Hello, readers and friends!
I’ve been working on a project for some time now, and I’m finally ready to share it with you. For readers of my mythohistorical Iranian fiction newsletter, Tales from the Bazaar, I regret to inform you that it has been discontinued. From its ashes, however, rises Stardust Press, a small press newsletter featuring community-selected speculative fiction serials, short story showcases, and more!
Stardust Press is the result of the collective effort of four authors (and many more to come). Our writers see this small press as a necessary departure from the demands of online publication. We all share two common goals:
Writing great speculative fiction
Delivering it to the hands of readers
That first goal becomes increasingly difficult to achieve when the current status quo of serialized fiction is to pump out one or more episodes per week. While there are certainly outliers—many of which I follow religiously—the reality is that most web novels suffer quality and pacing issues as a result. And that’s not good for writers or readers.
Stardust Press is our solution. Under a shared banner, we will each be releasing one episode of our individual serials per month. Each of the four resident serials will be semi-episodic in nature, allowing new readers to jump in and bounce between them effortlessly. (Think: TV shows like Supernatural or Star Trek.)
This approach has three key benefits:
Giving our writers time to craft quality fiction
Permitting editorial review for additional quality assurance
Providing our readers at least one fictional piece per week
In addition to our weekly serialized fiction releases, we will be hosting monthly short story showcases (stay tuned for submission calls!), paywalled novel releases, and occasional competitions to select new serials for residency.
As a community-driven small press, we give our readers a say in what we publish. As such, in addition to casting your vote on prospective serials, you can also participate in story progression polls at the end of every episode. We’ll also have dedicated discussion threads for readers who want to connect over their favorite serials.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be introducing our first resident serials and the talented authors behind them. I can’t express to you how excited we are for this passion project to become a reality! We look forward to building this wonderful community and delivering the polished speculative fiction you deserve!
In the meantime, you can learn more about our release schedule and community-building efforts here.
Happy reading, everyone!
This sounds like a great project!
This sounds wonderful! We need more opportunities like this on here that can help Fiction writers get seen. Well done for starting something. Best of luck with it... 😎