written by David Steffen
2018 will mark some exciting new additions to the Diabolical Plots publishing lineup. As well as publishing original fiction online, as Diabolical Plots has been doing since 2015, these stories will also be collected into ebook anthologies. The main goals of this effort are twofold. First, to find new readers for Diabolical Plots that ebook platforms like Amazon and Kobo will provide. Second, to try to work toward the original fiction breaking even financially–which has not been the case in the past. That will help ensure that I’m able to keep doing this long-term.
For this to work as well as possible, the ebook anthology will eventually need to publish stories before they’re available on the website. So you’ll be able to read them early in the ebook, but you will be able to wait until they’re on the website to read for free. But since the website has a few-year headstart, it’s going to take some catching up.
To this end, 2018 will mark a pretty busy publication schedule to get this plan on track. Also, if you have been a donor or are thinking about being a donor, if you donate at a $5/month level, you’ll get the ebooks early as long you maintain that–and this will be a great year to do so, with an ebook every quarter through March 2018.
I am very excited to see how these changes work out, to make the whole publication more sustainable. Thank you, as ever, for all of the support and feedback you all have given me over the years!
So, here are the books planned for the next 15 months:
1. March 2018: Diabolical Plots: The First Years
–This will include all 25 stories published in the first two years (between March 2015 and March 2017) on Diabolical Plots, with newly commissioned cover art by Galen Dara.
2. June 2018: Diabolical Plots: Year Three
–This will include all 24 stories published in year three on Diabolical Plots (between April 2017 and March 2018), with newly commissioned cover art by Amanda Makepeace.
3. September 2018: Diabolical Plots: Year Four
–This will include all 25 stories published in year four on Diabolical Plots (scheduled between April 2018 and March 2019). Note that this will be the anthology that overtakes the publishing of stories on the actual site, so for about 12 of those stories the first place to ever read them will be in the anthology.
4. December 2018: The Long List Anthology Volume 4: More Stories From the Hugo Award Nomination List
–Same concept as the prior three, assuming there is enough author buy-in, but these have moved pretty steadily, so I think it makes sense to keep going.
5. March 2019: Diabolical plots: Year Five
–This will include all the stories that are purchased as part of this year’s slush window, which of course are yet to be determined. Note that this anthology will publish before any of the stories have been on the site.