Just a few notes and an update of ye olde honeydew.
My reading at the Wayward seemed to go well. The place was absolutely packed, which stunned me. I’m going to attribute that to the draw of Jennifer Brozek and Cat Rambo. During the reading my mouth lost all moisture instantly and the crowd looked more like a smear of colors than individual faces. And, suffice to say, I was in a mild state of panic.
But everyone told me I did fine. I’ve been told that enough that I’m starting to believe it.
My other bit of exciting news is that Timid Pirate has made a book trailer for the anthology I will be in. Let’s see if I can embed this properly:
There’s an honest to god illustration for my story, which I think delights me more than anything else. I don’t make enough money writing to really make a difference, but to have someone make art for my stories fills me with glee.
There may be a reading for that in October, and so if my schedule allows it then I will be reading there as well.
Other exciting news that I keep forgetting to tell people: I have been invited (and accepted the invitation) to join the Wily Writers. It’s a gruop of writers interested in making writing a career and supporting each others in doing so. I’m really flattered to have been invited, and grateful for this opportunity to work more with some really awesome people.
Speaking of, I’ve been considering writing as a career. Over the last couple years I’ve gotten to talk to some SF authors. Published, successful, award winning SF authors. I’ve asked them about the viability of writing SF full time as a career. And… it’s not very viable. Most of the ones I’ve talked to who do it full time either have a spouse that is able to help support them or they live very hand to mouth.
This impression has not been helped by a series of articles (each responding to a previous one) sent around on the Kansas workshop mailing list in which they discuss the fate of the full time novelist in light of the publishing industry being ass over teakettle right now. And discussions of whether being a full time novelist was ever really viable.
And, recently, I did a bit of math about what would make writing viable. I recall hearing (I don’t know where) that $5,000 was a pretty average advance on royalties. Assuming I want to make 30,000 a year, I would need to write (and have picked up) a novel every other month. Looking at the years that are spent polishing up novels so that someone will take an interest in it, that sounds intimidating as all hell. And this is without insurance or vacation or anything. This is just to have 30K declared on my taxes.
This has left me a little depressed about the prospect of writing full time. I won’t be leaving my day job any time soon. But I’ve tried to look at other possibilities. One thing I’ve considered is the realm of romance, especially paranormal romance. I have ideas for at least a few paranormal romance series, I’m looking to join the Romance Writers Association and are building up to submit to a paranormal romance short story contest. This could be awesome or this could really, really suck. I don’t know yet. But my hope is to write stuff I’m okay with in order to pay the bills so I can then write the things I love.
I’ve also gotten some leads on some new places to submit and I’m getting ready to make my first submission to a pro market soon. Or, rather, my first submission since I was 14 and tried submitting a short story to Dragon Magazine. Yeah, that didn’t work out so well.
8/1/2010: Timid Pirate Press’s Cobalt City Timeslip antholgoy 100%. This has been submitted.
8/4/2010: Blood Bound Books’ Rock & Roll is Dead anthology. 100%. This has been submitted and rejected.
8/10/2010: Edits for Cobalt City Timeslip due. 100%. This has been submitted.
8/15/2010: Character creation for the next game I’m running.
9/15/2010: Cthulhurotica submissions are due. After hearing readings from a recent zombie erotica anthology, I felt a bit more brave about submitting to this one. I may even try to write more than one.
9/20/2010: Horror Flash Fiction anthology. Decided against this one due to time constraints.
9/24/2010 – 9/26/2010: Foolscap.
9/28/2010: Romance short story contest is due!
9/30/2010: Next deadline for Writers of the Future. I’m trying to beat Fun and Games into shape with the thought of sending it off.
10/25/2010: This is the due date for Dark Wine and Stars’ Steam Dreams Punk Baby anthology. I’ll try and submit “In the Cards” here after getting some people to read it through.
10/31/2010: Top Secret Project A
11/1/2010 – 11/30/2010: NaNoWriMo.
11/4/2010 – 11/7/2010: Ambercon Northwest.
11/25/2010 – 11/29/2010: Thanksgiving. I will be in Kansas City.
11/30/2010: Start looking for guidelines for the Norwescon Fairwood Writing Workshop.
11/30/2010: Contact RustyCon about becoming a panelist. Done ahead of schedule. They had their Web site updated and I jumped on it.
1/14/2011: RustyCon.
7/31/2011: Wicked East Press’s Once Bitten, Never Die anthology.
No Due Date:
– Edit Submit “Thus Have I Heard” to Residential Aliens. Still trying to beat this into shape. Feedback from the workshop called for extensive rewrite. And now I need to rewrite the rewrite. The latest draft almost gave the girlfriend a migraine.
– Edit “All Fun and Games” with the aim of sending it to pro markets. This needs another pass.
– Re-write “With Fans Like These” and get feedback with anticipation of sending it to pro markets.
Dude, phone conversations are like roleplaying, but with “real” people.
Jen said the same thing. It hasn’t helped yet. =T
Fondle yourself? At least enjoy yourself while soliciting?
The problem that I ultimately run into is that I just feel kind of skeezy doing this. I hate phone solicitors, and so I hate being a phone solicitor. My conscience just wells up and beats me over the head. =T
Oh wow, lots of awesome things going on. Congrats. I am thinking about the paranormal romance invitation I’ve got too. I am thinking about doing it because it would take me out of my comfort zone and romance does well. I even have an idea for it which I have been told I need to write. But it needs to remain on hold until my current project is done.
Have you looked at submitting short stories to pro markets like Andromeda Spaceways, Clarkesworld, etc…? That won’t necessarily bring in the kind of money you are looking for, but it can help; especially as your career grows.
I am looking to submit to more pro markets. I guess I’ve been doing it back asswards compared to other writers. Most will submit to big markets and working down. I got hooked in with some smaller venues and have been working up the courage to submit to pro markets. So, yeah. I’m just trying to polish off some stories before sending them off.