Book Submissions Looks Like a Sucker's Game

Friends, I'm looking for a publisher for The Return of Dr. Necropolis, and it is a frustrating process. 

Yes, that's me on the cover.

For two reasons, really. First and most importantly, because other people will take the book WAY more seriously if someone else publishes it, even if that publisher doesn't do anything other than stick their label on it. I'm quite sure that I'm gonna wind up doing 99.5% of the marketing myself using AFF, and that's fine. I know what these guys are dealing with, and I already have a platform that I'm more than willing to weaponize. It's just that this whole book-launch thing will go way easier with just a hint of outside validation for folks who need an excuse to give the book a chance. 

Hell, I don't even need an advance! We'd all -- obviously -- be better off using any would-be advance money on graphic design to sell more books.

The other reason is just a restatement of the first, which is that other West Pointers like it when their classmates achieve things. Getting someone else to publish your book counts as an achievement whereas publishing your own book is more of a vanity project. Even if you already own an LLC that you could totally use to publish your book.

Sigh.

I love and hate this at the same time. On the one hand, winning is good, and I have a trophy case the same as anyone else. On the other hand, this really is just my hobby. All I want out of this entire project is to tell my stories to whoever cares to read or listen to them. That isn't the same as wanting to compete in the 100 Butterfly at the Connecticut State Master's Championships. Besides which, I'm retired from competition and not looking to go back.

How many trophies does one 53-year-old man need anyway?

I don't know what to think of a lot of these small publishers. Half of them have 90s-era websites and do social media and marketing work that's less sophisticated than what we do at AFF. I'm quite sure that they have some OUTSTANDING fiction, but this isn't Field of Dreams. Folks won't come just because you built it.

I get that there's a whole publishing industry that I'm not part of, and that folks have connections and reputations within that industry. But from the outside, the vibe looks even more cliquey than engineering felt when I first started doing it. However, I've now been an electrical engineer for 25 years despite having a European History degree, so the idea that I can't figure out how to make this book thing work seems laughable. Maybe my stuff needs an editor -- everybody needs an editor; I'm not hard-headed about it -- but let's don't make it more than it is.

Oh by the way, a quick glance through any website shows overwhelming amounts of fiction for women. I'm starting to wonder if there's some unwritten rule out that that says something like, Most Men Don't Read. The hell of it is, that's probably not even wrong. But it's also not remotely helpful.

Anyway. We'll see if anybody bites on the book. Maybe. Alas, some of these guys take six months to decide what they want, and I don't think that's useful. I mean, it's fine if they send a note and say, "Hey, we're actually looking at this. Please don't self-publish it this year." 

Absent that, however, I've got shit to do.

The would-be podcast/audiobook cover.
Click to hear the Prologue!

My current plan is to release the book digitally, build a paperback version for whatever nutjubs want to buy it that way, and then release the audiobook as a podcast shortly after football season. I figure folks will be looking for something new right about then. 

I plan go two chapters at a time, which ought to run about a half-hour per episode. I've started experimenting with this a while ago, got Rob involved late last week, and think I finally have an audio version that might work. We'll see.

Listen to the Prologue now if you want to hear how it's going.

It's gonna be an uphill slog getting folks to pay attention to the book no matter what. However, it'll be WAY easier with just a hint of outside validation. Absent that, though, we're still doing this. It's just gonna be a little harder to make it work.

Have I mentioned that the second book is already finished and that I already have detailed notes for the third and fourth books? 

Sigh. This whole project is like having a mental illness.