Happy New Year

2011 has been more fun than a barrel of frisky monkeys.  And I mean that in both the ironic and the straightforward sense, which right away tells you what kind of year this has been.

You keep hearing of people saying things like “This has been unbelievable” or “before now I could never have believed.”

For publishing, why don’t we call 2011 the year the world turned upside down?

Let’s leave alone the fact that this year I won the Prometheus Award.  It’s long been a joke in my house that I’ll win awards when hell freezes over.  Well, I hope the little demons have earmuffs.  And of course, of all awards, this is the one I most wanted.  I don’t fully believe it, still, but I’m very happy.  It’s particularly gratifying that I won it for a novel I couldn’t sell for THIRTEEN years.

Then there’s the economic side of this career.

When this year started, I thought my career was nearing its end.  Not that I was as anguished as when this happened before, because it didn’t seem to be my fault, and really there wasn’t much I could do about it.  The publishing industry just seemed to be winding down.  There were articles saying in the future every book would be free and everyone would starve, and I was fighting that idea as hard as I could but afraid it would be like that for a few years.   Also, fewer of my books were selling (to publishers) and at that I was one of the lucky ones who was still working.

And then… And then things changed.  The world turned upside down.  For me.  At some point I realized that the security of traditional publishing wasn’t worth the aggravation most publishers seem to have built in, or the …  Let’s just say in the coming year there will be talk of statements and what relation they bear to reality leave it at that.

So I decided — with trepidation — to do what Dave Drake had advised me, oh…  seven years ago?  Never work for publishers you don’t personally like and respect.  Which, as most of you know, leaves me with Baen.

Baen is not enough — at least not YET — to support me, and besides, you guys know I like to write tons of things that don’t fit the Baen mold.  SO I was pushed kicking and screaming into indie publishing.

It’s been…  Three months? since Goldport Press has existed, and so far I have out two dozen short stories and two collections.  So, how is that going, Sarah?  Well, no, I can’t live from it.  But if I had up all the short stories whose rights have reverted and they earned at the same rate as the ones I do have up, I would be making a book advance from those — from OLD stories, already written and half of them already paid for.  More interesting, the earnings grow week to week, even when I don’t put up new stuff.

And I hear from friends doing this the real money is in novels.

Of which I have about 20 in various stages of completion, which either agent (quite a few) or publishers rejected.  These run the gamut from paranormal romance to mystery to (even) a couple of science fiction that I feel squirmy about sending to Baen, for various reasons.  Some of these novels, really, just need a thorough revision.

So, here’s where I stand at the end of 2011 — I’m if not confident very hopeful I can make a living from Indie publishing and Baen.  I’ve also discovered — thanks to the possibility of Indie publishing and having written a novel I’m still not sure Baen will take because I knew I could publish it myself — that I write BETTER, enjoy it more, and really, can write faster (I know, but it’s true) on spec than under contract.  It’s something psychological.  I’d guess when work is due it becomes “homework”.

My first order of business, therefore, is to crawl out from under the three contracts extant.  Then I’ll start going through the shelved books.  I’d like to bring out one of those a month, starting in February.  Also, of course, I’ll continue bringing out the short stories.

For those who enjoyed my shorts in the urban fantasy series, I intend to write a few more, and publish a volume of Nephilim Kentucky III Investigates.  There will also, I’m so sorry, be more nuns in space.

In the meantime, I’ve got New Year’s preparations to make.  Everyone have a happy one, and may your future be so bright you have to wear shades.

And as a sort of New Year’s Gift (yes, I’m feeling very Russian…  It’s the accent) I took Neptune’s Orphans free on Amazon.

Don’t count on a free short story a week, but I figured you guys could use amusement your last week of holidays…