Reading · A Work Of Fiction

After much deliberation, Salome is going to be the last serial novel I publish on Substack.

People make excellent points about why writing serials is fun, interactive and a way of writing ‘live’. It’s widely known that authors like Alexandre Dumas and Charles Dickens serialised their work, and it was once a popular way of writing novels! Plenty of authors (such as myself) on Substack have had fun with serials. They are definitely not a thing of the past.

But here’s why it’s not working for me any more: Dickens, Dumas, Dostoevsky and Beecher-Stowe were publishing their novels in pulp magazines and newspapers, and they were read by the masses. Delaney doesn’t have that kind of exposure. These chaps were being paid per episode for that. On Substack, you can be paid absolutely nothing (because Substack doesn’t really have a good setup for fiction writers), and maybe 1/4 of your email list will read it. This is a different world. Serialising your work is still a perfectly legitimate way to earn some money and soft-launch your book, but now it’s harder than it ever was. As time has gone on, my writing is very much my job, and while I love it, it’s a lot of work and I have to weigh up effort vs earnings, especially when there are ever-growing bills to pay.

That’s not to say I’ll never publish free fiction again, but my newsletters, articles and short fiction will now be taking centre stage. I miss my flash fiction pieces, so expect some more of those at least.

Alongside writing and publishing serials, I’m also marketing the books I’ve already written. I’m on Pinterest, Tiktok, Instagram, Youtube, Threads and my own personal blog marketing my back catalogue. People on Substack will ask ‘why are you doing that?’ but when you’re a full time author and you want to sell books, that’s what you have to do. I don’t have the budget for ads, so I have to sacrifice my time and sometimes my sanity. It does sell books though. In 2025, I leaned more into social media because visibility and reach on Substack had noticeably declined. Rage bait titles started popping up on Notes, and as with all social media, enragement = engagement. Features started popping up out of nowhere. It was suddenly all about Substack TV, then it was Polymarket and now it’s Pangram helping my readers (who I would hope already knew) discover that I do in fact write my own original fiction on here.

It was a rude awakening, but it wasn’t really a surprise. This is a platform like any other. This platform has and needs investment. Paid subscriptions were the goal originally, but obviously they still need other income streams (we all do as creatives). It was a good reminder, really. I was reminded that here, Substack calls the shots, not me. Don’t get me wrong, they have enabled me to find an audience for my work, and they’ve helped me reach people directly via email: people who want to hear from me, and this makes them unlike the other platforms. I have been so lucky to have paid subscribers, which is rare for a fiction author on here. However, I can’t keep going with this workload, when all it is doing is costing me time that could have been spent with my kids or dare I say, writing another book.

Salome is my fourth serial now, and I can honestly tell you that managing the serialisation of a full length novel is exhausting. You have to go back and check each post to make sure the chapter navigation is all linked up, then you have to edit your page of contents all the time etc, and most readers drop off after 1/3 anyway. I don’t have the time (or arguably the voice) to add audio to my chapters, and I’m forever feeling bad about it.

I used to serialise my novels to ensure I got the book written (that gentle pressure of a live audience helps massively) but I’m in a completely different place to where I was when I debuted Oceanus in 2024. I can finish a book behind closed doors now. Serialising helped me get there, but the landscape has changed since I first came onto the scene.

I noticed my mental health starting to slide a couple of months ago, and I dreaded having to keep tapping away at this serial. That’s how you know something isn’t right!

Marketing the books you’ve already written while also trying to market the current one as a serial is really tough. As your backlist grows, so does the time requirement for newsletters, blogging, social media, design, editing etc. It’s a lot, and I’m a full time author!

Does it work for shorter fiction? Absolutely. I could do a 5 or 6 part serial for a shorter piece, but not for a novel.

I’m done.

So, saying that, here is the entirety of Salome for you to enjoy over the summer.

Fans of stories such as The Exorcist, The Dresden Files and vampire stories such as Dracula, Carmilla and Interview With The Vampire might like where I’m going with this.

Salome is a young novice nun from Turin. She’s just confessed to murdering one of her spiritual sisters.

She anticipates the gallows. Instead, she is taken from her home and brought to a clandestine convent near the docks of Liverpool. If she wants to stay, she must learn their ways.

But it’s not easy to prove yourself when your training is exhausting. When she does try to rest, Salome is plagued by a recurring dream. Each night she returns to her village and is summoned to the church. The hooded figure who waits for her is desperate to keep her there, and she has the scars to prove it.

Salome has a gift. Her guardians want her to use it for good, but it is not up to them. God has made her suffer. Demons promise comfort. The road ahead is still unpaved, but all the signs point to temptation.

Enjoy!