Jay Cantrell recently launched his patreon site. If you are not familiar with his work, I highly recommend it, here or there. He was very thoughtful on how he positioned his direct sales and worked within the author guidelines for SOL, for which I applaud him. While I don't have the back catalog of material that he does, I do think if a story is started on SOL and published for free, it should remain freely available.
However, a lot of authors here work share their work for little, if any reward. I think that should change.
I came to this decision when I realized I had written over 700,000 words for "A New Past", investing considerable time in the creation, editing, follow-up, and feedback to that work. It has been personally rewarding, but the time spent writing has not put any food on the table, so to speak.
Of course, a lot of readers have stated they would gladly purchase a copy of some of my stories if they were offered for sale.
I guess this is the time to put that to the test.
I have started a patron site, but intend to follow in Jay's footsteps in a manner of speaking. You can find it using /charliefoxtrot_writer after the site name. I'm still considering if I will publish Kindle editions. For now, I'm sticking to ePub format.
A New Past will complete and be available on SOL, free as it started. However, if you are interested in a cleaner ePub version of the books, with some added features such as a complete timeline of real and fictional events, notes on my writing process, excerpts that were removed from the story, etc. you should check out my patron page. The completed work is posted there already. For SOL, the tale should complete posting over the next two weeks.
Survivors II will be posted here on SOL. If there is more beyond Survivors II, we'll just have to see.
One other story, as yet unpublished, will be going up on the parton site if I gain 100 patrons at any level.
I can state unequivocally, that any new stories in Paul's universe of 'A New Past' will only be offered through my patron site. If readers insist I return to or continue the story, they are going to have to put some level of investment into it. Sorry, but I've tried to end Paul's tale three times now. He needs a rest.
Going forward, I may offer pre-view content to regular supporters on that site, and will definitely have some titles published there that won't come to SOL in the short-term. I have appreciated the stories and most of the community here on SOL, and want to keep supporting it, so this is not goodbye.
I hope all the readers and fans I've gained here will understand and support this approach.
As always, thanks for reading.
-Charlie