X. Ho Yen’s Author Newsletter, 21 March 2021
Greetings Dear Subscribers to X.HoYen's Author Newsletter.
21 Mar 2021 (last one was sent 05 Feb 2020)
It's been almost 14 months since my last letter, and quite a 14 months at that. For the record, this is the 14 months which included the onset of the SARS-Covid-19 pandemic, still more high profile police murders of African Americans and subsequent mass protests, and an actual insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol, among other historically important happenings. (Here's a cool story on the psychology of the QAnon apophenia-based phenomenon: A Game Designer’s Analysis Of QAnon)
So, like everyone else I've been preoccupied. Thanks for still being on my mailing list.
As previously mentioned, I've settled into a long-term, slow-burn approach to my writing. I've written a few first chapters and short stories along the way, one of which ("The Cog Bunker") I'm quite proud of. In fact, I will be submitting it to the now infamous "The Last Dangerous Visions" collection on 31 March. The "Dangerous Visions" collections were edited by the late Harlan Ellison, and TLDV is now being handled by his Executor, J. Michael Straczynski of "Babylon 5" fame.
There are so many very good writers out there that it's hard to hold out hope of being selected for inclusion, but there's something I've learned in the aerospace industry which applies. Many things are not in our control, so the best you can do is make your work deserving of success. It won't guarantee success, but at least you did something worthy. I feel like "The Cog Bunker" is my second worthy effort, so it goes into my future-sales collection whether or not it's selected for TLDV.
The main reason I'm in slow-burn mode (aside from still having a day job) is because I've been disabused of my earlier hopes about the traditional publishing world. I've mentioned this in the past, but here are some more details, one last time.
I used to think that publishers were content to publish the simpler, romp-style novels that everyone enjoys and which sell most books but were always on the lookout for the deeper stuff, the stuff with aspirations to be more. It's become clear to me that this is not the case. The publishing world is so inundated with the simpler, romp-style novels, many of which are garbage written by total dilettantes unknowingly in Dunning-Kruger Club (especially during the pandemic!) that they've become entirely geared toward finding the next publishable romp. They simply have no time for novels like mine (which, by the way, does have a building momentum and energy in its action, it's just that it requires investment up front to get the most out of it). Or at the very least finding my way to someone in the traditional publishing world who actually is seeking something different is much harder even than the traditional agent-querying process I pursued for a couple of years. And so I really am forced to self-publish.
Publishers also nowadays expect authors to handle their own promotion. To do that in direct competition with all the other romps and self-published works (good and bad) requires one to be an extroverted social media hound, pretending to have relationships with one's readers in order to develop a fake-connection-based fandom (like what you see celebs doing on Twitter and other SM). I don't approach this newsletter in that way, although it sort of straddles into that realm, especially since I already know so many of you dear subscribers.
I attended a self-promotion seminar which included ethically problematic practices, like posting a "review" of your own book on review sites which charge for their service of making it seem like it's an independent review, or obtaining positive reviews for money. Authors are encouraged to get as many fans and friends to post positive reviews of a book (i.e. to pad reviews) on a site like Amazon, because it's all about generating an initial bandwagon effect of pre-order sales and initial release sales, which has a tendency to snowball. And the gods' honest truth is that I have this newsletter for that latter purpose. But more importantly, the traditional publishing world is like the music world in the pre-streaming era, only interested in the most accessible, jingliest music that's most likely to go platinum. People buy stories based on what other people are saying, and that's just a fundamental truth about human nature.
Self-publishing will require me to have a catalog of products, and so I'm now slowly building that catalog. By the time I retire (several years hence) I hope to have a few more short stories worthy of attention, but it's not likely I'll write another novel before I retire unless a Muse finds me worthy. Self-publishing will also require me to revamp my web site to focus on a catalog of products rather than "Minimum Safe Distance" alone.
As part of this revamp I changed the header section for MSD thusly:
This novel is NOT a status quo, white male American “everyman”, thinly-veiled-fear-of-Other, escapist “romp”, nor was it written during or in response to the Trump+Covid-19 era.
This novel IS globally-minded speculative storytelling that challenges status quo notions of personhood/sentience in a (figuratively) demon-haunted world, without resorting to magic, time travel, casual plot contrivances, or moustache-twirling unredeemable villains.
Help get MSD published, stay informed about progress, stay in touch as I build my second career as an author - sign up for my newsletter (at bottom of page). Thanks!
In other news, the program I'm still working on, Space Launch System, recently reached a wonderful and crucial milestone, the full-duration hot fire test of the Core Stage. You can see it here. I work on the Exploration Upper Stage, but of course this Core Stage milestone is good news for everyone interested in lunar exploration and industry, and beyond.
I recently read a fascinating non-fiction book by Dr. Avi Loeb (Harvard Dept. of Astronomy), and strongly recommend it. "Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth". In 2017 an object dubbed Oumuamua sped through our solar system and astronomers spent several weeks collecting data before the object sped back into deep space, slightly changing its trajectory along the way. In the book, Dr. Loeb argues that by Occam's Razor, extraterrestrial origin is a better explanation for the observed characteristics of Oumuamua than any of the other rather exotic explanations put forth by his fellow scientists. It's a scathing commentary on the state of science, if nothing else, but also quite titillating. What really was Oumuamua?!? You live in the era of that important question.
Standard stuff
Please do share my URL with fellow realism-based sci fi fans, especially anyone who enjoyed The Martian, Infomocracy, 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.
I’ve added a Newsletter section to the web site.
Thanks for your support,
XHY
https://XHoYenAuthor.com
https://twitter.com/XHoYenAuthor
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