Invitation to Writers of Fantasy, Fiction, and Horror

And a few other genres, too

I am writing this article to serve as the first wave in a quest to find a group of dedicated editors and writers of fantasy, fiction, and horror for a new publication, A Bit of Madness.

I have tagged several publication owners at the bottom of this invitation because I know you understand that at the current time, Medium is not a go-to hub for fiction, despite a huge interest from its members.

I would like to change that. I believe that by pooling our resources and knowledge, we can make an incredible impact towards making that happen. I am aware of several efforts across the Medium landscape that are creating paths along similar lines. In the next six months, fiction will be making a bigger splash in the overall mix of Medium content, and this is going to happen with or without us.

I have already prepared a foundation for creating greater visibility for our future writers. By using several social media platforms, and in combination with the efforts of these other Medium publication owners, readers will soon be coming to Medium for their fantasy, fiction, and horror content.

I understand that I am offering a cold proposal, since this is my first attempt at connecting with you. You may research my profile here on Medium, as well as on Twitter and LinkedIn. You will see I am an editor and content creator for two new and rapidly growing publications. I plan to bring the knowledge I have gained from my contributions to these two pubs and apply it to our new publication. With your help and collaboration, I think we have a great chance for success in shifting the perception of what Medium can be for writers of fiction.

My vision is simple. Make our publication, A Bit of Madness, a go-to hub for fiction on Medium.

There are only a handful of top publications catering to works of fiction. In the 165 largest publications on Medium, there are only about five that include fiction as part of their content. Why?

I grew up reading science fiction. Ray Bradbury and Robert Silverberg. I moved on to fantasy with Fred Saberhagen and David Gemmell. Currently, I am enjoying the many works of Brandon Sanderson.

Their works helped shape my thoughts, improved my opinions, and opened my mind and heart to what was possible. Reading the works of these authors, along with many others I have yet to mention, has fueled my passion for writing all these years. Here on Medium I have been writing about leadership and motivation because I believed there was a need and an audience for this type of writing. But is there anything better than world-building — the rearranging of the relationships between the things we know and the things we imagine could be?

Many of you that I have tagged have expressed a similar passion for fiction and have highlighted the usefulness and benefits of fiction in our daily lives. I would love for you to bring that passion to this publication. Share it here. I will work to expand the reach of the work we publish. However, I also understand that the timing of this opportunity may not be right for some of you. You don’t have to respond to me, and I will not tag you further, but do keep this publication in mind, perhaps for a future time.

And even if I haven’t tagged you here, I do have a few questions for you. Would you like to go on this journey? Would you like to write here? Would you like to be an editor here? Would you like to be an advocate for more fiction on Medium? If you answered yes to any of these questions, please let me know in the comments. We can begin collaborating right away.

Of course there will be many more details to work out, but none more important than content. So. . .

Let’s publish your best stories as soon as possible. Let’s help each other produce even better work. Let’s get our stories out to the far reaches of the world. And let’s start right here, right now, with A Bit of Madness on Medium.

Thank you.

Sincerely, Arthur G. Hernandez

Peter Winter, Iain H. McLean, Parijat Bhattacharjee, Kobe Jeremiah, Kyril “MrNiceGuy” Kotashev, Adam Mackay, Simon K Jones, Alex Tucker, Anthony Echiavarri, Michael Thompson, Zac Lewis, Michael Rands, Gerald R. Lucas, Faydra Deon, Elise Edmonds, Michael A. Van Kerckhove