All of my previously published books that FurPlanet cancelled should be available again on Kindle by the morning, except for Jove Deadly’s Lunar Detective Agency. I need to talk to my co-author about that one.
Wide-distribution and paperbacks will be up next.
My sleep schedule had slipped pretty far over the last month or so, but its gotten so much worse this week. I think I’ve been subconsciously afraid to go to sleep, because I received the catastrophic email from FurPlanet first thing after waking up in the morning.
If I hadn’t been honing my self-publishing skills all year on other projects, I can’t even imagine how devastating it would have been for FurPlanet to cancel twelve of my books (including two that had come out in the last month) with absolutely no warning.
Also, I’ve gotta say that Daniel is really coming through for me on this. There’s no way I could be getting these books back out into the world so fast if it weren’t for his help.
I’ve been playing with AI art now for a year and a half, and I’m still just basically awed and bewildered by what I’ve been able to make with it in the last three days, making new covers for all twelve of my cancelled FurPlanet books.
Working with AI art programs feels like taking an etch-a-sketch, shaking it, and instead of the screen going blank, it carefully writes out the poem you were silently reciting in your head. It’s bizarre. It’s magical. It’s like the polar opposite of entropy.
I spent 20 years chasing publishers and managed to sell books to and work with four different ones. My conclusion at this point is that working with publishers isn’t beneficial enough to make up for the drain involved.
Going forward, I’m going to be recommending self-publishing to anyone who asks. There are some skills that need to be developed to do it well, but really no more so than the skills that have to be learned just for pursuing a publisher, let alone working successfully with one.
I don’t regret the time I’ve spent on working with traditional publishers. I’ve had some amazing experiences and worked with some wonderful people. But the writing world has changed so much in the last decade, and traditional publishing just doesn’t seem like a good deal anymore.
In spite of this stance, I just want to say that working with ShadowSpinners Press has been a straightforwardly good experience.
It really was especially cruel to cancel twelve of my books only a week before Christmas. I had other things to be doing this week. But I’m not going to be able to think straight until my decade of work with them is back out in the world where it’s supposed to be.