Tag Archives: publish

The Question Has Been Put

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So, stupid man that I am, I’ve sent a query to Baen Books regarding the current status of my on-hold manuscript for A Sword Into Darkness.  In the last two years (first submitted it in August 2011) it has gone from submitted to the Baen Slushpile, pulled out of the Baen Slush into a group of 40 books requiring further consideration, then to a group of 15 books, then 9 books, and now who knows.  Baen has a lot of stuff on their plate and I have nothing but respect for them and the situation they are in, working through whether or not to take a gamble on an unknown author or not.

But on a personal level, it’s maddening.  The manuscript is not accepted or rejected — just in Limbo — and like the souls stuck in Limbo, it’s not Heaven nor Hell, it’s just . . . blah.  Kinda there, not sucking, but not great either.  Indeterminate.  Frustrating.  Lame.

The work over the last couple of weeks on the self-publishing / Stealth Books imprint route has been exciting and productive, however.  I’ve got a proof-ready copy of the physical novel ready to ship, with a kick-ass cover and a professionally formatted interior (all thanks to the guidance and ministrations of Jeff Edwards).  It’s been awesome working on it with Jeff, but he fully knows and understands that I would throw a 100% of it aside if Baen or another traditional house only would say “yes.”

I should have an answer or more questions soon.  I’m quite nervous right now.

ASID Full Cover 2 Desktop

Cover Contest!!!!!

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Happy Friday and hoping you’re all going in to a wonderful weekend.

That being said, you’ve got some work to do first, so no shirking your responsibilities, Mister/Miss!  I’m proceeding on the depressed assumption that my standing queries with Baen and Ace are not going anywhere fast, so it behooves me to move forward with the Stealth Books e-publishing option.  This is much more of a do-it-yourself affair, so I have done the cover myself, but I can’t decide on exactly which one to choose.  This is where y’all come in!

Please peruse the following covers and pick which one you like best (i.e. which one is most enticing/professional and would instantly make you WANT this book).  I eagerly await the judgement of the internets.

Cover 1, centered title.  This one is standard, but the title might be more difficult to read in a thumbnail on Amazon.

ASID Ebook Cover 1 Desktop

Cover 2, the “Z” layout.  This one makes more effective use of open space and pushes the Sword of Liberty further back.  Oh, and if you noted it’s not as bright as the other pic, that’s easily fixable.  Specifically, which layout is best?

Aegis Ebook Cover 2

Cover 3, the “S” layout.  This one uses the pic from the first post, but maximizes title size for thumbnails.

Aegis Ebook Cover 3

And that’s it.  If none of these appeal, or one appeals particularly, or you think a particular tweak is needed, please leave a comment below.  Otherwise, absolutely please vote in the following poll.  Multiple visits and votes are allowed.  May the best cover win!

That First Step Into the Abyss Is a Doozy

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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?

 

All “Tor”n Up

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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!

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