Go All In Or Go Home

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

This is a short post (okay, short for me, anyway) as I’m getting ready for the last session of the workshop.  I don’t know if I can post at all tomorrow, since I’ll be traveling, but because I like you guys (Grin) I’ll cue up the first chapter of the current almost-finished novel in the Thena-verse (but not with Athena.)  I’m posting this a chapter at a time in the diners (Face book and Baen Bar) and will probably take it halfway through the novel or a little beyond.  I don’t propose to do that here, just post one chapter tomorrow.

Anyway, I think they’ve done it to me again.  They being Kris Rusch and Dean W. Smith.  Done what you say?  Well, twelve years ago, I was living a blameless (largely unpublished, too) life, writing about a novel every two years and a short story where lightning struck.  I thought that was the most I could produce.  I mean, I had two small children, a house, cats…

I came back from their workshop writing a short story a week and a minimum of two novels a year.

I’m very much afraid they’ve broken me again.  I think if I’m not worried about the soul killing prospect of having to write the first three chapters, then kill the characters if they don’t sell, because I can always put it out myself, I can write a lot more than that.  Now, you guys might not see all of it (unless you’re really the kind of fan who’d buy my grocery lists — yes, they do have funny comments) since a few will be very, very, very, very closed pen names.  But…  time will tell, right?

Meanwhile I’m making lists of every almost-finished novel nixed by the gatekeepers.

POPcorn Kittehs!

19 thoughts on “Go All In Or Go Home”

  3. Bad enough when our characters start talking to us. What will happen when the Pen-Names start fighting over who gets the fingers next? Of course, Sarah, you’ve had this problem for some time, and have it mastered, right? Right?

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  4. Great article here: http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2011/10/17/the-revolution-coming-to-a-kindle-near-you/
    about the changing world of publishing and the coming revolution in e-books. Check it out.

    But here’s the money graf:

    “Back when publishing was expensive, agents and publishers were vigilant gatekeepers. It cost a lot of money to publish a book and publishers wouldn’t make that investment unless they thought the book could sell — or was of such enormous importance that it was worth putting it out. Amazon can afford to be much more permissive and the distinction between the published and the unpublished writer is about to become much less clear.”

    Back in the 1990’s the college I was working at offered its first class in Digital Photography. It was titled aptly “Digital Photography.” But that wasn’t the real watershed moment. The class still exists, but they dropped off the “Digital” part, and just started calling it “Photography” several years back. In the meantime, traditional darkroom photography, which always before was just called “Photography” is now titled “Darkroom Photography” and it’s only offered every third semester as a specialty course.

    You gotta watch those adjectives people, they tell you where the future is. Right now the adjective “Self-published” is something of a joke when applied to the profession of author, but in ten years, you know what they will call them? “Authors.”

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    1. good article

      one key thing I see in that article is this quote:

      Editors may someday become the employees of authors rather than their masters. I might hire a ‘book doctor’ to tighten up and otherwise improve a manuscript I planned to publish on Amazon, rather than seeking out an editor at an established house to publish my work. Most writers I know welcome the hand of a talented and sensitive editor; we would pay good money (within limits) to have somebody help us craft that final product.

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      1. The day is soon coming when the adjective “electronic” will be dropped from “electronic publishing” and it will just become “publishing” and traditional “publishing” will need its own adjective to distinguish it from the new mainstream.

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        1. I recommend “Archival Publishing” as accurately reflecting the retro aspect of Dead Tree (DT – or will that be confused with Delrium Tremens?) publishing and its ease of shelving.

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    2. Lower costs mean more readily recouped costs. The Publisher/Author doesn’t pay an inventory tax on unsold digital books. This tide is turning and King Canute won’t stop it, merely delay it.

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  5. More books from favourite authors can only be a good thing. But please keep the register of pen names and publications at Sarah A Hoyt. com up to date . Your faithful readers can’t buy what we don’t know about.
    Another thought. Will the move towards indie epublishing (and possibly PoD) mean that we readers will get our hot little hands on books more quickly. At the moment I’m resigned to waiting about a year between when you turn in the manuscript to Baen and the book being published. Presumably under the indie system the gap between finishing the manuscript and publishing the ebook will be much shorter. And that speed of turnaround might help offset the lack of the traditional advance by giving authors an immediate income from the book.
    Everyone I’ve read seems to think that books will continue to be published on paper as well as digitally but I suspect that 2 markets will develop. If that happens, I wonder if we’ll ever get to the point where publishers produce the ebook straight away while the paper version is being prepared,rather than putting them out simultaneously so that the book starts earning and generating a return on their investment sooner.
    Interesting times.

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    1. I can’t speak for Sarah about how frequent her books will come out — or about keeping her site up to date — but I can talk a little about the question of e-books coming out while the hard copies are being prepared. That seems to be the trend with some of the smaller and micro publishers now. I know that at Naked Reader Press, we bring out the e-book first and then the hard copy on the few books we’re doing paper versions of. I took part on a panel of small publishers at FenCon last month, and one of the other publishers said that their policy is to bring out the e-book and then if it sells a certain number of copies, they will put out the hard copy version. The reasoning behind this is that it gives the author a reason to continue promoting the e-book after it comes out. So, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the trend of e-book first and then hard copy expanding, at least among self-published authors and small/micro publishers.

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      2. I welcome that policy on the part of NRP and others (and while you’re here can I say that the new NRP purchasing system for ebooks is a great improvement). As a reader I’m sold on ebooks as the way forward and I find it very annoying when publishers delay putting out a book as an ebook for what seem to be no good reasons (for example until the mmpb is released).

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    2. Melvyn, I have enough properties ALMOST finished, that I’ll TRY to do about ten books of my own next year. And yeah, the website is back priority right now, but I’m going to put up a button to register for updates. Also, I’ll TRY to do the website asap. Promise.

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      1. That sounds great. I hope I didn’t sound as though I was complaining. I know from your posts how busy you are, and you have more pressing priorities at the moment. I suppose I was just trying to say don’t neglect promoting the new books especially any under different/new pen names. I don’t want to miss any.

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  6. Travis Lee Clark,not sure about the THE part, but that was me. Glad you liked the post. And, Sarah, thanks for the mention of Origins.

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    1. LOL. Well from what Sarah has said, the definite article is appropriate.

      It’s funny, I wouldn’t have been introduced to either your or Sarah’s writings had I not caught your articles on e-publishing.

      I will be sure to check out Nocturnal Origins. Werewolves huh? My own book is about vampires…sorta…it’s more or less a parody…kinda.

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