X. Ho Yen's Author Newsletter (06 Mar 2022)
Greetings Dear Subscribers to X.HoYen's Author Newsletter.
06 Mar 2022 (last one was sent 19 Aug 2021)
As promised, I do not inundate you with newsletters. :)
I hope everyone is well! Send me a note (xhoyen@gmail.com)!
Here’s some news worthy of an update on my long journey from writer to author.
The pandemic has been a big distraction, startup transient for my new day job was much more involved than expected (over months), and now the invasion of a sovereign nation by a nuclear armed mafia state continues that distraction even as the pandemic shows signs of easing. I’m gaining practice at writing despite distraction (including my many self-made distractions). My goal continues to be to write valuable stuff, not mere fluff.
In ramping up to self-publishing, I decided to submit MSD to a particular entity that calls itself a hybrid publisher. The reality is it’s a vanity-press-by-any-other-name, because it’s not invested in the sales success of books it publishes, although it does have a motivation to publish decent books to build and maintain its own reputation. It makes its money entirely from the submitting author, but its business model involves an editorial step. (pure vanity presses just print whatever you pay them to print) In order to save money on that editorial process, and for their own reputation, they are motivated to select manuscripts that are already polished and look good, i.e. require minimum effort on their part.
They contacted me and expressed an interest in doing business with me. So that means that at least this particular hybrid publisher’s editors see MSD as editorially mature and worthy of their reputation. Good to know!
In other news, I’ve just updated MSD again, the first real update in years. For the last several re-reads I’ve been quite happy with it, but this time I found myself with new perspective on the final quarter of the book. It needed to continue the human element found mostly in the first half.
I found a perfectly organic thread to weave into that final quarter, and I’m very, very happy with how it turned out. It not only kept the human element going, it buttoned up a few little story things and, with a life of its own, brought something new to the climactic situation that I’m quite proud of.
I intend to try one more round of trad pub querying before punting. I still believe the trad pub world will not be interested, but things change. Who knows?
This last re-read reminded me of how the themes of MSD remain extremely relevant.
When the time comes, I'll still need your help sending word out to generate pre-orders, even with self-publishing. The fact is, seeing sales generates sales. Thanks for sticking with me during this long process.
Did anyone visit that Bulwer-Lytton Award web site I posted last time? The intentionally bad writing on display there is a lot of fun.
Before coming back to MSD I had started work on another idea for a novel. I’ve had a lot of ideas, but haven’t found myself believing in them enough to develop them. This one is different. I think I can make something good out of it. If that happens, I’ll let you know.
Web Site Update
There’s a new reader testimonial at the bottom of XHoYenAuthor.com/msd. Dan C.-Attorney will now also appear in the Acknowledgements section of the book when it’s published.
I also finally killed my Twitter account. I’m simply not capable of pretending to have personal relationships with strangers in order to build an audience. That’s what Publishers want, of course, but I can’t do it. I’ll find another way to build an audience.
Standard stuff
Please do share my URL with fellow realism-based sci fi fans, especially anyone who enjoyed The Martian, Infomocracy, Neal Stephenson’s works, or The Expanse. I'm convinced Minimum Safe Distance would appeal to the same audience, because I wrote it for me and *I'm* in that audience.
Thanks for your support!
XHY
https://XHoYenAuthor.com
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