Tes-Nin's Elbows

It looks like it is time for me to self publish my first short story. In the last few months I've written a bunch of them, and many of them are in submissions various places. I would love to sell all of them to magazines first, before I put them up, but that is probably unrealistic.

I also need to get some experience with epubbing, need a story to podcast, and want to start getting some stuff out top the readers. I am prolific enough (so far) that sacrificing a few stories to this end is no big deal. Especially if they exceed my expectations, which are pretty low.

To clarify that last point, I think Tes-Nin's Elbows is a great story. It's funny, it has lots of clever bits, my wife liked it and my mom hated it. What more could any writer ask for?

But, selling fiction online really needs a presence. Even if the story is actually good (I'll find out soon enough, right?), it will be the only one I have up until I get the next one up. And it will be thirty or so more times doing that before I have a decent, interconnected web of content, which is necessary to snare all those readers. Like flies, muah ha ha ha ha.

So this is mostly just a test-case/DIY workshop for me. Laying down that first brick on the (yellow) road sort of thing. I'll  let y'all know how it goes, when it goes. And of course put up a link.

The other salient points about this particular story are that it is fairly long, I have already written another story in the same universe, and it is ripe for a sequel, or more. If it does well, tomorrow or ten years from now, it has potential for expansion as an IP.

It also has potty jokes, orcs, and a really big hammer.

I'm planning on making it free on smashwords, because I want readers more than money right now. Maybe always keep the latest story free, I haven't planned that far ahead yet. The podcast will be free as well. If I ever get my own web-site, I may put them up for free there as well. We'll see.