December's free Sci-Fi and Fantasy

+ An overview of what this page is about

Hi, Phillip here.

For those unaware, this is RealPhillipCarter’s secondary Substack. It’s where I post big updates for FreeFictionFriday and HalfplanetPress. It exists so that my personal page can lean more into my own Sci-Fi stories, Comedy (be it standup or articles), and Poetry (be they serious or silly), and so that FreeFictionFriday can widen its scope to find new types of book giveaways.

Until about half way through March 2024, I’ve found at least one per week.

I’ve created this Substack for several reasons.

• After realising funding and maintaining a physical bookstore is nearly impossible in the UK, I’ve set my sights on creating a digital one.

• Turns out eBooks are free sometimes, so I had the idea to turn myself into a nexus of accessible literature. You want free books, you come here.

• I want to branch out from bookfunnel to include free promos from writers who are truly doing it on their own, as well as limited time free books on sites such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

• I wanted HalfplanetPress to evolve ahead of the publishing industry. My bookstore was going to have a freebie shelf. Now I can’t build the bookstore, the shelf has grown to surround it, like a shell made of words.

• I’ve had the idea for a sci-fi store for a while. My eBay page is called TheShelvesOfOrion, and that was to be the Halfplanet bookstore name, when we set up in Liverpool. Now that might not happen, I’m moving everything into the internet.

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The Future Of Halfplanet Press

You’re looking at it. Eventually we’ll open up for submissions of Sci-Fi short stories, and those will be posted both here, and to RealPhillipCarter. There’s also a connected discord group which is currently being reworked to allow several tiers of writing workshops.

My comedy/literature podcast THE PHILLIP CARTER SHOW is also part of this, and will soon come with a space within the discord server for subscribers to join the live studio audience, where you can listen in on unedited, raw, uncensored recordings.

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FFF December 2023

So, what would you rather have?

The poll is just to gain a better understanding of you all, so I can cater to you better in future FFF posts. In truth, I’ve signed up to all four of those bookshelves already, and if you’re subscribed to RealPhillipCarter, you’ve already seen one of them.

UNLOCKED SHELVES

Our first, as you will have seen on last week’s RealPhillipCarter post, is Adventures into High Strangeness

It’s a weirdness-specific bookshelf, which suits me perfectly.

It isn’t often I smile when I find a free bookshelf at 2am, but this one made that happen. Wall to wall weird Sci-Fi. It’s wonderful. The closing date for this one is December 31 2023

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The second is EPIC SCI-FI

This one’s easy to explain. Vast cosmic adventures, galaxy-spanning battles, spaceships, and universe-ending plots. I hope the human species lives long enough to see some of these stories become eerily prescient. See, I do know clever words. The closing date for this one is December 31 2023

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The third shelf is NEW ADVENTURES

Specifically catered to new Sci-Fi and Fantasy reads that are about adventure, this is one of those genre-specific bookshelves that I really love. It makes it so much easier to work out what books will be about before you properly focus on the covers, and for me, that helps make a ‘buying’ (in this case, downloading) decision all the more easy. The closing date for this one is December 31 2023

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The final shelf is FREE SCI-FI AND FANTASY READS

And that’s pretty easy to explain. No subgenre specificity here, just a chunky list of books ranging from magic battles to sci-fi weirdness, back to sci-fi battles and fantasy weirdness. Some romance thrown in there if the book covers are accurate, and some werewolf themed mysteries as well. Lots of stuff.

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So that’s it for the unlocked bookshelves, but what lies…

IN THE FUTURE

These links are here so that you can return to this post and unlock these shelves, but also so you know what’s on the way.

• December 27th, Even more epic sci-fi

• Jan 1st, Fantasy and Sci-Fi

• Jan 1st, New year, new freebies

• Jan 1st, (and this one is my favourite, so it’s getting a feature on RealPhillipCarter) Dreamweavers. This one is packed with weird worldbuilding and strange adventure.

• Jan 15th, Vault of Heroes

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Slightly more in the future

As my audience grows here and on RealPhillipCarter, I may well apply for those business loans again. My pitch for a sensory-friendly bookstore did interest them, but I’m at present not trustworthy in the eyes of the moneymen.

The primary issue was a supposed ‘conflict of interest’ when a writer applies to get money to make a bookstore (not sure how that works, even if only my own books sold, I’d still pay their loan off) and also the issue of reach. Artsy loans have become a lot like BookTok in recent years, meaning the more popular you are, the more likely it is people will trust you to build a bookstore and not just drink the money. Perhaps I should do a silly dance?

If you see me being stupid on social media, it’s all for this.

All of it.

Apart from the dark jokes. Those are for me.