The Wacky World of Publishing

I kind of went from only the vaguest idea of a book idea to a fairly fleshed-out concept in one day yesterday, just starting from the idea of "maybe I ought to take a trip." Though I think that already having a deal in the works for the book provided a lot of incentive. It's nice to be writing a book for a "publisher" with an advance and all that, even if it's not the usual kind of deal. In this case, the audiobook deal came first.

This tells you how crazy the publishing business is these days. You practically need a chart to keep up with which of my books are traditionally published and which are self-published, and in which formats and locations.

For the Enchanted, Inc. series:
Books 1-4 in the US were traditionally published. They're also traditionally published in translation and in audio. But in overseas markets, the English version is self-published.
Books 5-7 are self-published in English worldwide but were originally written in a traditional deal for the Japanese publisher and are traditionally published in audio.

Now I've got a new contemporary fantasy series that will be launching this fall. I made a deal with Audible yesterday for the audio version of the first two books that are written and for a third book I haven't yet written (and didn't even have a solid idea for until yesterday). I will be self-publishing these books in print/e-books.

Because I've had traditionally published books, I generally count as a "real" author when it comes to stuff like conventions, and I've already got my SFWA membership. But when it comes to promo, a lot of web sites still won't review or promote self-published books. I wonder where these books would fall, since I've got a traditional audio deal, even if the print/e-books are self-published.

And then the steampunk book is entirely traditionally published, both print and audio. Though if the publisher doesn't pick up the option on subsequent books, I do plan to self-publish the rest of the series.

It's nice to have a lot of options and not have all my eggs in one basket. If one thing fails, I have other things to fall back on.

So for now, I need to get this new book written. I found out that our local Nutcracker is at the same time I'm thinking of going to New York, so that rules that out. Not that I think it would teach me that much. I've spent enough time on stage to kind of have a sense for it, even if I wasn't doing ballet at the time (aside from the infamous preschool dance recital "I see my daddy!" incident). This weekend may be a big immersion retreat to get my head into the right space. It'll be nice weather for walking and thinking or reading on the patio.

But for today, I have to finish my lesson plan for tonight and try to wake up from the allergy grogginess. And there's some housework to be done and some other business stuff to take care of.