What then?
You may wonder: if I’m not really that interested in traditional publishing anymore and I don’t want to participate in Amazon's self-publishing economy, what else is there? The answer is pretty simple: give my work away for free.
I mentioned a little while ago that I started off writing for friends. Little stories (mostly action). I didn’t have any particular commercial ambitions, just a desire to entertain. And I think that’s how it will go from here. I may set up a Ko-fi thing so people can throw me a few bucks if they want to, but I’m not putting up a paywall. Readers can sign up for a mailing list and receive books periodically. It’s that easy.
I’m also planning to open the door to the public a crack so they can get in touch. I haven’t had much interest in doing that, particularly on social media, because I find that whole thing unpleasant, but I might set up an AI agent to sort through the spam and hate mail to get to the stuff that actually matters.
These plans aren’t set in stone, of course. I may change my mind a dozen times between now and the end of the year. I tend to do that. And the exact shape of how I’ll interact not only with the public, but with the mechanisms necessary to distribute my work to readers, is also likely to change. It’s mostly questions now, and that’s okay.