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So, here we are two chapters into The Blue Beyond, the first serial to take place in Pockets Universe. I couldn’t be more excited.
The Blue Beyond is the first of many different stories that I am planning to tell in this expansive universe. Those stories will be published serially, released every week or two until the conclusion of a “season.” A story may have one single season (like a mini-series in TV terms), or multiple seasons. O
The entire “idea” behind Pockets Universe and what we are building here is a unique one. Many stories, told serially, all set in the same sci-fi universe.
Reaching the decision to do things this way was a long and arduous process. Ultimately, there are many reasons why I decided to handle publishing my stories this way.
1) Historically I’ve written a lot, and published very little.
That’s kind of my thing. I have dozens of stories sitting somewhere between 20%-75% complete. Many of those stories might be expanded into fully fleshed out stories within Pockets Universe, in fact.
I was (and am) tired of writing so much and never publishing anything. I was always re-writing. Workshopping. Nothing was ever “good enough” to try to secure a deal or release independently.
Pockets Universe is a way of holding me accountable. As I grow my readership, they’ll have their own expectations. It will keep me writing, but more importantly, it will keep me publishing. Even when I am not 100% sure my writing is perfect — because it never is.
2) I’m getting older, and the traditonal publishing grind isn’t for me.
Here’s the thing. I am in my early 30s. I don’t really consider that old in the grand scheme of things. But me and my wife are expecting our first child, due Christmas time 2020.
This means that the last ten years that I’ve spent lollygagging and working on dozens of different manuscripts now feel like a waste to me. I still hadn’t published anything and I was now going to have much less time to write for the forseeable future.
I had to be realistic. I’m not going to have time for going the traditional publishing route. I can’t query hundreds of agents and go through all of the denials for another five years, just hoping that something sticks. I also don’t want to wake up one day, be fifty years old, and realize that I have never published a single thing that I wrote.
Pockets Universe is my own playground where I can publish whatever I want, whenever I want, without worrying about how it will effect my chances of “making it.”
3) Relying too heavily on Amazon’s platform strikes me as a bad idea.
I’ve always been the “independent” type, although If I had my choice between self-publishing on Amazon or getting signed and going the traditional publishing route, I would almost certainly opt for traditional publishing. But that isn’t really a viable option.
Here, at Pockets Universe, I have opted for self-publishing outside of the Amazon platform. As each season finishes up, it will become available on Amazon for a low cost for the whole season. But it will not be available on Amazon Kindle Unlimited, because that requries exclusivity and I don’t feel like building my entire writing presence on their platform is a sound long-term choice for me.
So, I have opted to set out on my own and build this thing from the ground up. Yes, I won’t gain access to Amazon Kindle’s massive readership without being available on Kindle Unlimited. But I will build my own readership and email list organically. And I’ll own it. That’s important to me.
4) I want my stories to be easily accessible.
Platform-agnostic. Eventually, I’d like my works to be available anywhere and everywhere, for free. Audiobooks on YouTube and in podcast format. Written formats posted here on the main website and on popular fiction sharing websites like Wattpad and RoyalRoad.
Part of me feels like traditional publishing, for newer writers, takes away the powerful platform that the internet provides for building an audience. Once you have an audience, you have a lot more sway in how those conversations go.
5) I want to build something substantial.
Not to take anything away from writing for the sake of writing, but I was growing tired of writing a bunch of disconnected stories and have always wanted to build one big, fully fleshed out universe for my stories and characters.
With Pockets Universe, every story no matter how big or small, all builds toward something greater than itself. Once we have a few stories finished, the universe will start to feel more alive. That is my hope, anyway.
6) The serial format gives me motivation and clear, bite-sized steps toward a larger goal.
Publishing for an audience gives me the motivation that I need to keep going. When I know that people (even one person) is reading, I feel that I have to finish a story just so that they can have an ending.
Additionally, the bite-sized style of publishing a chapter per week gives me a clear goal for each week, and a manageable workload.
Having a completed first draft sitting in front of me that I must now edit feels daunting. A single chapter is more manageable. That’s the idea, anyway.
