Last year, a couple of weeks before Halloween, I had this idea to write a short, supernatural horror story. At the time, I was deep in the first draft of the short story that became a novella that really wants to be a novel (which has since been titled “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything”), so switching tracks to work on something different was intended to be a quick detour that would give me something to release for Halloween.
Once I got into it, though, Project Ravenswood took on its own life and it went from being a short story that I expected to finish around 3500 words after a week or so, to something I worked on for several months and just finished yesterday, at a little under 14,000 words. I retitled it “Dead Trees Give No Shelter”, and now I have to decide what I’m going to do with it. Part of me wants to hold onto it and put it out as part of the short collection it was originally intended to be part of, another part of me wants to release it right away as an ebook, still another part of me wants to pitch it to a couple of editors I respect, and still another part of me wants to record and release it as an audiobook original.
So I’m not sure what happens next with this story, because I’ve never worked this long on something that’s this (relatively) short, and I’m in unfamiliar territory right now. I do know that I get to do two things:
- I get to erase it from the white board.
- I get to go back to work on the novel.
Oh, and I get to release a new work of creative fiction for the first time in years. That’s pretty cool, and feels really good. However I get this story from me to you, I think you’ll enjoy it … or, at least, I hope you do.
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That’s so great! Like, really really great! Personally, I’d love to hear what you’ve written as an audiobook as well as read it in print form, but however you get it out there is good. Hell, finishing it and wiping it off the big board? That’s got to feel pretty fucking rad.
What about releasing a few paragraphs as a teaser for the eventual short story compendium?
It’s such a short story, there isn’t really anything to release that can stand on its own.
Bauhaus title FTW!
Woot on finishing! shakes pompoms Yay for erasing it from the white board! I can’t wait to read it; however, you decide to get it from you to us. 🙂
Congrats on finishing. However you release it, I’ll be reading it!
It seems like you are being called into the vocation of writer. And not the standard writer but a writer with an interactive relationship with your readers.
I think you’re right. I’m not sure what it means, or how to do it, but I think you’re right.
Congratulations! I look forward to reading/hearing this!
Looking forward to reading it, Wil!
My vote’s for audiobook, but do you have to choose? Why not do both an audiobook and an ebook? Then you could see what the distribution and shelf lives of each were like…everyone would get content, and you’d get precious, precious data points. 🙂
Congrats on finishing a new work of art! I look forward to an ebook or . . . even better, a published collection of stories that I can buy at Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego after listening to you read your own work. I missed your last stop down here and have been sad about it.
Thirding the suggestion of an audio book. My eyes tend to get too tired in the evening to read so I’m ever more relying on audio versions. I am, in fact, listening to your performance of Collapsing Empire right now. You did a fantastic job on it, especially considering how little time you had. The production/editing team must have worked nights!
Keep working maybe one or two stories or books it don’t have to end dose it?
What about a Podcast? Take your experiences with those characters into a series.
Do whatever you think has the least chance for success. Take chance. Dream big.
Send it to the Editors, follow their advice or not, then do the audio book, then be WIl Wheaton. We will be here what ever you choose Wil, we heart you. … is that right? did the millennials understand? I can never be sure….
My only advice is to find a way to charge for it.
It’s not because you need the money – not because you’re leveraging your ‘brand’, but simply because work has value when you charge for it. I know that sounds backward, but it’s true. The better I got at what I do, the larger the pool of people who had sincere and plausible sounding reasons to get it for free — some of these people had deeper pockets than mine and a few of them were well known to boot. The day you flip the switch and say: “This has value, and I’m expressing that value in dollars and cents, thanks for your understanding and support.” is the day that your real audience steps forward and the punters wander off to get free goodies elsewhere. God it took a long time to get that through my head. I was raised to say please and thankyou and open doors for people. I was damned near 50 before I realized that those were all nice things to do, but that if you spend all your time holding doors open for people and no time going through them, many will just treat you like the doorman.
Anyway –
Rock on, good man.
Audio novella released as a podcast series. Just saying.
Oh I am excited. Very, very excited!
If you did it as an audiobook I would be interested in buying it!
In print I think I’d be more likely to pick up a collection than a single novella. But that’s just me of course.
Congratulations on finishing the thing. I look forward to its release, whenever that might be 🙂
For change, make Cory Doctorow or Ernie Cline read your audiobook.
I think you should talk to Audible. They’re making a push for original content, such as Scalzi’s The Dispatcher. I’ve had a discussion with them, and you are A LOT more known than me so I’m pretty damn sure they’d be interested. If so, then you get it to an editor and out as an audiobook. And since you’ve done stuff for them before, I can’t imagine them not wanting you to read it. Just a suggestion. Ultimately, do what feels right, but you don’t need me or anyone else to tell you something you already know.
Hell, release it on Amazon for 1 buck and your fan base will all read it (and if they like it) they will spread the word to all their friends. Then just order your slaves from CritRole to voice act it for your audio version. That will make it even more popular and sell faster so you can raise the price of the book to finally start making some money on the project.
Listened to the story and loved it. Story and narration were spot on and kept me going through the full hour and forty minutes. I definitely recommend the audio as Wil does a fantastic job of bringing the story to life. Well done.