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.
Went to the In Other Worlds exhibition at the Barbican last week. It’s a collection of science fiction short stories brought to life through audio readings, miniatures, cool sets and videos. It’s about the end of the world, and what we do next. It’s good stuff, so do go along if you’re in London. The Barbican itself feels like stepping into a science fiction story, even before you enter the exhibition.
Some analysis appeared a few weeks back about the prevalence of AI slop on various social platforms. LinkedIn was the worst, Substack fared slightly better. Point is that it’s everywhere.
Just as the AI boosters proudly point out that “this is the worst AI is ever going to be”, by the same logic we can assume that this is the least slop we’re ever going to have.
It doesn’t really matter whether you hate AI, love AI or fall somewhere in-between — something has to be done or the internet (and life in general) is going to be very difficult to navigate. Less clear is what that ‘something’ should be.
Substack have had a go, integrating AI-detector Pangram into the platform. It’s had a…diverse range of responses, shall we say? My current stance is summed up here:
We’ll see how it plays out.
Elsewhere, and because it’s easy to lose sight of the original problem with the current implementations of AI, it looks like the UK government has been funding new UK-based LLMs that are trained on pirated creative industries IP. Yay:
Hopefully the reshuffled UK government will have a more nuanced approach to tech.
Some fun bits:
Started watching season 2 of The Last Airbender with the family. It’s fun stuff, but it really highlights the problems everyone has been discussing about Netflix’s production model. It’s been so long since season 1 that we’re struggling to a) remember what happened and b) care about it. For all the fancy production value, Netflix really are very bad at making television.
I’ve been making my way through Orbital by Samantha Harvey. Although it’s a short book I’ve been reading it quite slowly, as each chapter is dense with considerations. I’m undecided on the overall style (the lack of normal dialogue punctuation I find highly distracting), but it frequently drops fantastically memorable sequences. A section on the Challenger disaster has lodged itself in my brain and I now can’t unthink it.
Finally got round to watching Predator Badlands. I was unconvinced by the tone for a while, but it won me over. Fun stuff, great monster design, and pleasantly stripped-down. It’s Predator with the tone of Star Wars, which isn’t something I ever wanted but turns out to be very entertaining. I hope this doesn’t become the standard for the series, though. Disney sanding down the gnarly edges permanently wouldn’t be a good long-term approach.
Late to the party, we’ve been watching Derry Girls. It’s very funny. The interweaving of real events is wonderful.
Right, I’ll leave it there for today. Remarkably, it’s only a couple of weeks until I debut my new serial The Mechanical Crown on the newsletter. Very excited to share it!
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