Rejected

I got word by E-mail that my submission to Topside Press was rejected. I was copied on the E-mail as a BCC, so I suspect this was a mass rejection.

This is a first for me. My first story, "Shoes," was submitted to TG Forum. They were kind enough to publish it even though publishing fiction wasn't really what their site is about. "Shoes" was on their site for many months until they did a site reorganization, at which point they removed it from their archives. I never did find out why.

Reluctant Press published me with such speed and gusto my head spun. Right up through my last contacts with them, they were polite, courteous and eager to publish me.

When I was looking to self-publish "Alien Body Suit: Under Her Skin," femur, the head honcho over at TGComics.com reached out to me when I posted in the forums there looking for an artist. The next thing I know, we're collaborating on publishing not one, but two of my stories. You all may have seem my posts here about the sequels, which will also be published there. (I hope and expect.)

While the results of my efforts at self-publishing have been mixed, falling about halfway between Reluctant Press and TGComics, they've still been a fun, profitable endeavor. I would have to call that a success.

So getting rejected by Topside Press is, I must say, kind of a downer.

:_-(

Ah, well. Back to work.

The End Is In Sight

I have a tentative release date!!! That date is this Tuesday, 3/19/13. If everything goes as planned, I'll be able to reveal the full title of ABS:UHS, which will tell a lot about the nature of the story itself. Then I can also talk more openly about the planned sequels: ABS:IM and ABS:WLW. Obviously, the "ABS" part of those titles will be clear to all after Tuesday's release.

If anyone is following this blog, I have to confess that I'm very excited and hopeful for this project. I hope it leads to good things for both myself and my publisher. They are taking a very big risk on this project. I want it to succeed. If it does, I'm hoping that it opens up possibilities for other authors of TG fiction.

... And Closer

I got ABS:UHS back from my publisher with the edits applied last night. VERY close now to being done, with publication not far behind. At least, that was the impression I got from the E-mail I received. I'm 110 pages into my final pass through the story out of approximately 225 pages including illustrations. (Illustrations have been done since early summer of 2011.) The remaining revisions are few and minor ("they" instead of "the," some discrepancies between illustrations and captions and so forth). I should be done tonight, with the rest of the work in my publisher's hands.

This will be the first major story I've put out that wasn't with Reluctant Press. I was so close to self-publishing. I was ready to take that on, but with so little money of my own to invest in illustrations, the offer from this publisher to do 100+ illustrations just kind of blew me away. At the time, I thought my chain was getting yanked, but it was a serious offer. And the quality? Light years beyond the illustrations I have had coupled with my work before this. Now 3 1/2 years later, it's coming out. "I can't wait to share this with you," well, those words just don't seem adequate to express how I feel.

I'm getting nervous. Scared, even. I know some people are going to hate it and dump on me. There's always a few people that seem to enjoy going negative. I hope there are more that love it. And buy it. I'm pretty certain that a bad financial outcome will close the door on anyone that wants to follow in my footsteps. I think that would crush my spirits.

I can't stop rereading this story, though. I don't seem to get tired of it. I hope other people feel the same way.

ABS:UHS Update

I got an E-mail from my publisher with the final version of the cover for my upcoming story, ABS:UHS. The illustration - a fun cover that includes all of the main characters in a non-story setting - looks fantastic! I can't wait to share it with the world. This one has been a lot longer coming than I have wanted. Still, I think the wait is going to be worth it. If for no other reason, having something I wrote illustrated with nearly 100 beautiful images by an artist that is known and respected in the community is going to be worth the price of admission.

Yes, you read that right; this one won't be free. Even so, I think that those that choose to pay for the story won't be disappointed. I don't have a price point yet, but I would guess it will be well under the price of my Reluctant Press stories, yet having far more value. I can't rave about the illustrations enough. Some of them will be worth the price of admission all by themselves. Thank you, my artist friend! You know who you are. ;-)

Another One Bites The Dust

I finished another story. Now what?

I had a week off this last week. As I often do, I used some of my extra free time to write. I banged out 28 pages to finish it off. Writing at an average pace of about one (1) page an hour or less, that's more than three days of full time work. The time flew by. I could do it again easily, because it's just too much fun to write. "T_ P_ F_" (TPF, from now on) is now sitting on my hard drive, needing revision, waiting to be polished to a gleaming shine before being published at ... I don't know where.

Like my other unpublished work (ABS:UHS), I will not be submitting it to Reluctant Press. I think I've outgrown them. It's less about them than it is about me wanting more control over the content I create. If I write something and it bombs, I want to know. If it succeeds wildly, I want to know. Most of all, I want to succeed or fail based on the merits (or lack thereof) of my own work.

