The Official Newsletter for ianhedley, indie horror dark / fantasy writer
The Return
Or how one indie author decided it was time to get back out there.
Any of you who follow me will know I have taken a break from social media and marketing over the last six months. Why? Simple. The release of The Carrion Road led me to question why I did this. Why write? Why spend so much time trying to post regularly? Why bother? No one else seems to.
The reward, financially, wouldn’t even stretch to a bag of peanuts. And while a few kind people read and engaged with me as an indie author, to use the terms friend or community would require serious redefinition.
In simple terms, I lost my way. I bought into the myth, disregarded the reality, and turned my passion and joy into the thing I was trying to escape.
The hurried release of my second book and subsequent failure to meet the pre-sale deadline — I’m still serving my 12-month ban from future pre-sales on Amazon KDP— along with publishing a version of the book I wasn’t happy with, thankfully now rectified, stole any joy in the creating. And all because I set myself an unrealistic deadline and thought I had to publish to catch the ‘Christmas Rush.’
There was no ‘Christmas Rush.’
I quickly realised my relationship with the marketing side of independence had become toxic. So, I pressed stop.
I needed time to reflect. My career as an independent author was not turning out the way I had hoped. It was another stress rather than the dream it ought to be. The ‘write quick if you want to make money’ slog had caught me, and the supposedly motivational ‘words written today’ started to sound more like author shaming. I found myself slap bang in the middle of a competition without ever realising I’d entered.
Not to mention the whole social media thing left me questioning reality.
In a word, my head was f****d.
So I took a break. It helped. A lot. And I haven’t been idle. Keep reading and I’ll tell you what I’ve been up to.
Can an indie author build a different kind of relationship with social media?
This is my aim.
Achievable? Good question, but I am reconciled to try. Just as I am reconciled to the fact, I will not sell thousands of books as an indie author. Oh, I can I hear you. What about so and so? Or such and such? And I will remind you, exceptions prove rules, not the other way around.
My success, with a stress on ‘my,’ is not measured by how much money I make or how many books I sell. Nor is it measured by how many readers I have. Yes, I’d love to sell lots of books. Yes, I’d love to have lots of readers. But I don’t need either. The lights will stay on if no one reads a single word I write. I won’t starve if print on demand never receives another call.
And please, slap me in the face if I ever try to kid myself what I write is important. No one’s life will take a new direction on the back of my words. And even if it did, there are endless shelves of books in the absence of mine that will achieve the same ends just as well if not better.
So who do I really create these books for? Honestly. Me. Who is my constant reader? Me. Who never tires of reading them? Me. I am the artist, critic and fan. It is all for me. And you know what, I am absolutely okay with that. Everything beyond is a bonus.
So, I resolved to allow this revelation shape my relationship with social media. I asked myself, what is social media? A medium. A gallery. An audience.
Any evaluation of success in a medium would be the creations within it. Any evaluation of success in a gallery would be the art displayed within. Any evaluation of an audience would be what is seen. With an emphasis on ‘seen’ not viewed.
So I aim to approach social media as simply a medium, a gallery, and lastly an audience.
Over the coming months, I still intend to produce promotional material, but I hope to achieve this ‘in the style of the books,’ more as an extension of the worlds and design. I will try to make everything look ‘cool’. Yes, there will be some AI. But there will be also photography, physical creations, photoshop, original music, art both hand drawn and inked, video and film.
Not quite a one-man show, I will remind everyone out there, my royalties might buy a couple of beers once a month down the pub. They won’t stretch to commissioning multiple artists to create in multiple mediums. So 90% of the time I am the only artist here, and while I might have some ability, I’m not omni-talented.
I will try to use the medium to extend the experience of the books. Making social media an extension of my creative process. And constantly reminding myself, ten people in the library listening to a reading would excite, thirty people in a room would thrill, and hundreds passing through a gallery would make any gallery a stunning success.
