Another Story Bites The Dust
Well, it’s been an interesting couple days.
Holy cow, a lot of people sat up and took notice of my post yesterday about ebook pricing. There’ve been almost 200 views of that post alone in the last day and a half! Considering that until now my best month in terms of blog hits was June, with a bit over 500 total, I’m pretty bloody amazed by that. Wow, you comment on two big name people’s blog posts, and look what happens! I was pretty impressed by the people who came by and left comments, too. It made for a fun day or so of discussion.
So thanks to everyone who came by. It’s been a fun couple days, thanks to you all. 🙂
Ok, on to new business.
First, I finished another short story tonight. Lords of the Remnant tells about an alien invasion (sounds cliche, I know, but trust me on this one) from the point of view of an infantryman on the front lines. Through his recollection, we learn what happened earlier in the conflict, and then we’re thrust into the middle of a desperate firefight to repel the invaders. The infantryman sees his comrades dying all around him and is sure he won’t survive either. But then, unexpectedly, he is presented with a choice. The outcome of his choice will have a huge impact on his future, and potentially on the future of all mankind.
It came in at just under 3,800 words. I initially wrote it thinking it would be #5 in a five story collection that I want to release in parallel with Masters. But in proofreading it, I decided that was silly, and I should submit it to a market. I’d thought about sending something to Clarkesworld for a while. They’ve got a quick turnaround, are well respected and well known, and they pay well. So what the hell, I fixed a few boogers in the MS and submitted it. According to their submission site, I should hear back in just a few days. So I guess we’ll see.
Speaking of Masters, it’s going to be a little while still before it’s ready for release. The editor, bless her, has suffered a series of calamities over the last couple weeks, culminating in her computer dying just the other day. Fortunately, she was able to save all her data and get things working again, but her schedule’s been shot to hell. There are a couple people she’s working with who have hard deadlines at the end of this month, so I consented to let her focus on them and get back to Masters as soon as she can, next week. I’m hoping to have everything squared away and ready for release by the 10th, since that’s when my Mom’s book club meets next, and apparently they want to do Masters for the month of August. That’s a good enough reason to set a deadline as any, I guess.
Last but not least, Kris Rusch had another great Business Rusch post today, it being Thursday and all. This one struck home to me, because as I’ve mentioned before I’m seriously thinking about submitting my scifi thriller novel to traditional editors once it’s done, and in this post Kris talks about things to think about when negotiating a publishing contract. And more specifically, what could be a deal breaker in that negotiation.
I left a comment on her blog post. To summarize what I said there, I can see a couple things that would definitely be deal breakers for me in a traditional publishing contract, namely the non-compete clause and the reversion clause. The more I think about it, the more I think I’d want any publishing contract I sign on to to have a limited timeframe, say five years. After that, it’s time to renegotiate. The idea of long, open-ended contracts that could turn into life of the copyright if I’m not lucky is unappealing. A publisher would have to pay me a LOT, a WHOLE LOT, of money to consent to that, since at my age a life-of-copyright contract could extend out as long as 120 years from now. And I don’t think they’ll be willing to pay enough. So shorter terms seems better to me. The non-compete clause is equally unappealing, because at least part of the purpose, these days, of getting a traditional deal is to get advertising for one’s indie published work. And if a non-compete clause put shackles on what I can write under this pen name, that sort of defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?
Anyway, as usual Kris’ post is great. I highly suggest anyone who hasn’t done so go read it. She always puts out great information.