What is this?

This page is the original home of an experiment in alternative publishing.

I'm Lawrence Watt-Evans, author of some three dozen novels and hundreds of short stories, articles, etc. One of my best-known series has been the Legends of Ethshar, consisting (as of 2004) of eight novels originally published by Del Rey Books or Tor Books, and seven short stories that appeared in various anthologies.

Alas, I learned in 2004 that no major mainstream publisher was interested in continuing the Ethshar series. On the other hand, I had several readers saying they desperately want to see more. I decided to see whether enough of them were willing to put their money where their mouths are to finance more Ethshar stories -- and perhaps eventually continuations of other series that no longer have major publishers.

To my surprise, there were enough. My fans came through, and I have now written the ninth Ethshar novel, The Spriggan Mirror, financed entirely by reader contributions rather than an advance from a publisher. The finished novel is available in the archived February 2006 issue of Son and Foe, and in trade paperback form as of January 2007 from Wildside Press, but its writing was made financially possible by contributions from readers during its serialization.

I was sufficiently impressed to try it again, with The Vondish Ambassador

Below I try to answer all your questions about my experiment, but if I've missed anything, e-mail me and ask.

How does it work?

From April to October of 2005 I posted the first draft of The Spriggan Mirror, the ninth novel in the series, chapter by chapter. The last two chapters, along with the epilogue and some endnotes, were posted on October 16, 2005. Below you'll find some options for making donations; each week, if I'd received another $100 in donations (as I always did), I posted another chapter.

If I hadn't received $100 to pay for a given week's chapter, it wouldn't have been posted -- but that never happened. If more than the $100 target came in, as it usually did, the extra was credited toward the following chapter. No one needed to worry about "wasting" a payment if I received more than was needed for a particular chapter. At this point the entire novel has been paid for, but the more money that comes in, the sooner I'm likely to start a new serial.

This system was partly inspired by the Street Performer Protocol, and by the system known as the Storyteller's Bowl, but I've modified them to suit my purposes. Similar things have been attempted before, I'm not inventing anything entirely new, but my model seems to have been unusually successful.

I'm pleased to say I appear to have been part of the inspiration for other such online serials, such as Diane Duane's The Big Meow, and others listed on my Misenchanted Tales page.

Are you going to do more serials this way?

Yes. The Vondish Ambassador is now under way.

Can we read The Spriggan Mirror here for free?

Not any more; I took most of it down at the request of its e-publisher. The Spriggan Mirror is in the February 2006 issue of Son and Foe, an "electronic journal." You can read it in their archives. It may eventually be available in e-book form elsewhere, as well, but I have no plans to restore the original free version.

When I do more serials they'll be free while they're in progress, just as this one was -- but if the money stops coming in, I'll stop writing them.

How do we make donations?

I only found two convenient and reliable methods; if anyone has more to suggest, I'm still interested.

First: You can send checks or money orders made out to:      Lawrence W. Evans      P.O. Box 3912      Gaithersburg MD 20885

Second: You can use Paypal by clicking the button below:

If I haven't read the other Ethshar novels, will this one make any sense to me?

I certainly hope so; every book in the series is intended to stand on its own, though there are cross-references and interconnections. If you haven't read the others, I'd be interested in knowing what you think of this one -- does it work without any background?

If there's something you think isn't clear to new readers, I'm afraid it's too late now to can fix it.

Oh -- and it's been pointed out to me that this story gives away some of the plot of With A Single Spell, and a couple of plot points from The Spell of the Black Dagger. If you were thinking of reading those and don't want spoilers, well...

Why did you do it this way?

First off, my regular writing career is still perfectly healthy -- I've received some worried e-mail about that, and while I appreciate the concern, there's nothing to worry about. I'm in the middle of a three-book contract with Tor, and everything's okay there, if somewhat behind schedule.

However, Tor dropped the Ethshar series because while it was selling decently, my other fantasy was selling significantly better, and they want me to write what will make them the most money. I sympathize with that; I like money, too. And taking the series to another major publisher didn't seem practical, given the realities of today's publishing business, where they want every book to be a blockbuster.

But I knew there were a lot of disappointed Ethshar fans out there, and I like Ethshar and wanted to write more, and this seemed like a way to do it. Strictly as a sideline, though -- even though this brought in far more money than I expected, it's still only a small fraction of what I make writing for Tor. But hey, Ethshar is fun, and having multiple projects going at once helps keep me fresh.

What happens now that it's all been posted?

It's been revised and professionally edited; the final version is roughly 8,000 words longer than the first draft. That final, more polished version is in the second issue of Son and Foe, and has been published on paper by Wildside Press. Both editions contain the complete revised text of The Spriggan Mirror, and the e-book edition includes a bonus short story, "Sirinita's Dragon," that originally appeared in an anthology called The Ultimate Dragon.

What are we paying for?

Now? Nothing. I will still happily accept donations for The Spriggan Mirror, but at this point you're giving me money out of simple generosity, as you would a street musician. Thank you. I'll add your name to the mailing list for e-mail updates on the project along with the other donors, but that's it. (You can also opt out of the e-mails, if you prefer.)

However, if you donated money while the serial was ongoing, it counted as an advance order against the finished novel, and I intend to do that with future serials, as well. Details will be announced when they become relevant.

Donations toward any future serials must be made through the pages for those serials, once they start, rather than through this page -- the PayPal button sends a code saying which project it's from, and I'll credit it accordingly.

Other stuff:

If you'd like to link to this page, or any part of the story, feel free. I've worked up a few little graphics for people to use, if they want.

After The Spriggan Mirror is finally published, I'll be happy to continue writing more stories this way -- not necessarily just Ethshar, either -- though I'll probably take a few months off in between volumes, and I'll definitely need to charge more per chapter. Now that I've done this once I can see that while receipts were more than I'd expected, so were costs, and once I send out all the paid-for books I won't even have earned minimum wage. So consider this one a test, a loss leader, and expect future works to be more expensive. I'm hoping to start the next in July 2006, but that's only a tentative date. It will probably be The Vondish Ambassador, and if that's a success it may be followed by The Final Calling.

I've said above that this is first draft; this is true for the most part, but a very few changes were incorporated along the way. All these changes were very small. The serial version is not the final text.

Please note that while I accurately call payments "donations," this is not a non-profit enterprise and they are not tax deductible.

If you have any suggestions, comments on page design or payment methods, or other things you think I should hear about, e-mail me.

Donations are still accepted, but you'll receive nothing in return but my gratitude and inclusion on the mailing list for updates on the project.

The Spriggan Experiment
How It Works
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
The remaining chapters have been removed in favor of the final version published in the February 2006 issue of

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