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Roads are paved with the bones of the fallen

To edit or write? What to write? Just submitted a short story for a Fantasy anthology  being put together by Keystroke Medium. Holding my breath is probably not a good idea. The goal is to fail faster. I don’t want to spam others though, but I suppose it is time to re-evaluate my life choices, especially in regards to writing.

I do enjoy Science Fiction but I’m very skeptical any of my books could be called a success. The fantasy short story submission was my first real move toward that market. Of course I’ve submitted my story Aelfsward to BAEN and recieved a very generic “No”. I realize they get a lot of submissions and it takes months before they get around to ‘new’ manuscripts. This is not the first time and while I could keep trying to submit to Baen or other big publishers I think, if I’m honest with myself, they might be a dead end anyways. When I look at the market and the way the world is moving it looks like they are still struggling for relevance. With all the brick and mortar book stores closing down and sinking, Amazon appears to be the future, if not Amazon, then other e-book providers. There are more than a few. Of course it is much easier to get lost in the depths of the e-book sea since it is so vast and anybody can publish but then it is also about freedom.

A publisher dictates what books you will read and how much you will pay and where you can find them. They ignore thousands of books in the hopes the book they select will be a money maker for them. The publisher dictates. With self publishing and e-books the market dictates. You are at the whim of the market instead of some fickle editor who might be having a bad day, or just isn’t in the mood for a story like yours that day.

So.  Should I continue to work on my fantasy series, my new Science Fiction series, or one of my other non-fiction projects (Airsoft or Writing Military SF)?

Either way. Back to the drawing board. Got to keep my head up and keep putting one foot in front of the other. That is all we can do sometimes.

Roads are paved with the bones of the fallen.

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