H. J. Smith-Williams

📚 Fiction | ✍️ Substack | 🎥 Screenwriting
BBC-featured & award-winning
£1.5M writing project underway—watch this space

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

So thrilled to be selected as one of the WFTV Kay Mellor Screenwriters’ Lab 2025 Cohort. It really is an honour to be part of the programme which such amazing women & tutors.

You can read more here: https://t.co/FjV9CYs42y

@WFTV_UK

Photo by Mary Wycherley

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

Fictional Publishing News – Week of 16 June 2025
Print royalties slashed, KU payouts stay low, TikTok shifts again—and the UK calls indie books a “slop mountain."
https://t.co/Ti0l1cXiA1

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

Most authors burn money boosting posts. He built a half-million-pound empire in 18 months. Here’s what Steven Aitchison does—and how you can start applying it today.

https://t.co/aNGOPb0Gp4

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

Authors, if you’re still boosting posts from Instagram, you're handing 30% of your ad budget to Apple.

There’s a better way—and you don’t need to be a marketer to do it.

This week’s post breaks it all down.

https://t.co/RegmdEn3pX

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

Finishing the book makes you a writer.
Launching it properly makes you a publisher.
This is how you show up—and how you stay visible long after launch day.

https://t.co/iGnlym4VQc

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

Apparently, it wasn’t prizeworthy. I disagree. Here’s the flash fiction I thought would win (and still think should’ve).

https://t.co/Yq1ddqC3Zj

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

My abandoned novel has come back to life. It started with a careers talk. It became a psychological thriller set in a school that won’t let you go.

https://t.co/MZnRx9wkLh

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

Want to get paid without writing a word? Stephen King’s Welcome to Derry deal is a masterclass in IP control, licensing power, and playing the long game. Writers, take notes.

https://t.co/ipIZAsnCIP

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

I visited my old school for a careers day. Twelve speakers. Six silent students. One strange feeling I couldn’t shake. That day became the seed of The Alumni.

https://t.co/MZnRx9wkLh

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

Follow me if you want to:
• Finish your weird stories
• Publish without shame
• Make money from your writing
This is what I’m doing.
And I’m showing every step.

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

Writers, what’s the story idea you still haven’t written because it scares you?
Mine involves an industrial-size grinder, a dark dystopian future, and an underground organisation of killer women.
Your turn.

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

Want your book to survive past launch day? You need more than a Kindle file. Here’s how to self-publish across Kindle, Paperback, and Audible—without getting buried.

https://t.co/S15Ez1Ro9v

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

I write for people who:
• Love dark plots and twisted characters
• Google “how to self-publish on Amazon”
• Secretly want to burn their draft and start again
If that's you, you’re in the right place.

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

Most writers have talent.
Very few have a system.
The ones who win long-term?
They build both.

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

I used to think:
“I just need one big break.”
Now I think:
“Small wins. Stacked. Relentlessly.”
That’s the £1.5M strategy.

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

Most writers wait for permission.
A deal. A nod. A prize.
But the most powerful move I’ve made?
Publishing without approval.
It changed everything.

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

This isn’t a dream.
It’s a plan.
Turning storytelling into a £1.5M business.
No bro funnels. No fluff. Just real work.

https://t.co/gwtqcmV4Bc

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

Writers:
The platforms that pay are not always sexy.
Gumroad. KDP. Substack. Ko-fi. Email.
Pick 2. Show up weekly.
You’ll be ahead of 90% of creators.

[H. J. Smith-Williams @hjsmithwilliams]

Craft AND cash.
That’s the combo.
I’m not here to write into the void.
I’m here to build a business that respects the writing.