A few years ago I decided to publish my 2020 serial No Adults Allowed as a paperback and ebook. As with all my major projects, I’d written it in Scrivener.

While I love Scrivener as a writing tool, it doesn’t really work for me as a design tool. Exporting a pretty book is harder than it should be! I turned to Reedsy Studio, and had a good time using it to produce the paperback. Quick and easy, free to use, with decent end results.

Fast forward to 2026 and I’m again looking at book production, this time for Tales from the Triverse. As such, I’m evaluating a bunch of tools and services. Coincidentally, Reedsy also got in touch to ask if I wanted to check out the premium features of the paid version. So here we are.

You can sign up for Reedsy here: https://reedsy.com/studio/?ref=simon

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We get to the big one: making money. Or, at least, it can be the big one, if you allow it. If you want it, there are levers to pull. You may want to simply write and not be sullied by the vagaries of capitalism. Perhaps there’s a happy place somewhere in the middle.

In part 5 we poke at what we’ve done to turn our writing into an income stream of sorts. You may have noticed that neither me nor S.E. Reid are livestreaming from a mega-yacht, so use that to calibrate expectations.

Some stuff that we do cover:

* When to turn paid subscriptions on

* Expectations around growth, time, free:paid ratios and so on

* Why having a non-fiction element can really help

* The unpleasant bits: refunds, chargebacks, strange people, obligations

* The various paid models for newsletters:

* Early access

* Premium archive

* All paywalled / part-paywalled

* All free!

* Pricing, and knowing what to charge

* How all of this affects the sort of audience you are building

* Other options and platforms: Patreon, Ko-Fi, Wattpad

* Hints of ads and sponsorship on Substack

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You’ve planned what you’re doing, you’ve started putting words to the page, and you’ve published some chapters of your serial fiction project.

So…where is everyone?

Part 4 of our Crafting serial fiction mini-series attempts to grapple with that exact question. In here you’ll find:

* Finding readers:

* Figuring out your publishing model

* Whether to mix non-fiction and fiction

* The reality of newsletter growth timescales

* Algorithms and how to not go mad

* How to get noticed on Substack Notes

* BookFunnel, collaborations, podcasts and more

* Handling feedback:

* Most readers are quiet and that’s fine

* When and how to dive into your comments sections

* Responding to positive comments

* How to manage rude and abusive comments

* What to do about constructive criticism and polite negativity

* Community:

* The snowball effect

* Using Substack Chat, Discord

* Discussion posts

* Livestreams

* Recognising names and faces

Plus some other bits and pieces. You know me and S.E. Reid.

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While rummaging through my back catalogue last week, I stumbled upon an old post called Planning your story’s big finale. Allow me to indulge myself by quoting my own writing:

“Eighteen months in, I can see the end. It’s just peeking over the horizon, still a fair ways off but approaching with alarming rapidity. Which means I’m entering into a new phase: wrapping it all up. That process is what I’m talking about today.”

Such confidence! Marvel at the clarity of vision! I am an arrow loosed from the bow.

That post was published in May 2023. As some of you will already know, I didn’t finish publishing Tales from the Triverse until January 2026. We’re not talking about being a few months out here: that’s almost three years later! This is, of course, very silly and slightly embarrassing, and does call into question whether you should listen to anything I say.

You can read that old post here: https://open.substack.com/pub/simonkjones/p/planning-your-storys-big-finale?r=3rwg&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

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We’re back with part 3 of our mini-series all about Crafting serial fiction. This episode is all about writing and publishing, once your serial is going out into the world. You’ve completed your planning and prep and the story is in the wild.

During the episode we go chronologically through the experience of publishing serial fiction, and how each phase brings its own challenges (and joys!).

* Getting started: early chapters

* The hump: getting past the tricky 20% or 20k threshold

* The long slump: being in the middle of it

* Landing the plane: endings

We’ve got a couple more episodes to go in this series, with the next one focusing on audiences: finding readers, building a community, and all of that. Keep an eye on your inbox if you want to watch live.

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And yes, I know, language evolves. I’m 45, so I’m the prime age to be complaining about newfangled words that weren’t used when I was a lad, and all that. I’m very much in the ‘aunties’ age bracket, apparently, according to Time. Why can’t we go back to wearing bowler hats and riding in horse-drawn carriages, dammit?

Language does evolve, and there’s always that interplay between words and culture. That’s what makes language exciting and the best possible expression of right now. Perhaps it doesn’t matter how we describe what we do, as long as we’re still doing it. As a writer, though, I have to come down on one side or another: words either matter or they don’t. I like to think that they do. If the term ‘content creator’ had emerged organically out of some punk underground movement, perhaps this would be a different conversation. The emergence of the term into widespread use seems far more pernicious to me.

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It continues! On Saturday I jumped back onto a livestream with S.E. Reid to talk all about Crafting serial fiction, and this time the focus was on preparation and all the things you need to do and think about before you start publishing a serial.

Don’t be fooled by my rambling and fluffy intro: there’s some good stuff in here (especially from Sally) once we get into it.

In part 2 we discuss:

* The fundamentals: finish the manuscript first, or publish as you go?

* Outlining: plan ahead, or make it up as you go?

* Structure: where are the chapter breaks? What is the narrative structure of your story?

* Themes: staying on track and using them as your compass

* Characters: quick tips for creating compelling character arcs

* Scheduling: weekly? Monthly? Daily??

* Workload: how to figure out how much time you actually have for the project

* Buffers: should you have one?

* Presentation: checklist of resources you need before publishing, from a visual identity to an index

Thanks for watching! Hope it was a useful time. Thanks to everyone who showed up live and contributed questions.

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It has begun! The first part of a live video mini-series about crafting serial fiction, hosted by myself and S.E. Reid. We’re going step-by-step through the process of writing serial fiction, from ideas to audiences.

Before diving into the nuts and bolts, it seemed sensible to define what serial fiction is, at least from our point of view. What define serial fiction, and what isn’t serial fiction? Where did it come? What is its history? Is it a new concept, or has it been around for a while (spoiler: it’s very old).

In part 1 we cover some of this:

* What is the difference between a series and a serial?

* How 16th century serial fiction isn’t all that different to 21st century serial fiction

* The golden age of serials in the 19th century

* Why many of the canon classic novels are the DVD box sets of their time

* Why publishing forgot all about serials in the 20th century

* The impact of television, film, radio and comics

* How the arrival of the internet took us right back to the 16th century

* My hot take on why publishing made a huge error when it abandoned serials in the 20th century in favour of The Novel

In June we’ll be back with part 2, which will be focusing on ideas and prep.

Subscribe so you don’t miss it!

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Well, this was delightful. Just having got back from her US book launch, Eleanor Anstruther joined me for a live chat about the mixed feelings that always accompany the completion of major projects.

We discuss:

* Fallout’s winding road to publication and how it caught the attention of Empress Editions

* How the Tales from the Triverse finale took longer than expected

* Trying to host a book launch when London’s transport network goes on strike

* My print plans for Triverse

* Online communities and meeting cool people

* The button you really shouldn’t press during a live stream

Thank you Mona Mona, Cherry Coombe, Ever Blue | Serial Romance, CPro99, Kell Willsen, and many others for tuning into my live video with Eleanor Anstruther! Join me for my next live video in the app.

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Orna Ross 📚 invited me onto her regular salon live session to talk about serial fiction. It was a whistlestop and detailed examination of the form as it exists on Substack.

* Why I moved from Wattpad to Substack

* Why Substack is an excellent platform for serial fiction despite its many quirks

* Promotion and finding readers

* Structuring a serial and onboarding new readers

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit simonkjones.substack.com/subscribe