Hello, Substack!

My name is Ken McConnell. I’m a late convert to the platform. For my first post I’m going to tell you who I am and what I expect to accomplish on Substack. That way you can decide if following me is worth your time or not.

First off, I’m a writer. I’ve been at this side-hustle for over a decade now, primarily publishing my own work. I have a SF series known as the Star Saga and a Cybercrime Mystery series under the pen name of Johnny Batch. With over a dozen published novels under my belt, I can safely say I know very little about the business. If I knew more about it all, I would probably not have to introduce myself.

At the height of my writing career, I was churning out two and a half books a year and selling just enough to earn membership in SFWA. But after COVID hit, my productivity fell and I endured a two-year period of the doldrums in which I wrote very little and published nothing. I lost my day job and then had to start over at a different job, this time working remotely. It was all a big adjustment and it took a while to get back on course with my creativity.

My primary goal for Substack is to increase my audience as a writer. My plan is to produce at least one post on a weekly basis. Since I’m a writer and there seem to be quite a few of us on the platform, I’ll be keeping the focus of my posts to writing. I’m not going to tell you how to write or promise that you’ll learn how to be a successful author by reading my posts. But I will promise you an honest take on what works for me. Learning how other’s operate is an education in itself. I know I’m always curious about how other writers do things. And I hope you’re interested enough to keep coming back to find what I have to say about my process and my journey.

I don’t plan on monetizing, at least not right away. If I suddenly have thousands of readers though, I’d be foolish to not take advantage of it. Since I don’t anticipate that happening anytime soon, just sit back and enjoy the ride!

I’ve stripped my online presence down to just a few outlets. If you want to hear what I have to say about writing, please subscribe to this Substack. If you’re more curious about what I had for dinner, or what my dog looks like, then please follow me on Mastodon. If you think my book covers are pretty cool and want to know how I build the models used on them, then please head on over to my blog. If you want to read one of my books, just type my name into Amazon and I’m sure you’ll find my stories.

I’m looking forward sharing my writing journey with you, I hope you’ll subscribe and come along with me.

Take care out there!