Orphans of Apollo Serialisation
What to Expect
From the ashes of forgotten space dreams, a new era of exploration begins.
It’s just one week until I start the serialisation of “Orphans of Apollo”, so I wanted to give you a heads-up on what to expect - at least what I am planning on right now. If you are just discovering the series, then this is a good place to start.
I started writing “Orphans of Apollo” before the Pandemic, and have been working on it off and on since then, recently completing something which somewhat resembles a first draft. I always liked creative writing at school, telling my parents after I retired from being a pilot, I was going to be an author. Over the years, I’ve dabbled in a few ideas, but this is the first which really built any momentum.
So why the serialisation? When I began writing the book, it was my intention to self publish it as a complete novel, and that still is an end goal. During the writing process, I have been trying to school myself on what it takes to successfully publish a book. A big thanks to Joanna Penn at “The Creative Penn”, her podcast has been invaluable. One of the things which constantly comes up is “you need to start building your audience”, even if you end up being traditionally published. Part of this is having an email list. I always just parked that idea and got on with writing, as I didn’t really know what I would say to people or how I would even start to get people to subscribe.
Then, I accidentally discovered Substack. I received an email from Dan Carlin who produces the amazing “Hard Core History” podcast, advising he was moving his email list across to Substack. He explained a few of the reasons so I thought it work checking out in more detail. I decided then to start my own and write a few posts just to see how everything worked and if I could start to build an email list there. I wrote a few opinion type pieces under the title “From a Certain Point Of View”, but really, I wanted to get on and finish my novel.
During this process, I discovered that some writers were serialising their work on Substack and I guess the rest is, as they say, history. I decided to start releasing “Orphans of Apollo” as a serial here on Substack, for a number of reasons.
The first, I guess, is impatience. Although it’s scary having others read your work and there is a definite fear of judgment, I also didn’t want it to sit there and gather digital dust. Building a presence and a following also takes time, and if you are not putting anything out there, it’s not going to happen. So better start sooner rather than later. Better is the enemy of good, right?
I had never read serial fiction in the past, however after poking around on Substack I found I actually quite like it. I guess it’s a bit like watching a TV show where you know the characters.
So getting to the point - what to expect. It is my intention to publish one fiction post per week from “Orphans of Apollo”. These will be free, so there is zero barrier to entry for those wanting to see what it’s all about. I also plan on posting some behind the scenes and additional content, which will be pay-walled. There may even be additional off shoot storylines which I may or may not paywall. I’m just going to see how things go.
Going into this, probably my biggest concern is time. Although I have a complete draft, parts of it need a lot of work, plus I have a lot of ideas for additional content. Finding time to write all this stuff is going to be my biggest problem. Given I have a full-time job, there maybe a little slippage from time to time, but please bear with me.
This is also a first draft/work in progress, albeit hopefully a very well polished one. So please excuse any typos or grammatical errors. And while we are on the subject, I will use British English. I toyed with the idea of using American English, as this is what a lot of readerships are used to. I actually started writing the novel using American English for this very reason. But, I just couldn’t get used to all those z’s (or zee’s) - sorry.
If you at all value the writing here, I would very much appreciate it if you could spread the word. If you are feel super generous, maybe even a paid subscription. Thanks!
The first episode will be out on the 20th July 2024. Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss and episode.
If you know someone you think would enjoy “Orphans of Apollo” or any of the other writing in “Explorations” please share this publication with them.