A New Book

Cousins: I've been on writing vacation during April, which maybe you knew, if you happen to have read the notice I sent where I told you that. A glance calendar-ward informs me that April is coming to an end, as Aprils tend to do, which means the writing vacation is coming to an end soon, as all vacations must. So I'll be back in a week with fresh-caught essays and hand-picked LOST analysis for you, just like before, and I'm really looking forward to that.

But for now, I'd like to talk about the next book. Let me lay it out for you.

About a year and a half ago, I tried an experiment. It was an adventure in publishing. Many readers had suggested that they might want a bound copy of the essays they'd been reading, suitable for sitting upon a shelf. I wasn't sure just how many people really wanted such a thing, or if it would be enough to cover expenses of paying people to help me make the book. (Paying people to help me make it was going to be necessary, since paying skilled people for their work is still the best way to make books or anything else, no matter what the tech bros will tell you.) It just so happened that I had a manuscript of essays, with a working title of Very Fine People, and it had become pretty clear to me that it would be something that would be reader-funded if it was going to see print.

That's where the experiment came in. I asked the readership (that's you) to sign up at the Founding Member¹ level of support if they wanted to "vote" for a book, and a whole bunch of you did, which was a truly extraordinary thing for which I am enduringly grateful even though it then meant that I had to undergo the actual (considerable) work of making an actual book.

And it went really well! The books came out last June, and I signed them for founding members and anyone else who bought a copy, and it looked almost exactly like this:

As we came up on year one of the experiment, the question before me was: would all of you who signed up for Very Fine People renew for another year? Was the interest only in a single book, or was this support going to be enduring? So I did what I usually do in these situations: I put it to readers. If you founding members renewed, I said last year, I would take this as a "vote" for another book.

Well guess what? Almost every single one of you renewed. Which means that I am once again enduringly grateful, even though I once again have to do a considerable amount of work.

Because of course this means the plan is to make a new book. I'm still toying with a title, but Owners of the World and Fighting in the Dark are two names that are sitting on top of my mind right now. As before, it will mostly be essays seen in The Reframe, but probably with a bit of a reshuffle and edit and polish, and probably with a bit of otherwise unseen material added in. The release date is still to be determined, but these things take a while to drag across the finish line, so I'd anticipate sometime in the first half of 2026 (hopefully in the early part of the first half but let's see how it goes). The planned formats are paperback and e-book again, though more on that a bit further on.

There are a couple key differences between this experiment and the first one.

First, the project is already a go. Last time I needed signups to make sure the support and interest was there. This time renewals have given me the encouragement needed to begin. Unless the bottom suddenly falls out in some way, which I do not anticipate, it is full steam ahead until we have books ready to ship.

Second, I'm going to ask for the readership of The Reframe to help curate the essays. The last book was something I'd already shaped; this book is going to pull from essays ranging from Jan 2023 - June 2025, and there's no way it can (or should) include them all. I've got some favorites I know will be included, but I'd like my readers to get the essays they found most interesting or helpful or memorable, or whatever other essay-preferring criteria you use.

Here’s where you come in.

1. If you are not a subscriber yet, and you want to get in on this, and you can afford it, sign up at the Founding Member level. You’ll get a signed personalized copy of one of my books right away, and a signed personalized copy of the new book when it arrives, and also thanks by name in the acknowledgement section of the new book. For a certain amount of time, you'll also be getting an email from me to solicit your nominees for essays to include in the book.
2. If you are already a paying member at a lower level, and you can afford to, and you want to nominate an essays, you can upgrade to Founding Member and you'll get the same deal as number 1, above. If you don't want to upgrade (or can't), then just wait around, because once we have nominees, you'll be invited to vote on which of them should make it in the book. Wait for that email later this year after the nomination process has concluded.
3. If you are already a founding member, thank you very much for that and do nothing for now and wait for the nomination email from me. As long as you are still subscribed when the book comes out, you'll get a copy and my thanks.
4. If you are interested in this book but can’t afford that subscription level, hopefully you don’t need me to tell you, but do nothing. I mean it. Please don't give me money if you don't have it. That's not how we run things here.
5. If you’re aren’t interested in this book or nominating essays, also do nothing. Not that you need my permission. (Why am I telling you this? Why are you reading it?)

Sound good?

Here is the button to do the thing!

And here is the button to do nothing!

I'd also like to repeat the reasons I gave last time for publishing this way, because they're still germane as hell.

First, it’s simple. Because I offer a pay-what-you-want model, there’s a lot of different payment levels out there, so it’s administratively very easy to keep rewards at a single level of payment, especially one that already comes with a signed book as a thank you gift.

Second, it’s expansive. Once the book is actually made, it will be distributed on all the usual places (and some of the unusual places), which means that anybody who can’t swing a Founding Member subscription will now be able to pick up an ebook at ebook prices or a printed copy at paperback prices (including a personalized signed one through my local bookstore, just by buying through the author page my local bookseller set up for me). And people can ask their library to get it whether or not they can afford a copy. Libraries are great like that, and I love libraries, as does any writer who knows what's up. So your Founding Member subscription is not just getting you a copy, it’s also making copies accessible to others.

Third, it will give me a trustworthy gage of interest. I've already seen the level of interest that exists; it's more than I ever believed possible and it is more encouraging than you can imagine. On the other hand, if this new experiment shows a lot more interest than I thought there would be … well then, I’ll very likely do more. That's how we get into things that take even more work and expense but didn't happen last time, like hardcovers and audiobooks or reading tours. At what point would we get into those things? Honestly, I don't know; I haven't really priced that out yet. It would be a lot, I think. It's very cart-before-the-horse even to mention it, but it's also the way these things work, so I guess I'll just hitch that cart to that horse here at the end of the announcement.

Fourth … nah, three is probably enough reasons.

There we go.

Thanks as always for reading, and see you out there next week.

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A.R. Moxon is the author of The Revisionaries, which is available in most of the usual places, and some of the unusual places, and is co-writer of Sugar Maple, a musical fiction podcast from Osiris Media which goes in your ears. Seen the city seen the zoo, traffic light won't let him through.

¹ I suppose I should explain the Founding Member level of support. I still call it "Founding Member" even though the newsletter was founded many years ago now, because that's the way it is set up in my payment processor and I haven't gotten around to figuring out how to change it to something more accurate like "Patron Level" or something. It costs $20 a month or $150 a year. Subscribers at this level get a free signed (and personalized, if you want) copy of one of my books, as well as a thank-you by name in the acknowledgement section of new books that come out while they are members. I buy these copies from my local bookseller and send them to my founding members as a thank you for supporting my work, and for sponsoring it for others so that it can be free for all.