Tag Archives: Military science fiction

That First Step Into the Abyss Is a Doozy

Posted on by

Hmmm.  I don’t know whether to be proud of myself or angry.

I’ve stuck to my “traditional publishing first” guns since day one, despite the advice of MANY.  Now, with the opportunities to achieve that waning, I . . . wavered.

I just spent the free time of the day reformatting the manuscript for ASID in order to conform to the Nook Press requirements.  Then I tweaked it, wrote a book description, filled in my metadata and publishing info, uploaded a cover, and voila!  A whole damn book, ready to publish.  And it was so EASY!  I wonder if Kindle Direct is just as smooth?  How does the trade paperback on demand thing work?

I can’t hit that Publish button yet though.  I still haven’t heard from Ace yet, and I do still have the ever-dwindling number of books ahead of mine in Baen’s let’s-give-it-a-deeper-look pile.

So how long should I wait?  How long would YOU wait?

 

A “Pyr”less Effort

Posted on by

Well, the bad news just keeps on rolling.

Got a rejection e-mail, this time from publisher Pyr.  I’m only waiting on a pass from Ace to officially declare I’m batting .000.

Yes, I’m still on hold from Baen, and no, I have not yet submitted to any small indie markets yet, but once this final, delayed rejection comes in, it puts a cork in my fantasy of being pro-published the traditional way right out the gate.  As for the agent hunt, I’ve submitted to 6 major agencies, targeting their newly listed agents who are actively searching for clients.  So far, I’m 0 for 6.

I’m still engaged in writing, working on Echomancer, “Bumped”, and “ILYAMY” intermittently, but I really had high hopes for A Sword Into Darkness.  I even re-read it this last week and sent it off to another reader who had expressed a fascination with the book.  I think it’s good.  What could be the factor turning editors off about it?  What could I tweak or re-write to make it past those initial gate-keepers?

Ah, well.  I’ve pulled down “Bumped” this week and I’m finishing off a re-write now.  It’ll go off into the aether this weekend, along with “ILYAMY”. Maybe I can put my count of pro-published shorts to 3 or 4.

Any advice from the internets?

 

“ILYAMY” Live For the Next 10 Days (or so) – UPDATED

Posted on by

Here you go, a new story from the Improbable Author:

https://improbableauthor.com/ilyamy-2/

It’ll be up for the next 10 days or so, and I am actively looking for your comments, critiques, questions, kudos, etc.  You can either e-mail me or post a comment here or on the story (I’m easy, whatever works for you).

After that, I’ll pull it down, polish it, and it’ll make the magazine acceptance/rejection rounds.  Slushpiles ho!

And, again, this story is dedicated to the memory of Jackie Price Dunn.  I’m not sure if I ever shared my stories with her before her tragic accident.  She was a beautiful soul.  I’m sure my work would have been all the better for her input.

Jackie, hope you enjoy it up there on your cloud, between eternal bike rides.

 

UPDATE:  ILYAMY has expired and is now down.  Thank you all for the many comments and suggestions.  I’m now tweaking it and will be sending it to the various magazines, where I hope it finds a happy, pro-published home.  If you get a hankering to read it before you can see it in a pay setting, just drop me a line.  I’m always looking for feedback!

 

All “Tor”n Up

Posted on by

The Wife has now experienced the momentary confusion of the thin, self-addressed, stamped envelope.

A new SASE arrived yesterday with the anticipated-but-not-desired rejection form letter, this time from TOR/FORGE, Tom Doherty Associates, LLC. She apologized when she handed me the thin envelope, already torn open. She had no idea why I’d be mailing myself a letter and had ripped it open without remembering the submissions, much like I had last time with the rejection from DAW. It was fine though. Like last time, I figured publishing contracts would probably take up more than a page.

That brings the current rejection/acceptance tally to 2 against (TOR/FORGE and DAW (or is that 3 against?)), and 0 for, with Baen Books/Simon & Schuster (on hold for well over a year), Ace/Penguin, and Pyr/Prometheus still yet to report out of the “Big Six” publishers I submitted to. I don’t recall if I mentioned it before, but Random House (Bantam, Del Rey, Ballantine, and Spectra), Harper Collins (Eos/Prism, Voyager), and Hachette (Orbit) don’t accept unsolicited submissions without a literary agent — and a literary agent is pretty much just as hard to get without a contract in hand as a book publisher.

Ah well. At least I won’t be getting any more thin SASEs. All my remaining submissions were electronic. The time is ticking for the obligatory rejection form e-mails, however.

Sorry. I hate to be a downer. If any of the remaining three say “yes”, it’ll be amazing, but if all say no, it won’t stop A Sword Into Darkness. Assuming that happens, I’ll either re-submit to smaller publishers, finally get a pickup from a literary agent, or I’ll just publish it myself on Amazon/Apple/Barnes&Noble and hope it picks up on its own. And separate from all that, I still have a number of projects in the works.

As Dory said, just keep swimming!

Related articles

Attention On Deck!

Posted on by

At ease, at ease. Everyone please sit down.

Welcome to the Improbable Author, my own blog about writing, life, entertainment, books, movies, and family. If you know me, it’s good to see you again — visit often and tell all your friends. If you are new, then please stay a while, read the short stories and chapters I’ve posted here, try out the Radio Play, browse the posts — and then visit often and tell all your friends.

I know writing blogs are a dime a dozen, but I hope you find something special in mine that brings you back. When I’m not working my day-and-night career in the Navy (henceforth known as The Job) or doing whatever She Who Must Be Obeyed tells me (I love you, sweetie!), then I try to be writing.

I’ve had some success with my short stories, chiefly due to the mentoring found on the Baen’s Bar forum. My main focus now is on novel publication, for either my completed military science fiction manuscript A Sword Into Darkness or my in-progress young adult urban fantasy Echomancer. I’ll have more about all of them in future posts.

So, browse around, follow the blog, and most of all — Happy Reading!!