Every story I write is designed so that a new reader can start it without any prior knowledge of my previous stories. However, my stories often feature standard products from a fictional store, and I inevitably spend a little time describing those products for the benefit of new readers. In my latest story, The Will Chaser, I have introduced the pamphlet. So when I get to the point when I would normally be using fairly standard text to describe a product, I can now say "(see the pamphlet for details)" (Warning: the pamphlet contains cartoon nudity) with a link to the pamphlet. Experienced readers can pass over that without reading whilst new readers can click on the pamphlet and read it through, and then return to the story. I designed the pamplet in Word and saved it as a PDF, and then loaded it in the same way as a picture.

It occurs to me that this device could also be used for universes. Personally, I never read a universe story because I haven't got a clue about the ground rules, and can't be bothered to go researching them before commencing a story. But someone could produce a pamphlet for the Whately Academy which briefly describes what it's all about. When another author writes a Whately Academy story, they provide a link to the pamphlet so that new readers could quickly and easily find out about the universe before reading the story.

Maybe that would encourage more readers (like me) into reading the stories. An idea worth thinking about?