start work on outlining and planning that stinking great space opera (and possibly series) you all want me to. Which, trust me, will be epic.

But I can't do it without your direct support. Your direct financial support. Especially regarding Extinction Game book three: if I were to self-publish it, it would need edited, and editing costs money. So would a book cover.

And that, most likely, along with everything else, means Patreon.

There probably wouldn't be a great amount in terms of monthly rewards. I don't do chapbooks, I'm horrible at doing either podcasts or video. I am good at sitting down in a damn chair and writing in silence for hours. I guess I could shift my blog writing there, and maybe answer the occasional writing question, and maybe even critique people's own writing if they sign up to support me at a certain level.

But this isn't a definite decision yet. I'm still thinking about it.  I'd need to aim for at least $300US a month for it to really make a difference.

$300 dollars - or about a dollar a month from just three hundred of you, over the space of a year, year and a half - would make writing that third book feasible. Without that, I'm not sure it could be finished within that time, if ever.

Should I run a Patreon, at the very least I could share deleted scenes from previous books, or notes and synopses from the same, and also my writing notes that show how different books were put together over a period of months or years. I also have some back copies of recent books which, I suppose, I could sign and send out to higher-tier supporters.

There's a lot to think about. But to repeat - without that support, the chances of their being a finished third Extinction book are much, much lower.

Hooray, you might say. Now you can write that space opera! Well, that's true. But it's still only the germ of an idea. And there's a secret to writing you really need to know: the best books are written by authors being true to themselves. True to the best ideas they have, as well as to their audience. I know that you want the best work I can give you - and that's what I'm offering, regardless of the specific sub-genre.

So all this is just to let you know where my head is at right now. I have a lot of plans for writing. And it may be up to you to help me make them come true.

Your comments and thoughts are appreciated.