Ghost Little continues to grow its audience. I could not be more pleased with the most recent developments.
That's why I'm doing an update about Ghost Little's free books.
We'll get to them in a hot second.
First, as part of the discipline, I don't like speaking "to camera," as they say. You aren't meant to directly talk about what you're doing. You're supposed to stay on topic to educate your readers and help them learn why chosing your work is the best solution to their problem. To be clear, I help solve your boredom problem with remarkable writing.
Nevertheless: my website, my books, my rules, I can make an exception. Even The Rock has cheat-days. So, regarding the free books...
\\\ You're invited to explore this shared universe as it expands itself.
What's that a picture of?
It's electrified wood. That's Ghost Little. It's paper with the lights on. It's free books in an age where we have the technology to build a community around a conceptual idea.
There's so much room in the world right now for precise, studious creativity. Furthermore, we're in a great place where you all can get a look at how the creativity works. I was recently watching the heartbreaking Coen brothers' film Inside Llewyn Davis. The main character tells his sister to throw away a box of his old demo records from when he was a teenager, stating, "You don't put your practice material out there in showbusiness."
A lot has changed since 1961. Free books don't just live forgotten somewhere, they live on your phone. We live in a world of software patches, yearly iterations, and a "ship it, fix it, ship it again" attitude. Free books are the backbone of this operation. Observing the development is as much a part of the drama as the material put to page.
\\ Ghost Little is literature-as-a-service.
In addition to avoiding conversation and direct promotion about the books themselves, I also avoid giving them high-minded, extra-modern labels.
Ghost Little is a series of free books. The non-existant paper it's printed on doesn't change the writing's sincerity. How you interface with the writing should make all the sense in the world, considering how you interface with all other media each and every day. You interface with Ghost Little's books digitally. You read them on your phone, or your Kindle, or an app on your iPad, the same way you'd read almost any book.
But Ghost Little is also iterative, living, and always being updated. I'm not special for having this ability, I'm just using the tools at my disposal the best I can. I don't have a marketing budget, I have a blog. I don't have a printing press, I have a computer. I don't have an editor, I have iteration.
Today, this site featuers first-chapter samples for five different free books. Don't worry, the chapters are designed with a decent length in mind: roughly 3000-4000 words each, which clocks in at about 30 minutes of reading time, introducing you to the setting, characters, and conflicts, contained in an isolated story.
You can find the full selection of free books on the downloads page.
It's iteration. I can't afford to wait around. I need to market while I produce.
\ New chapters are being written.
Someday, I'll charge for a full-length book download. I'm not sure which of the five books will be completed first. I alternate between working on one or anther to forget what I've written. It keeps my editing skills sharper and less biased.
I'm counting on audience input to help me decide which book I should pursue completing first. That's why whenever somebody downloads a free book sample, they can check the box on what their favorite genre is. Each of Ghost Little's free books falls into a genre. New readers should feel welcomed by their preferred type of story while entering a greater interconnected narrative landscape. Again, this is by design. I'd go mental if I had to keep writing fantasy, or mystery, or dystopia-themed stories forever and ever.
Discovering what the audience desires most will guide me. If I had written one book and presented it to an audience, and they wanted none of it, then what have I produced? I need to interact with people, and lucky for me, I have the technology to do so.
For now, know that there is always progress, you can cast a vote for your preferred genre when you make a download or subscribe to the blog, and I keep the lines of communication open.
Tell a friend. Tell the friend to tell a friend. Let's do something original.
