Assembling the Short List

I’m still attempting to sell Adapting to someone, despite the fact that AR&E owes me my money back and remain out of contact so far.

Fortunately, there’s this list of publishers who don’t mind if you don’t have an agent. Fifty of the blighters.

Some of whom only do kiddies’ books. Some of whom only do nonfiction. Some of whom won’t touch my preferred genre with a 40′ barge pole. Some of whom are only looking for specific genres.

So after I’ve eliminated the impossible, whatever left, however improbable, must be my best shot at this.

The resultant short list is incredibly short. Four. Only four potential publishers and all of them could think I’m shit. Their loss, tbh.

Only after that’s done with can I put Adapting out on Smashwords because I literally tried every option.

For those who are interested, that list is:

• Baen Books
• City Lights Press
• Arthur A. Levine Books
• Dreaming Big Publications

And even then, I think City Lights might be dodgy because they want to see your entire thing. I don’t particularly care that they want a certain set of file formats. If you want the whole thing, there’s a high likelihood that you’re setting up to rip me off.

Fell for it once, suspicious about falling for it again.

Remember, kiddos. The money always floweth towards the Author. Not away from them. If ya gotta pay for copies, then it’s vanity press and not worth anyone’s time.

That, and they don’t definitively have “Science Fiction” in their pull-down list of genres they cover. I might get away with ‘Young Adult’, but I have to remember:

What Would An Entitled White Guy Do?

Everybody else in the world accepts a rejection and backs off. Entitled White Guys(tm) demand to know what was wrong and immediately suggest something else they have in their stable. Which would be fine except none of my other books are Beta’d and edited just yet.

A couple of these folks on my short list want a summary and IIRC one of them wants a one-page summary. I have a tough time sticking to two. I can plausibly cut some chaff from the extant summary. And hope for the best.

I’m doing some of that tomorrow. Today? I’m focussing on my latest novel, B’Nar.

B’Nar is an approximate-ascension culture in which people are literally made for the job they do. Of course, they have sanity time and aren’t techno-slaves. Because that sort of thing causes long-term costs that aren’t worth the investment. B’Nar has gone through the evils of capitalism and come out the other side with benevolence in their best interests.

Except for the entire question mark over whether or not what they’re doing is exactly ethical. A question I will leave up to my readers to answer.

That will probably bite me in the arse at a later date. You watch. Some fuckwit somewhere will claim that I actually endorse slavery and am therefore the devil incarnate.

Just as soon as I get popular enough to earn some hate on Tumblr.

Right now? I’m only Rando Porn Blog popular. That’s where random porn blogs follow/like/reblog your stuff so that their reputation on Google Search goes up and yours goes down. I block/report them whenever I can.

I’ve rambled. This is what happens when I don’t really want to do a thing.