(Edit: Favours is now available in both .epub and .mobi formats.)
Well, it’s finally here! Favours, the first ever Alex Verus novella, is available on this website as of today!
This is actually quite a big event for me – it’s my first ever step into self-publishing. Up until now, everything I’ve ever published has been via a traditional publisher. I’m still intending to keep doing that with my novels, but for short stories and novellas, self-publishing has its advantages. One big one is speed – I finished editing Favours around two weeks ago, which if I was going the traditional route would have meant that the novella would have come out around June 2022 at the earliest, instead of now. I’ve also had a lot more control over the whole production process, and it’s been kind of fascinating getting to handle all of the little details that usually get delegated to my publishers.
Of course, this does come with drawbacks. To set up my website for online sales I’ve had to install and configure a ridiculous number of plugins and pieces of software, many of which have gone wrong in fantastically irritating ways. I think I’ve ironed out all the bugs, but there’s always the chance that I missed one somewhere along the line. If you run into any issues, send me an email via my Contact form (which I’ve also had to rebuild from scratch, and which I’m hoping is now finally working).
Speaking of which, you may have noticed that the site has been redesigned. It’s still under construction, but the majority of the new content is now up. If you run into any issues, let me know.
One final thing I should mention – somewhere along the line, it occurred to me that I could use this novella as a sort of test case for novellas and Alex Verus short fiction as a whole. Basically, I’m using Favours as a way to gauge how much interest my readership has in this sort of thing. If it sells well and gets some decent attention, I’ll take that as a sign that the whole idea of Alex Verus short stories/novellas is worth persisting with. If it flops, well, I’ll take that as my audience’s way of telling me “stick to novels”.
Now, either way, my main job’s going to continue to be “novelist”. Now that Favours is done, I’m planning to get to work on my new series: I’m hoping to start the first book by next month and finish it by around the end of the year. However, what I do after that is going to be influenced by how things go with Favours. If Favours does well, there’s a good chance I’ll make a habit of alternating between novels in my main series that I publish the slower traditional way, and novellas/short stories that I can write and self-publish quickly. Otherwise, I’ll just stick with my old routine of going straight from one novel into another. We’ll have to see!
And I think that covers about everything. Go to my Store page to find out more about the novella, and to purchase it in both .epub and .mobi format, or take a look around at the new site. And for those of you who prefer a more official copy of your books, I’ll be publishing Favours on the Amazon Kindle store next week, on Friday, June 25th.
I hope you enjoy the story!
Additional note: Since several people have mentioned that they’d prefer to use a Kindle, I’ve made a .mobi version of the file available in addition to the .epub. You should now be able to download either or both versions from your ‘Sale Complete’ page, but let me know if you run into any problems.
Fun read – thanks for another window into that world. Epub worked great.
Gary Godfrey
Austin, TX USA
I’d like to read a story from Luna’s or Anne’s pov.
I did enjoy the story and have 2 comments.
1 – Your system emailed me a receipt and for some reason gmail decided it was spam. All the links look proper but you may want to investigate to prevent future issues.
2 – As a story idea, I would like to see a story on how Cinder and Rachel first met. From Cinder’s standpoint, as I have known too many crazy folks.
Have a great day!
I enjoyed this very much! It made me look at Sonder in a new light. I hadn’t paid much attention to the way he changes as a character throughout the series, but he totally does! Super cool.
Btw, speaking as an American, I appreciated your thoughtfulness in including the glossary at the beginning, but I didn’t find it necessary. Nice to finally know what a balaclava is, though!
Pretty sure we need a short story where Richard Drauk fights Iram. Speculation on reddit is he’s a badass fire mage. 😉
i bought favours before there was a mobi edition. is it possible to download it still. the link i have in my email directly downloads the epub version.
Sure, I’ll send you one.
Great story, many thanks for making this available! I loved the change of perspective and pace, as well as the insights you get from looking through the eyes of another character. I’d be keen for more.
Thank you for the story!
Would really like a story from Landis. He looks like the only half-decent Light mage in the entire Council (at least from those who Alex knows about).
I got the epub version and copied it to my Kobo directory so I can read it on my Kobo ereader. Not a terribly complected process even for a luddite such as myself. Looking forward to reading it.
Enjoyed the novella, its’ pace was leisurely and cerebral. Sonder’s story was one of self discovery and how he his personality was seen by Anne,Luna,Caldera et al. An interesting perspective and revealing of a time mage personality. Also enjoyed Caldera being “solid and inflexible” like her mage ability. Sonder is the anti- Alex and his use of his timesight was fascinating, especially spying on his friends.
Thanks for an entertaining novella.
Very much enjoyed it! Interesting to put yourself in a time mage’s shoes. The ending was great, almost like a what would Alex do vibe I got from Sonder.
Thank you.
I decided to buy this from your site rather than Amazon, so hopefully you get a slightly bigger piece of the pie; but thanks for providing the .mobi version to make it easy to email to my Kindle app.
I will definitely buy any of these that you write. This is a fascinating fictional universe and—with the main series coming to an end—any more of it I can get will be much appreciated.
I hesitated very slightly because Sonder was OK in Fated, but quickly became one of my least liked characters in the rest of the series. I bought the story anyway because I trusted you to make it worth reading, and you did, but it made me wonder if this was the best character to use as your test case for future novellas. I know other people share my opinion of Sonder.
This story did not make him all that much more sympathetic to me, but I do understand the character better now (although all of his insecurities still annoy me), and I was happy to have read this.
As somebody else mentioned, I would really enjoy seeing a Cinder-Rachel backstory, or more with Cinder and Kyle.
And of course, anything with Richard— such as is origin story, or what happened while he was in that strange other world. Although I do understand why it would be hard to write anything from his perspective without risking dilution of his character in the main series. If you could pull it off that would be very cool.
Something from Sgt. Little’s perspective might also be interesting. I would like to have some insight as to why normals would involve themselves with that kind of work, knowing how outmatched they are by the things they would normally run into. And also why he stays after some of the things he’s seen and had to do.
Thanks for creating a really enjoyable fantasy series, that pulled this science fiction reader over to the Darkside.