It is time this thing got BIGGER.
A free upgrade to FREE FICTION FRIDAY.
This email will cover two main topics.
A massive upgrade to FREE FICTION FRIDAY
The reopening of my writing workshops
FREE FICTION FRIDAY
Free Fiction Friday is a brilliant thing. I am proud of it, and I am glad it has the exposure here on Substack to keep growing organically, even when I am away from the computer. But I’d like it to be more efficient.
I recently invested into three services which I think will make FFF a fantastic platform for readers to find their new favourite writers.
Sendfox, an automated newsletter provider
StoryOrigin, a free book / sample network
Bookfunnel, another free book / sample network
Getting all three at the same time was not cheap, and was possibly outside my budget as an indie author, but I have a grand vision for this thing that I want to realise. It made sense to me to renew my Bookfunnel on the same week I join these other two services, so I can form a multifaceted thing that brings you more and more free stories.
I am moving the regular FREE FICTION FRIDAY posts over to Sendfox, with the goal to increase the frequency of giveaway emails to two a month.
Here’s why I am making the move.
Sendfox allows emails to be scheduled according to the date you sign up, meaning for my work as Realphillipcarter, that you’d get article 1, article 2, article 3 sent in the right order from the date you sign up. This means I can serialise stories with ease, and you don’t need to worry about joining during chapter 10 and having to navigate backward.
Sendfox has an ‘API’ that StoryOrigin can read, which means they can verify the size of my audience on Sendfox. Substack can’t do that.
Having a verified audience means more promoters will trust me and want to work with me. Essentially, I can brag about you.
If more promoters want to work with me, I can join more promotions and bring you more free books.
This will be the new home of the regular FREE FICTION FRIDAY posts, but monthly overviews will still happen here from time to time.
Sendfox will handle the FFF stuff, and Halfplanetpress.substack.com will handle the monthly overviews so the public can see, as well as any reviews for Arts stuff I go to see.
A link will be posted soon.
WRITING WORKSHOPS
Additionally, I am also reopening my Patreon account soon, and will be hosting paid writing workshops. I used to do these between 2014 and 2018 at Edge Hill University, as a society founder and president, and took a long break after graduating to look after family and work on setting up Halfplanet. I’ve worked hard to find the time to reopen the workshops.
To make them accessible, they will be online.
There will also be a chatroom, meaning if you’re in different timezones, you won’t miss out.
I have a masters in Creative Writing, and this is my way of getting back into teaching in a way that I feel is better than the modern classroom. I have been tempted to apply for a PHD again, and maybe I will, but for now I am happy to do the freelance thing, as I feel I can be myself.
The workshops will focus on making your story into the best version of itself.
That includes editorial advice, beta reading within the group, writing exercises, and in-depth conversations that figure out what your story wants to be, where it wants to go, and how it wants to do it.
I want to end by saying that I don’t believe in writing blocks.
Do you?
Since 100% of all 23 voters said yes, I am going to go ahead and copy everyone over onto the Sendfox!