…Only I don’t really have an ending deadline date, because I know all about best-laid plans.
Singer in Rhunshan will probably, at some point in the next few months, become a self-published fantasy novella.
There were valid reasons to delay this step: my fears, my ego, the complexity of doing this right, my worries that self-publishing this part of the story arc might derail my attempts to get the larger stories in front of Big Five science fiction and fantasy editors, my loathing for most promotional gambits, and my near-certainty that this novella will vanish into the self-publishing aether.
I can find just as many reasons to just hit the ‘launch’ button and hope. It has exhausted its chances at every major pro SFF market that I respected. It’s too long at 17K for many of them, too odd for others, not odd enough for a few, and one editor and I just don’t see by the same light. That’s fine. I’ve written the novella to the best of my current ability, and had some very industry-savvy people give me their approval. I have a decent cover. A good cover designer is looking at turning that into something remotely professional. I know too many other self-published authors who made the leap and are happy, if not rolling in wealth.
In various forms, this story has been taking up room on my hard drive since 1996. It’s time to let it out into daylight.
That’s exciting! I can see both sides of the “publish” or “don’t self publish” angle, especially with a genre novella.
Coincidentally, I also have a 17k-ish Scifi piece I’m not sure where to try to place, if at all.
Novellas are tricky, Jen. Even the erotic romance pubs are beginning to ask for longer works. The pro SFF markets like Tor.com and Beneath Ceaseless Skies tend to want things no longer than 10K to 14K. Check http://www.ralan.com for active SFF markets and their guidelines. Don’t let explicit content in your work keep you from subbing to mainstream markets: times are changing, and big publishers are relaxing their fade-to-black rules.
I know people who linking novellas into 70K to 90K novels for easier pitching to larger markets. (Which SFF writers have been doing for decades.)
At any rate, I think self-publishing has been a major boon for modern novella authors.
Thanks for the market recommendation! I keep hearing about Ralan.com and don’t follow up. I actually had a brush with it being almost-published by a small press a couple years back; it would’ve been the novella and a handful of shorts, collected. But the deal deferred and I managed to disentangle myself from things with no hard feelings. Looking at those pieces now, I know they still need work!
I do agree, self-publishing and the multitude of things that means (POD, ebook only, etc.) has been a boon for a lot of people. So many people know the level of control they want, have a plan in mind, and are savvy enough to have all the bases covered.
I check every SFF market through Ralan. Duotrope used to have great spec fic market listings, but went to a paywall I couldn’t afford. I check every publisher and agent against listings in AbsoluteWrite, Writer Beware, Piers Anthony’s Hi Piers blog, and Preditors & Editors.
Publishers Marketplace is expensive but worth it for real time publisher and agent data. They have a free ‘Lunch Weekly’ email service you can get that delivers the industry’s daily highlights. I also look at sample chapters on Amazon or Smashwords, and at publishers’ and writers’ social media posts.
You’d be amazed at the data you can gain from such basic research. It saved me from committing to unstable pubs before I knew better.