Saturday, November 18, 2017

A lot going on in the publishing world. I'm not ready to talk about it yet. Still trying to figure it out.

Funny thing is, all the changes may work out to be a good thing. Or not.

Still too early to tell.

So that's why I haven't been posting as much.

Vague enough for you?

6 comments:

Dave Cline said...

The publishing world or your publishing world? But yes, plenty vague.

I finished The Gribble's Eye, 73k (need room for pictures). Sitting on it for a bit before I re-read for setting and character enhancement.

Starting a new one, no more YA this time. My copy editor may find herself blushing (my mother). Takes place during same era as my first, post apocalypse, eastern seaboard, where I grew up.

You still working on your sci-fi?

Duncan McGeary said...

Both, but especially mine.

I want to see how it plays out before I talk about it.

I'm kinda slow right now with my science fantasy book. Weirdly enough for someone as prolific as me, it doesn't take much to knock my off my stride. It's just that I'm very ruthless in making sure nothing like that happens. Except when it comes from somewhere I didn't expect.

Congrats on finishing the book! Yeah, sitting on it is a good idea. The longer the better, and if you can set it aside again after that, even better.

Write what you want, man.

Dave Cline said...

Because fogged glass begs for a palm-heeled swipe...

1. Someone has asked you to ghost write, or contrib-write a story for/with a mainline author.

2. Someone has asked to take a set of your novels to publish in another country / language.

3. Someone wants to convert one/some of your novels to another medium (comic, graphic, TV, movie).

4. Someone wants to hire you as a consultant on a media project.

Close?

Duncan McGeary said...

Hah. I wish.

But since no one reads the comments, my current publishers are basically falling apart. The first publisher has been MIA for some time, the second publisher sold to another publisher but is now folding and my third publisher is also folding.

Weirdly enough, this has opened up new opportunities, and it looks like I might be better off for having it happen!

Dave Cline said...

Well, shit. Can't say I wouldn't have expected such eventualities. Probably is rather disconcerting for you personally, connection wise.

This industry seems to be one of the last holdouts anyway. Newspapers continue to shrink and die. Magazines too.

One of the wrinkles I'm now trying to smooth out are the ISBN and UPC codes one needs if one wants to own one's work -- fully. And they're not free, whatsoever. As I consider this necessity (one obviously doesn't need one's own if one uses Amazon's, or a publisher's) I was thinking that a consortium of authors, all joining forces to build a self-publishing mechanism, might be an idea to shift publishing into the 21st century.

Say a membership gets you 1 ISBN 1 UPC number published under the LibroLibre (or whatever) Free Book Author's Consortium's ISBN bundle. And the authors all pitch in to self-publish each other's work.

It seems the industry is ready for a massive shakeup. Digital only distribution with arrangements with all the other book distro centers might be a way out if not up and over or through.

There are probably already things like this out there...

Duncan McGeary said...

Like I said, this has actually turned into an opportunity.

It turns out the all three of my publishers reputations are good enough to interest other publishers. Whereas my books were somewhat static with the current publishers, there's a good chance that new publishers will put in new effort.

I've got feelers with 3 different publishers, all who have seemed interested. One of them would do all my books, but I'm wanting to see if I can spread it out a little more, to give me an opening to more than one publisher.

The one publisher who has already accepted some of my books also specializes in reprinting out of print books, so we've signed a contract for my 80's books, which is total bonus!

The very definition of Creative Destruction.