AiIP: The Anti-Amazon Experiment, fin

It's not the end, of course, but it's the last full post I'll dedicate to it for the next while. It's certainly too early to call it a success, failure or anything else for that matter, so I will avoid any pronunciations along those lines.

3024AD- Second Edition Cover

The fact of the matter is that publishing at large is in such a massive state of flux, it's hard to know what the right answer is- and the right answer this moment may not be such the next. I've talked about the new-fangled 'hybrid publishers', which you could (in many cases) file under 'indie', but that, as I've also detailed in a few places, can be a crapshoot. Or you can do it yourself, as myself and many others have, but that market is so saturated with absolute garbage, to say your chances of being the next Hugh Howey are slim is optimistic.

And while the ebook market is growing rapidly, readers are still driven largely by print, and neither of the above options are likely to get you into brick-and-mortar stores, and few in the even you sell to them. Finally, to bring this full-circle, even digital distribution is far from perfect- as I've spent the last few posts in the series talking about.

All of this nutshelling, if you've been following this particular corner of the internet, is not news. Since y'all have been, essentially, following my adventure with this experience, here's what's next (some of which I've talked about before, although not in detail):

• First up is a second edition of 3024AD: Short Stories Series One. This will come via a Kickstarter campaign which will launch on January 2nd. It will serve a three-fold purpose, namely (1) clean up the few remaining editing errors (2) update my family of websites (my own blog and the 3024AD site, which will allow people to purchase the books directly, Bandcamp-style, paying what they want) and (3) to fund printing of physical copies to distribute to brick-and-mortars (there is also a new cover, pictured)
• After that, on to Short Stories: Series Two. Most of the 'B' stories are written (if you've read the first collection, there is an 'A' storyline throughout, with 'B' stories that tie into it), and I am chipping away at that. 
• Throughout, I'd like to expand beyond the current model of self/indie publishing- not only selling in brick-and-mortars, but also places people who read this manner of literature hang out- game and comic book shops, for example. If you have one locally you like, send them my way. I want to move beyond the old model as well as the new, and that calls for doing things differently. The plan is to raise enough to do a decent sized print run, and distribute it to places it will sell. If you know of any, let me know- deanfortythree [at] gmail

 After that, well, we shall see how this all goes. In any case, thanks for being part of my anti-Amazon Experiment, and hopefully you're as excited as I am to see how publishing evolves from here.

-DESR