Write More with Simon K Jones

Earlier in the year I co-hosted a mini-series called Crafting Serial Fiction with S.E. Reid which turned out to be rather popular and well-received. Turns out that talking with Sally seems to result in good conversation, and we didn’t want the conclusion of the mini-series to be the end of it.

Hence we have this ongoing sort-of-podcast Reid and Jones, which is set to be a monthly, hour-long discussion show where we mull over whatever has caught our eye in the writing scene. Sometimes we’ll bring in guests!

In today’s episode we cover these essential topics:

* Can we write without serialising our work?

* The benefits and pitfalls of being influenced by television and movies. Can it be useful? How does it lead us astray?

* Writing Cliché: in this regular segment we look at a well-known truism and ponder whether it’s actually true, let alone useful. This month’s cliché under the microscope is: “Write what you know.”

* Sally thinks you should put butter on toast before peanut butter. WTF

Let us know what you think about these topics down in the comments. Especially the peanut butter one.

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

Authors have always been the target of scammers and those trying to extract money from vulnerable people. This may seem like something of a paradox, given that writers famously tend to be broke, but apparently nobody told the scammers and criminals on the other end.

I’m going to keep it fairly brief today but this is something worth shining a light on, so that we’re all equipped to identify the tricks being used against us. By the end of this you should be well armed to spot these things when they show up in your inbox.

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

I’m 45 years old. That isn’t especially old. nor is it especially young. It’s right in the middle. They should come up with a name for that period.

This halfway point in life is when we start to build up more time behind us than we have remaining up ahead. As children we have no concept of time, with a week feeling like an eternity. As teenagers we think we’ll live forever. In our twenties there is time enough to do everything and anything we put our mind to. Slowly, with each subsequent decade, we wise up to the fact that we really need to crack on if we want to achieve anything in life.

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

Last week I wrote about the many dubious covers that have accompanied my story The Mechanical Crown over the years. You can read that here:

What was missing was a conversation with Shane Bzdok, the designer behind the new cover that adorns the new serialisation. That’s today’s video, in which I chat with Shane about his process, and the path we took from inception to completion.

Do check out the newsletter, where you can see the visuals accompanying the conversation.

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

Here it is, part 6 of our 5-part mini-series on Crafting serial fiction. As is appropriate for a series all about serials, we ended up running over slightly.

This episode is something of a wrap-up. What are your options once you’ve completed the serialisation of your story? You have a manuscript ready to be transformed into other forms, so how can you make that happen?

We natter about some of this:

* Trad publishing, self-publishing and hybrid publishing

* The DIY route and how much to do yourself

* Software to use

* Ebook and print-on-demand distribution

* To Amazon or not to Amazon

* The concept of the Collector’s Edition

And a bunch of other stuff besides.

Huge thanks to S.E. Reid for being up for this series and sharing her wealth of knowledge. And, of course, to everyone who has showed up to the livestreams and watched the replays via the newsletter.

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

Betteridge’s Law of Headlines states:

“Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.”

When journalists and reviewers frame a title as a question, it intrinsically suggests the presence of significant doubt; otherwise they would simply state it as fact.

So, is Deckle a Scrivener replacement? No. Not yet.

At this point I imagine the more pressing question is “what the heck is a Deckle?”

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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