No more the desperate chase of followers, or falling foul of bots, or the clamour after reviews. I am going to try to enjoy these last days and make some art.
We’ll see if it works or not.
What’s Next?
I imagine there are some of you out there who would like to know what I’ve been up to over the last six months. I released ‘The Carrion Road’ just before Christmas, though as I’ve mentioned earlier it took me some time to wrestle that book into a form that I’m proud of and one I think is worth reading. It’s an interesting book, and the story of Lauren Miller and her brother Jake takes an unexpected twist, one that even surprised me.
Once I had put that book to bed, I plunged straight into writing Book 3 in the series, ’The Extraordinary Last Days of Jake Miller,’ entitled ‘The Hotel of Ghosts.’ I was lucky, I had a sizeable chunk of the book already marked out — I wrote much of it in parallel with ‘The Carrion Road’ — but it still proved more difficult than I imagined. I am now busy working through the third draft which typically is the draft that precedes review by my editor (still my daughter) so I am hopeful I will be release Book 3, ideally, around Halloween but definitely before the end of the year.
2026, and this break from social media has been solely about mixing up my writing. I’ve written a short play entitled ‘Everybody Hurts’ and entered that into the Summerseat Players New Writing Festival. I am always hopeful, but I really wrote it to motivate my daughter, who is a much better writer than me, to submit her own entry, which she did. So that short play has done its job.
Alongside that, I have been writing short stories. The state of the world and my experience of social media left me wanting to redress what increasingly felt like an imbalance I can only describe as a shift to evil away from good. It is an intense frustration to me that while I love writing, it changes nothing, at least mine changes nothing, and as much as I love magical fiction, horror, and dark fantasy, it felt necessary to say something in a blunter voice. Less analogy and symbol, more a spade is a spade. So I’ve been busy putting together a collection of short stories which I’m hoping I will trailer on social media and release fully for people to read on the website. The downside, I will need to overhaul the website, but, hey ho, why not? Probably overdue.
The stories deviate from my typical fare, and have been intriguing to write.
Over the last six months, I’ve spent most of the time writing a fourth book. It’s a standalone, and not part of the series, ‘The Last Extraordinary Days of Jake Miller.’ This one is closer to a typical fantasy, and set in a world where there is magic, swords, and possibly even dragons. More grim dark than high fantasy, there’s love, of a kind, though it’s a far cry from Romantasy. I hope it will be a worthwhile addition to a burgeoning genre and original enough not to simply repeat, copy or replay the thousands of fantasy novels out there that tell the story of horny dragon riders but never eclipse the wonder and elegance of the Dragonriders of Pern, first published in 1968, by Anne McCaffrey.
The novel, titled ‘The Ballads of John Black-Song,’ follows its titular character as he attempts to survive in an unpredictable world where tragedy is common to all, and horror is too often the singular trope of everyone’s lives.
If I’m lucky, it will be the beginning of a fantasy series, but rest easy, the first book is a complete story in itself and not overly long (for a fantasy novel) at around 110,000 words. What really excites me about this book is I hope to collaborate with an artist friend and create something darkly beautiful that will be truly special.
So watch this space.
What’s planned over on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook?
So why should you keep an eye on ‘@ianhedley2014’ over the next few months. Those thumbs aren’t pricking for no reason.
If you’re brave enough, and believe me entering the world of social media requires courage let’s not pretend it doesn’t, over the coming months, you’ll find short videos expanding Lauren and Jake’s world. There will be pieces about the music and the songs, and more notes from the margins of Lauren’s A4 black notepad.
There will be opportunities to immerse yourself in the lived, albeit fictional, experiences of Lauren and Jake, and there will be a greater focus on young people’s mental health.
If you’re interested, you will hear me speak on the origins of the characters and my journey as an independent author.
‘Be safe, be kind, most of all to yourself..’
ianhedley
Follow me on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook for more insights into these ‘The Last Days’
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ianhedley - Indie Horror / Dark Fantasy Writer 