Category Archives: Publishing

Discussions about the business of publishing.

Things That Make Writers Cranky, Things That Make Writers Happy

Posted on by

eBook cover for Ghost Trouble--The Case Files of Eli MothersbaughThings That Make Writers Cranky

Working on a story for a week or more, juggling nuance, testing for subtext, reading for continuity, trying to understand your own theme so that you’ll understand what the story is really about even if no one else ever does, doing all the things you know to do to make a story work.

And knowing all the time you’re sweating over the thing that, at this point in time and with the condition of the short story market, there isn’t any darn place anywhere that you can send it.

It’s no mystery why many writers drink. The real mystery is why they all don’t.

Things That Make Writers Happy

Milestones. We like them, probably because there aren’t that many. Unlike growing self-confidence and Writer’s Arrogance (a separate topic), there just aren’t many indications that you’re making progress, or getting it right. There are a few: your first non-form rejection (harder to parse in email, but possible). Your first re-write request. Your first story sale. Your first anthology invite. Your first novel sale. Your first award (any award) nomination. Your first “Best of the Year” nod.

One problem with a “career” that lasts more than a few years is that, after a while, you start running out of milestones, and as I said before, there aren’t that many to start with. Makes it a little harder to figure out where you stand. So I was pleased no end to finally hit another milestone last weekend: I walked into the local Barnes & Noble and found Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter on the “New SF/F” shelf. Now, granted, this isn’t the first time I’ve been in a book in a bookstore. Happened a lot with an anthology. But my one previous novel sale was to a publisher who specializes in selling to libraries, so the book didn’t get general distribution. I’ve had three other collections, but most collections don’t get general distribution either. This was the first time a book that was “MINE! ALL MINE!” was in a bookstore that I could walk into and find it there. Just like any other real book.

So another first, and I was positively giddy. And, trust me, I haven’t been giddy in a long, long time.

FYI: I’m slowly working through my backlist in an attempt to make everything that is currently available, currently available in all formats. So GHOST TROUBLE: THE CASEFILES OF ELI MOTHERSBAUGH now has a print edition. For those of you who like your books to be, you know, tangible.

Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter Giveaway

Posted on by

Final-CoverI’m breaking my relatively normal late week silence to announce that Scott Andrews at Beneath Ceaseless Skies Magazine is giving away two (2) signed copies of Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter. I’ve only signed three copies total and Scott’s giving away two of them. All you have to do for a chance to win the first copy is leave a comment on the Contest Page listing the title of your favorite Lord Yamada story, and why that’s your favorite. Scott has helpfully given links to all the Yamada stories that have appeared in BCS, so if you haven’t read any of them, you can correct that immediately for your chance to win. The second giveaway will be through a contest on Twitter. I’ll give details when there are any, but the first one will probably be the easiest to get in on.

Contest aside, BCS has rapidly become the premier venue for literate adventure fantasy, so if that’s your cup of tea, you’ll find a neverending pot brewing there. Check it out.

Clockwork Phoenix #4, ToC

Posted on by

CP4

Mike Allen just released the official Table of Contents for Clockwork Phoenix #4, in which I am in good company:              

The official launch date is June 2013, with a launch party and author readings at Readercon in July. I like Readercon, though it’s not likely I’ll be able to make it this year. Sounds like a blast.

Clockwork Phoenix #4

Posted on by

Not a bad way to start the new year. Almost literally. I got a request from Mike Allen, the editor of the Clockwork Phoenix anthology series, for a small tweak in the story I’d submitted. The request came in just before midnight on the 1st, I approved it, and the confirmation of the sale came in just after midnight, January 2nd. So my slightly surreal, modernist fairy-tale, “Beach Bum and the Drowned Girl,” will be appearing in CP#4.

Pleased as I am about that, it’s not really what I wanted to talk about today, other than to note that “Beach Bum and the Drowned Girl” has something in common with “Three Little Foxes,” an entirely different sort of story that appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #105 last year– those were the only two usable stories I wrote last year. Right. All year. While 2012 was a pretty good year in some ways, so far as writing progress goes, it kind of sucked. While I’m not the most prolific writer I know, I’m usually more productive than that. I generally manage 8-12 stories a year, and usually sell most if not all of them. Those two stories I did write were, in my humble opinion, pretty good ones and I sold them both which makes me happy, but they shouldn’t have been alone. 2012 was a fallow year. Continue reading →

Rose Petals in the Grand Canyon

Posted on by

WRITING 02I don’t know who said it first, since the saying has been attributed to many people over the years, but it goes something like this: “Publishing a short story is rather like dropping rose petals into the Grand Canyon and listening for the thud.”  As you’ve probably deduced by now, as a general rule there is no thud. If you’re lucky, a few people will care enough to comment on the story–pro or con–when it’s posted, and if you’re really lucky two or more readers will get in an argument about it which will make other people want to read it just so they know what these folks are on about. But mostly you publish a story, whatever the venue, and in a month or so it’s as if you didn’t do anything at all. This is not a complaint, mind you, but for most writers slogging in the short fiction trenches, it’s just the way things are. So when you get some recognition beyond that, say an award nomination or Best of the Year nod, it tends to perk up your day.

All by way of saying that “In the Palace of the Jade Lion” from Beneath Ceaseless Skies #100 was listed in Lois Tilton’s Locus Online year-end review as one of her favorite stories of the year. I’m glad. It was one of my favorites, too.

Happy New Year. May we all have something to celebrate this time around. Heaven Knows we could use it.