A fiction-discovery project for indie authors
Where will ten minutes take you?
One writer. One human-narrated piece of fiction. Ten minutes or less. No sales pitch before the story, no long-term commitment after it — just the writing itself.
What it is
Ten minutes can be enough to discover a writer you read for years
Each episode introduces you to one indie author through one human-narrated piece of fiction lasting no more than ten minutes — a complete short story, a scene from a larger work, a prequel, a character moment, an alternate point of view, or another self-contained piece chosen because it offers a genuine experience of that writer's work.
The goal isn't to summarize a book or reproduce an audiobook chapter by chapter. It's to give you something more valuable than an advertisement: the writing itself.
Traditional book marketing asks you to judge an unfamiliar writer from a cover, a blurb, a review or an ad. 10 Minutes To... reverses that. Listen first. Experience the voice, the storytelling, the world. Then decide whether you want more.
Built for discovery
One episode, many doorways
Episodes live on platforms you already use — including Spotify and YouTube — rather than asking you to join another service or download another app.
But the individual episode is only the beginning. Stories can be found through curated playlists organized around genre, theme, mood, place, audience and length: science fiction, environmental fiction, horror, romance, historical and literary fiction sit alongside collections like Canadian Authors, Artificial Intelligence, Hopeful Futures, or Five Minutes or Less. A single story can belong in several at once, because readers rarely discover books in only one way.
The stories remain.
The playlists change.
Discovery continues.
Listeners and authors can build and share their own playlists on platforms that support them — so an episode keeps finding new audiences long after it first goes live. It's designed to work more like music discovery than conventional book promotion.
See the discovery system →Why 10 Minutes To... exists
Indie authors face an unusual marketing problem
Digital publishing has made books easier than ever to distribute, but it hasn't made writers easier to discover. Thousands of books compete for attention every day, and most promotion still starts by asking a reader to buy something from someone they don't yet know.
For a reader, the risk is more than a few dollars — it's hours of their time. 10 Minutes To... reduces that first commitment to ten minutes.
For listeners, it's a low-risk way to encounter writers, genres and stories they might never otherwise find.
For indie authors, it's a chance to put the strongest marketing asset they have — their actual work — in front of readers before asking those readers to buy anything.
Readers give an unfamiliar writer a few minutes of attention. Writers give readers a genuine piece of their work. If nothing connects, the listener has spent no more than ten minutes. If something does, it may lead to a novel, a series, a backlist — or a writer they read for years.
For indie authors
Not a pay-to-play promotional service
No fees, ever
No submission fee and no participation fee. Acceptance is based on the work and how it suits a listening experience — not the size of your following.
You keep your rights
You retain ownership and copyright in your work. Participation is non-exclusive, and the goal is discovery — not acquiring rights to your catalogue.
Curated, not crowded
Every published episode can point interested listeners toward your books, website or chosen destination. The story stays the focus; the opportunity comes after.
Human voices. Indie fiction. Ten minutes.
10 Minutes To... is being built as a growing catalogue, not a one-time event. Every new episode adds another doorway. Every new playlist creates another path through the catalogue. Every author who shares their episode may introduce their own readers to writers they've never encountered before.
No convention ticket.
No crowded sales table.
No advertising fee.
No requirement to buy first.
Just a story. Just a voice. Never more than ten minutes.