To that end, ABS:UHS has been extensively illustrated (paid for by a third party) and will be published at some point in the future at a website that won't suprise anyone that follows my writing. As great as that is, I'm looking to publish independently for my next story. I have Lulu and Createspace (Amazon) accounts set up, but I'm not sure which I'll use. I'm leaning towards Createspace, as I think it will get more exposure if I use them. A friend of mine uses them with great personal success.

For now, I've got a several stories with finished outlines and enough pages to know I want to finish them. (C_ O_ T_, MAU:S_ E_ , T_ B_, TotTC:M_ V_) Before I worry about publishing, that's were I'm going to put my focus, starting with COT. Besides, TPF makes reference to a licensed character that needs to be edited out if I'm going to sell it.

Midnight Oil

Not last night but the night before, Tommyknockers, Tommyknockers .... ha ha. No. What I was really going to say was that I got home from Oswego Harborfest at one in the morning and ended up writing until 4:30AM. I was very, very tired after that.

On an upside, ABS - the acronym I'm using in place of my current project's title - is done. More precisely, the added chapter / section I wanted to write to flesh it out is done. I think the new section makes the ending seem less abrupt.

Now to decide what to do with it. Reluctant Press? TG Comics? Self-publish? I can't decide.

As much as I would like to support RP, they seem to be doing well without my help. Femur has big plans for TG Comics and I would like to support that. On the other hand, a straight story doesn't really fit in at TG Comics. As for self-publishing, I worry that I won't do well at all. I suppose the only way to find out for sure will be to try.

Submission

I had more luck contacting Reluctant Press this time around. Ms. Chrissie wrote back with some needed info and I'll be sending in submissions in the near future.

My proofreader is off work again today. Grrr! I want my manuscript back so I can use my notes to make some changes before I submit it. Judging by past experience, not much changes during the editing process at RP, so what I submit is pretty much locked in stone once I send it in.

Back in Business

My proofreeder is back from her vacation in Atlantic City. She didn't take the manuscript with her, but she has read some and liked what she's read so far.

WHEW!!!

My big concern with this story was right at the front end. My original thought was to add in this really outrageous situation to try and sell my Deus Ex Machina. I liked it when I wrote the story, and I liked it all the time it was marinating in my drawer. It was only when I got it out and read it again with fresh eyes that it seemed a little over the top. The fact that she likes it enough to not be put off by the oddity of it soothes my fragile nerves.

On a more frustrating note, Reluctant Press didn't reply to the automated form I sent requesting a contact. I'm going to have to E-mail them directly and hope for a response.

Test Subject

I printed off the previously mentioned sci-fi romp for the purposes of proofreading. Once I marked it up with all the fixes and changes I could find, I turned it over to a friend to read.

She has it now.

With luck, she will read it, like it, and give it back in short order. After I get it back, I'll make all the fixes I can think of before submitting it to Reluctant Press. I hope to have it in print by the end of summer.

Speaking of RP, I think that permanent links to stories there are going away. New stories are added to the main page, and the older stories get pushed over time to numbered pages that go in acending sequence by age. The older the story, the higher the page number. Their new web design may be pretty to look at, but it's going to make it a real pain to link to stories without frequent updates, methinks. Although, I do have to admit that I like the tabbed grouping of stories by classification.

What am I up to?

Glad you asked! After being sidetracked earlier in the year by the possibility of having the tools to do video morphing, I've managed to set that aside and get back to writing.

I have two completed stories at this time that are unpublished. The original plan was to submit them to Reluctant Press, but I'm not convinced that they are as good as I originally thought.

One has a wickedly confusing plot with a lot of body swapping. The shifts in perspective, combined with who is in what body and why is that important makes for a real mess. I think that in the end that it's a good read, but I think it needs to be cleaned up before I'll be satisfied with it. I also would like to get away from magic as a plot device.

The other story is a sci-fi M2F romp. It has a few details that I would like to excise as they seem a little self-indulgent, but is otherwise ready to go. With luck and a little work, it should be submitted to RP in the very near future.

I'm also working on a new story, which also has a sci-fi M2F transition. Like so much of what I write, it may end up a half finished idea. I hope not. I have an outline, and that's always a good sign that the story has a better than average chance of being finished. Right now, I'm trying to make the all important post transition push. Keeping momentum after the change is always my biggest challenge.

Time to stop blogging and do some real writing. Wish me luck!