One of the things that surprised me when I posted about the dire situation I find myself in is how many friends and followers came out of the woodwork wanting to help. In particular there's a buddy of mine I have known since highschool who apparently is friends with a literary agent.
He suggested I put together a query letter, synopsis and the first three chapters for whichever of my novels I felt stood the best chance of approval. I assembled all of that for him and mailed it off, but it left me feeling as if there must be more I could do to help myself.
Yet more friends, dear to me beyond measure, have intervened with advice and encouragement. One of them told me I should put all of my short stories and novellas, which are too short to be published on their own, into anthologies. They are grouped by theme: The Institute, Scifi, Horror and Scifi-Horror.
I was surprised I had enough for 4 anthologies between ~89k and ~120k words each. Here's the breakdown:
- 'The Institute' stories (89,393 words, 156 pages)
- Scifi (121,205 words, 211 pages)
- Horror (95,422 words, 164 pages)
- Scifi-horror (104,567 words, 177 pages)
Even so, there were stories that didn't fit anywhere in these themes, like "Okay I Guess". Perhaps one of these days I will write more comedy, just to have enough material for a comedy anthology. For the time being however, this is plenty.
Four huge anthologies, plus eight novels (Including the ones on Amazon). This is enough that, if I could find publishers for all of it, I ought to be able to live comfortably off the residual income. I've had an alternate livelihood prepared all this time, I still don't know for sure what held me back.
If necessity is the mother of invention, then desperation is the mother of motivation. It certainly is an act of desperation to power down hundreds of dollars, but with any luck it will buy me the time I need to finally monetize my writing through traditional channels.
I might still be in for some hard times in the near term. There might be nothing I can do about that. But finally getting the ball rolling on traditional publication gives me some hope that things may yet take a turn for the better.
Thanks For Your Support!