Where I’m Standing

Image by Ivilin Stoyanov from Pixabay

To My Dedicated Readers,

You may be wondering about the recent drop-off in content, especially here at Tumbleweed Station. It basically comes down to this: I’ve been terribly busy. The reason for my busy-ness was a four-week stint of long days working camps to raise money. The reason for raising money is connected to earlier posts I made about an unpleasant publishing-industry discovery; namely, that I can’t submit for publication stories that I’ve already posted here. That frankly burns me, for the reasons I already mentioned, but it is what it is. However, it did give me an idea.

Since I can’t submit those stories, I decided to rework the best of them — and, in some cases, “rework” means totally overhaul — and write more that you haven’t seen. I finished that, and am currently in the process of putting 13 stories together in a book to be sold on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, etc. Though my first novel “Tredder’s Quest” is still waiting in the VERY LONG submission que at Baen Books, and though I’m still hoping to traditionally publish it, this book of short stories will be a chance to dip my toes into the (potentially awesome) world of Indie Publishing.

Here’s where I am with that: My completed manuscript is in the last stage of professional editing, and I’m working with a different (and fantastic) company to handle the cover design, and interior formatting. I already own the ISBNs for the paperback, hardback, and ebook (and audio, if I ever decide to do that,) and I am feeling SUPER confident that the final product will be great.

Once I have a finished, high-quality product, the next stage is a combination of the somewhat predictable and the somewhat unpredictable. The “predictable” part will be the time-consuming drudgery of uploading my finished book to Amazon KDP, Barnes and Noble (Nook,) Apple Books, Google Books, and Kobo. The less predictable part will the actual book launch, which consists of lining up reviews and making pre-orders available, and potentially making use of services that put my book in front of professional reviewers, so that the book lands with a splash, rather than a horrible gurgling sound. Being an introvert, the second part is a bit stressful to me. However, one thing I’m sure of is that this is a great collection, and that, with the right exposure, it will find hungry readers.

I was hoping for a late summer book launch, but am now wondering if early fall is more realistic. It all depends on how long it takes to get everything on the front end completed. However, once I’m ready, I would happily offer free reads to anyone who wants. Basically, you’d get a free PDF of the book, a reminder (or two) of when the book launches, and a request that you write a thoughtful, honest review. If this is of interest to you, please do reach out to me, as having a sufficient number of authentic reader reviews really makes or breaks an indie book coming out of the gate.

In the meantime, I’ll keep plugging away at my fun foray into Edgar Rice Burroughs-style serial fantasy over on the Short Stories page, and I’ll try to do better with Tumbleweed Station.

Best,

Joey