2012 Updates

So it's obviously been a while, and had I written this post a month ago, the post could have been summarized as simply: "nothing's been happening." But some interesting (to me) developments have been taking place.
First, my W1S1 Novel plan has so far been an utter 'fail.' I haven't worked on a single WIP, and despite sort of being freed up to write other things, until early October, not even a single new short story had been written.
However, finally, on October 12th, I wrote a new short story; flash really--a light speculative piece currently around 1000 words in its very rough state. But that's not all--this piece made clear to me another persona/pen name that has developed, particularly since I have a few other ideas along the same (light spec) lines.
By itself I guess this wouldn't be remarkable. But what I've decided to do in the past two weeks--and this is a really big deal to me--is self-publish (electronically). One day, my spirit just opened up and said "you should do this; now's the time." I'd never seriously considered it before, determined to trade publish my one and only polished novel. But eventually I came to see this particular work doesn't really stand much of a chance at this time with trade publishers--a literary women's piece like mine isn't 'sexy' at the moment, not worth a risk (to summarize comments from agents: a fascinating read, but lacks commercial viability). And now that I have several other works coming down the pipeline, it doesn't feel like my only chance to go 'traditional.'
I'm not completely going alone--I'm tackling this on a case-by-case basis, so some works I'll just put out myself, some will be shopped around to publishers (both novels and short stories).
I've formulated a plan for my e-publishing launch, one which includes putting out that one novel under one pen name, and putting out short stories under two others. One of those short story pen names I've already been published under: sold a poem to Big Pulp, a short story to Expanded Horizons, and most recently, I won the latest On the Premises contest so that story will be out in November. The other name was formulated for my dark speculative pieces. The two will be linked though--openly acknowledged. And then of course, there's that recently developed third short story persona (light spec) which will probably also be openly acknowledged.
The book is under a completely different name for obvious reasons--again, a different feel/mood/type. And it's my sacrificial lamb for this self- e-publishing experiment; at least, it began that way.
Currently my plan looks roughly like this:
- Launch the reprint of the story originally published in Expanded Horizons + a new (previously unpublished) title under that name,
- Launch 2 pieces under second name,
- Launch novel.
Then gradually release more short pieces under the first two short story names (the third has to wait until I've developed, written and polished several pieces), and eventually, a collection or two (or 3).
I currently have 4 pieces ready to go for name #1, and 4 pieces ready under name #2 for single release. However, half of those pieces are still making the rounds under submission to print and online magazines--I haven't pulled them and won't until I've exhausted the majority of the best markets.
Actual total number of pieces ready to go is about 17 as opposed to just 8; I'm saving a lot of pieces for collections (which will include published and previously unpublished pieces), half of which are flash pieces I don't feel comfortable pricing at the same level as longer pieces (which will most likely be at the base 99c price point).

Needless to say I won't be participating in NaNoWriMo this year which sort of makes me sad since I've done it consistently since discovering it and participating in 2006--the year which yielded my current one and only polished novel. I guess it's not so bad that the one time I don't participate is the time I take to launch the fruit of that first year...so I guess I don't feel too bad. In addition, at this point I kind of feel overwhelmed by the other unfinished/unpolished pieces racked up honestly, like I need to shut those up by polishing them (as I meant to do over the course of this year) before I move on to yet another novel--even one I already started.
Currently, there are 4 of those pieces waiting for me in various stages, from 35k to 55k. The one I wrote for NaNoWriMo last year I hope to finish and polish by the end of this year because that one definitely has commercial viability and is one of the two most likely to get picked up by a trade publisher (the second I'll get back to once the self-publishing experiment has been launched and this other novel has been polished and aggressively out in Query land).

Anyway, I'm still doing a lot of researching regarding the whole self-e-publishing thing although I suspect I will just jump in and do it sooner than later, because really, I see more to gain than lose in doing so; I just want to cover as many bases I can.