Never tell me the odds!

Got a couple more rejections from small publishers this month. It was a bummer for certain when I got those emails, but at least I got a response. I know that's not even a common practice anymore. Because of a huge submission volume I understand why a press would have the policy of "silence means not interested," but as an author I'm not a huge fan of what feels like flinging my manuscript into the void and not knowing if you are going to hear back from someone.

I have a Query Tracker account and logged back into it after years of neglect to see if there was anything to glean from the community regarding the success rates for any of the small presses where I submitted my novel. It's a self-limiting approach because I see only results from other people who posted, but I figure it's better than just guessing. Not surprisingly, most showed a sub-1% success rate. Long shots for certain, but like many other writers I want a traditional publishing contract. Conventional (internet) wisdom says it's a numbers game, so for now I'm going to keep digging through the haystack and hopefully come up with a needle. Trying to channel my inner Han Solo with his disdain for knowing the odds.

Drafting the new novel during this month was decent. I had only a few "zero word" days and more than a few days were I got in over 1k words. As a result, May yielded just under 15k words, and my total so far for the manuscript is 24k words. I built up some really good momentum the first two weeks of the month, but then things stalled near at the end. It wasn’t that I got stuck, but instead I struggled to find the right tone. I found myself more than once deleting entire paragraphs because it just didn’t sound right. I muddled through however, and feel better than before about where the story is heading.

In writing-adjacent news, I’ve got an application in for a book fair this Fall. Last year it was held in the large parking lot of a library and there was a big turnout and I sold some books there. It was a good time, so I'd like to go back. I've also been reaching out to podcasters to see if I can land an author interview. It's been harder recently to get responses and engagement, but I'm not sure why. The few writing podcasts that I follow have been putting out regular content, so maybe they're being more selective with having author interviews. Finally, I got a (small) royalties payment from my previous publisher for 2025 sales. I'm still happy that people are buying my books, so I'm concerned less about where the decimal place is on the check and more that readers are still finding my novels.

As for fun things related to reading and writing, after I finished Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, a Star Wars novel written in 1978, I tried something more recent from the Star Wars EU. I picked up Path of Destruction, and while it was fine what it really made me want to do was replay Knights of the Old Republic. Luckily it was on sale for the Switch for May the 4^th. I'm only a few hours in, but it’s a nostalgic good time. Not sure if I’ll go light side or dark side this play-through. One thing for certain is that it won’t be something I finish soon since most of my free time now is spent drafting.

Thanks for stopping by.