jettisoned

20th August 2024 is a day that will live in grouchiness.

I don't intend to exhibit too much of that negative quality, however; in fact I shall confine the grumbles to square brackets, so as not to detract from the stiffness of my upper lip, and otherwise keep the account objective or even optimistic.

the problem

On 20th August I received an email from my publishers Netherworld, imprint of Mirador, entitled "We think it's time to say goodbye":

   ...Like many businesses today, we need to keep a tight control of our expenses. Increased production, storage and shipping costs mean we need to reduce our outgoings. As such, it is no longer possible to continue to list titles which do not sell, this means, we are streamlining our title list. As one of our long term authors, and with a contract which has long since expired, we are now returning the full publishing rights to you. 

By the time our third quarter royalties are sent out, your title, The Slant, Valeddom, The Drop, The Rise, Uranian Gleams, Man of the World will be cancelled as both an ebook and paperback. This will mean you are free to seek new representation...

[The fact that the titles "do not sell" may have something to do with the other fact, that Netherworld (as far as I can tell) have done absolutely zilch to market them.]

[What's more, the comma after "sell" in the first paragraph ought to be a semi-colon.]

During the past few days I have been wondering whether I ought indeed to "seek new representation".

My thoughts, however, trend towards "can't be bothered".  For one thing, I am aged seventy, and, though my health is good, three-score-years-and-ten are not conducive to embarking upon an exhausting, soul-withering effort to find another publisher (and I very much doubt that the funds would run to self-publishing).

[Periods did exist, before the current Weirdozoic Era, in which an sf writer had a chance of his work being considered on its literary merit and - if it possessed enough of that - of being supported by a publisher who was willing to take a chance on it and "get behind it", so that it actually appeared in bookshops.  But nowadays - goodbye.]

the solution - 1: static

A hugely important aspect of the way forward is to flood my awareness with the greatness of my good fortune - part of which, paradoxically, may be due to the deficiencies of the publisher who has now ditched me.

To do them justice, the Netherworld team made it clear from the start that I would have to do my share of the marketing.  And docilely I did my best, in traipsing around local bookshops and getting a few copies sold here and there, but above all in getting this website started.

In those days I had not yet retired and, to make ends meet, had to work hard at my private-tuition business.  Tutoring isn't something one can get rich at, though the job satisfaction is great, and it is exhausting work if (like me) you can't do it any other way than by giving your all in the lessons.  So, although this OSS website has been first and foremost a labour of love, it would have been hard to justify the time and effort I put into it in the early years if it had not been for the idea (put into my head by my publisher) that it meant I was doing my bit to "market" my work: for I obediently included on the site some pages discussing my own books.  Thus my conscience was salved and I was able to tell myself that I was fulfilling my part of the agreement with Netherworld.

Trouble was, it did not work like it was meant to work.  Users of the website did not flock to order copies of my books.  And so we reach the point where the publisher has pulled the plug...

In other ways, though, it did work.  I have shared my love of the Old Solar System literature, and explored the genre much more than I ever expected to be able to (thanks in large part to the internet, of course, and in particular the online pulp magazine archives).

And in all this I have made fascinating contacts.  I'll single out three for special mention: my young fellow-author Dylan Jeninga, who has contributed numerous stories and articles to the site; the author and philosopher John Greer, who invited me to co-edit the Vintage Worlds series of anthologies; and the fantastically erudite researcher "Lone Wolf", who often emails me with valuable suggestions for the Guess The World quiz series.

I might mention here that although I earned a mere pittance from sales of my own books, I earned vastly more from the three volumes of Vintage Worlds, even though I have just one story of mine in each.  So there you have another example of how unexpectedly and indirectly things can turn out.

the solution - 2: dynamic

In addition to the above positive light in which the present can be viewed, I can also put forth some ideas about the future which may show the jettisoning to be a blessing in disguise.

For a start, I'm now free to re-write the books if I should feel like taking the trouble.  If I did that, I'd be able to offer them to a publisher as new books, thus getting round the difficulty of re-submitting old failures.

It's a problematic idea, certainly.  The more so, in view of the mixed reactions I have had about them.  I don't want to spoil anything by re-writing; I want to improve what needs improvement and leave what's all right alone.  It would help if I had more feedback on what others think; coherent feedback preferably!

Here let me say that I haven't fallen into the trap of relying on biased assessment by friends and family.  Take The Slant, for instance; one close friend disliked it so much she couldn't finish it, whereas a mere acquaintance (one of my pupils) liked it so much she badgered me to write the sequel.  Another of my lady friends (ex-friend rather) scornfully dismissed The Slant as "full of clichés", and [with all the tact for which Yorkshire is famous] offered to show me how to write better!  Similarly, within family, the differences loom large: my wife is cagey about Man of the World (she much prefers The Slant) whereas my brother has reacted more positively to Man of the World than to any of my others.  Two professors have expressed themselves glowingly about The Slant, and one of them about the entire Kroth trilogy; other readers to whom I've given copies have scarcely deigned to react, if at all.  I expect other writers must have similar tales to tell.  In the last analysis I'd have to trust to hunch.

...But perhaps I'll not re-write anything; instead the thing to do may be to leave them be and write other things; especially, finish Uranian Throne and hope that some day I can make it good enough to attract some sponsor...

Meanwhile what do I do if some reader does ask me how to obtain one of my six no-longer-published titles?

For a while, Amazon will doubtless have some in stock.  But only for a while.  Then, no more.

I have some copies here, in my attic library room.  I could send them to readers who mail me the money for postage and a reasonable sum for the book itself.

Or, for any one of them, I could email the text file as an attachment at no charge.  Why not?  It's a bit like going back to the old pre-printing days, for instance Florentine society at the time of Dante, when literary folk passed poems around in manuscript, just to be cultural, not to make money.

[We readers need to support each other and appreciate the good things of life while they last.  Think of how much energy internet servers take to run.  The system can't last.  The dark age looms.]

- 24th August 2024