I Need Your Help to Put my Book Together

Your comments and likes count more than ever.

From September 1st to the end of 2023, I will rely on your comments, likes, and the open rates to help me choose the best 100 word stories I’ve written. My intention is to create the very first collection of these stories. The first book will include, you guessed it, one hundred stories. So far, I’ve written over 120 such stories. In the next four months I’ll add another 120+, bringing the total number to choose from to almost 250! That’s a lot for me to filter through. Sure, I have my favorites, but I want to involve you in the ones I select for this collection. I realize not everyone wants to leave a comment, so here’s how you can “cast your vote” and become an integral part of my book:

1. Leave a comment. I will even count comments that say “this was terrible.” Although, I hope if you’re leaving a comment it’s to say something nice or constructive…

2. Hit the Like button.

3. Open my email.

Yes, these are in the order of how much each will weigh when it comes to scoring. So, leaving a comment will weigh much higher than Likes or Open Rates when I’m scoring each story. The scoring will be a bit more “nuanced” because I’m going to try to do a 1 – 5 star rating based on the three criteria above plus how I feel about the story as well. I could just go by the Likes and Open Rate which are more statistical but who wants a book put together by stats alone? I know I don’t. So I need to put a bit more human emotion into my decision making. Of course, this means that if I like something written in these next 4 months that gets zero comments and zero Likes, I will include it in the book anyway. It is my book after all!

I will grab all the stories that received a 5 star score and put them in the book. When I came up with this idea my biggest fear was having over 100 stories with a 5 star rating. But now I’m worried I may not have that many. Then I’ll be forced to take the 4-stars which bring its own unique challenges.

WHY NOT DO THE FIRST 100 DAYS?

Ah, well, I thought of this too. But I felt that would be the easy way out. Sure, some of these are written in a particular order or go together and to separate them wouldn’t make sense. I have an idea when it comes to those particular stories. But if I were to just take the first 100 days it would be leaving a whole lot of amazing ones on the table. I feel like I’m getting better at writing these over time so it stands to reason that number 300 might be far and away better than number 52 in my list of stories. I want to try to give them all equal opportunity.

WHAT ABOUT THE STORIES WRITTEN FROM MAY – AUGUST?

Since those stories are for paying subs only now, as they are archived, I will go back through them to rate them based on two of the three criteria above and my own judgement. Some of them do have comments left prior to being put behind a paywall and I will take them into account as well.

YOU MENTIONED STORIES THAT GO TOGETHER. WILL THEY STAY TOGETHER IN THE BOOK?

Of course! However, I must really love all of the stories in order to put all of them in. Now, what doesn’t count are the Substack Name Publications or any “themes” I may have thought up of at the last minute or that were intentional. Another example would be the Tarot decks or Pentober. I don’t want to devote an entire month’s worth of 30+ days when I only have 100 to choose. That would be almost 1/3 of the book! If it’s a pair or like “the 7” then sure, they might go in the book and be kept together.

WILL THERE BE MORE THAN JUST THE STORIES IN THE BOOK?

This is where it gets interesting. I will include a few sentences or paragraphs alongside each story that will give a bit of background to how it came to be written. If I choose any publication name stories I will, of course, reference that Substack specifically. I want to have more than just 100 pages of stories but not distract from them either.

TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE EDITIONS?

If you hadn’t heard there will be TWO different and very distinct versions of this first (and every subsequent) collection. This is how they will be distinguished from each other:

• Size: One will be 7.5 x 7.5 and the other will be 8 x 8. Yes, I am going to make these collections into a square shape. Each story being just 100 words I think visually it makes sense.

• Hardcover vs Paperback: The Special Edition will be hardcover. The regular edition will be paperback.

All paid subscribers will receive the hardcover special edition version in the mail. US/Canada shipping for monthly subscribers. For global shipping you must be an annual or founding member. This reward is for every collection I print. Hardcovers will never be available for purchase outside of subscribers. That will be the only way to get your hands on these.

Paperback versions will be available for purchase on Amazon and other online outlets.

As an added bonus for the hardcover editions, they will include more than the standard 100 stories. That number is still being worked out. But they will ALSO include 100 word stories that have never been (and will never be) published so you can only read them if you are a paid subscriber to get the book in hand.

Will there be an ebook? At the moment I’m leaning towards no. However, if I can figure out how to make the unique formatting design of the paperback book look just as visually cool as an ebook then I will do so but only for the paperback. The ONLY way to get your hands on the hardcover is as a paid subscriber. Have I convinced you yet?

ONE FINAL NOTE

I really want to thank all of you for silently pushing me to write these stories. There have been many nights where I just didn’t think I had anymore ideas. But then I see how many I’ve written so far and I think of all of you who’ll read it and maybe like it and I push myself just a little bit. Just one more story. Now, I don’t worry as much about if I’ll write my story but what my story will be about. I still hope you’ll like them but that’s par for the course when you’re a fiction writer.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about release dates for these two editions? I’m thinking Summer 2024. If by some miracle I’m able to push that up to Springtime, you’ll be the first to know.