This publishing thing is complicated.

This whole publishing thing is more nuanced, complex and ambiguous than I expected.

I didn't go into it completely naive. I was published 35 years ago and I knew that the game wasn't what I thought it was. In fact, the more I researched it, the more complicated it got. That played at least a small part in my not writing for 25 - 30 years.

Of course, Amazon and ebooks have complicated that situation even more.

There are all kinds of things going on behind the scenes that I can't talk about, because it all takes so much time to play out. Their timeline is not my timeline. These developments look hopeful, but you never know. They at least look promising enough to try to go down that road.

But I do sort of miss the; Write a book, publish a book, thing that I had going there for awhile. Of course, this option always exists. If all these other avenues are explored and nothing comes of them, then I can always self-publish. I think self-publishing is gaining more and more credibility. For instance, did you know The Martian was self-published?

I don't go that route now because I like having other people do all the work, I don't have the skills, and I hate promoting.  But when the day comes, I can do all those things. That's always been my fallback position. Fallback positions that were almost first choices are a nice thing to have.

Besides, I've already succeeded beyond what I expected, so it's all bonus from here out.

Meanwhile, I keep reminding myself that writing the book is what counts. Nothing happens until I write the book, and the better the book, the more that happens.

So concentrate on that.