It has to be really.
I was always a reader because I love stories. I love watching them, reading them, listening to them, even playing them. I reviewed so I could find new stories and tell people about them. Now I get the ultimate dream for anyone who doesn’t write, isn’t a creator of stories, I get to put stories out there that you might otherwise never get the chance to read.
The thing is books, even ebooks are just one medium for stories. Stories can be told in a multitude of ways and I love that! I love that changing the method of telling changes the story. I quite deliberately don’t seek audio rights from authors and I keep exclusivity periods short because I believe this:
It’s all about the story.
Selling or giving the story to a podcast doesn’t devalue an anthology or novel. It’s a new entity and it supports the telling and retelling of the tale. Stories that appear in FS anthologies appearing in other anthologies or magazines doesn’t devalue our anthologies. A Fox Spirit anthology is a particular collection on a particular theme, collected according to our values and preferences. It’s an entity that is more than the sum of its parts. Besides, it’s generally standard to note when reprinting where the first print was and that helps spread the name of Fox Spirit Books, a thing I approve of.
I mention this now for a couple of reasons, to remind my wonderful skulk of writers that they are free to submit their stories to podcasts and for audio and that Nun & Dragon’s exclusivity period is a month or so past now, so they should be looking for other opportunities to spread those tales too.
The other reason is that on the 13th July at Edge Lit in derby we launch Noir Carnival and Spacewitch will be launching as a part of that event. The brains behind Spacewitch, Del Lakin-Smith shares this view and we will be seeking new and interesting ways of engaging with readers and making it about more than selling books. It’ll be about sharing stories, growing them, being part of them. You don’t have to write for us to be part of what we do. We love getting reader photos, we would love to support people in sharing our stories so if you have ideas contact me on adele @ foxspirit.co.uk and lets see what we can come up with together.