This is rather exciting. Some time ago I heard about Ether Books Ltd., a new venture being set up to deliver short stories to mobile devices via a custom app. I was more than a little impressed by the list of authors that they had signed up, including the likes of Alexander McCall-Smith, Hilary Mantel and Sara Maitland, but I also noticed that they also seemed to be reaching out to up and coming types as well. So I approached them with my CV and after a short while they came back and gave me a contract for three stories: “Convalescence”, “The Birdman of Farringdon Road” and “The Amazing Arnolfini and His Wife”.
So I am more than a little chuffed to be able to tell you that “Convalescence” went live today and can be yours on your iPhone or other mobile device for the princely sum of 59p. If you have an iPhone, here’s a link to the app on the iTunes store. If you have something else, throw it away and get an iPhone I assume you can find the app on your manufacturer’s equivalent. For the moment, you can find “Convalescence” in the “What’s Hot?” section of the app. Hope you like it.
And if you feel inspired to submit to Ether yourself, they are now soliciting submissions. I know at least one author, Trevor Belshaw, who has very quickly got a contract via this route. I have no idea if this is the future of publishing or not, but it’s surely worth dipping a toe into, don’t you think?
[UPDATE: Having checked their site, it looks like that the Ether app is currently only available on the iPhone. But my contract does mention other platforms :)]
Most definitely. And many congratulations on that. It’s both impressive and cool.
Thanks 🙂 I’m fascinated by all the ways in which story-telling is changing right now. All sorts of stuff happening.
Very interesting, Jonathan. Thanks.
And well done on your acceptances!
I couldn’t find a link to any submission guidelines – length, previously published acceptable etc. Do you know if they have these or is it just suck it and see?
Thanks, Sherri! You’re right – they don’t seem to have any guidelines. I do know that they’re happy to take previously-published stuff, because all three of mine that they’ve taken have been published elsewhere in some form or other. But as for length, I think the best thing is to try them and see. Good luck!
Thanks, Jonathan.