Rants & Raves (Blog)

The vintage TV show The Invaders is now out on DVD. I just got the first wave from Netflix. I can’t wait to watch them. There’s never really been another show quite like it. Surprisingly, it lasted two entire seasons.

The concept was simple, our hero runs around fighting aliens who are invading earth. These aliens have taken human form. The problem is, every time you kill one of them, their bodies immediately disintegrate, so there’s never any proof. Ripping good stuff. 

I’ve been railing against certain publishing interests the past few days, not that it’ll do any good. But I’ve never seen things so bad. It’s like the only choices a writer has are bad or awful.

I know a couple of writers who were far more talented than I am who’ve thrown in the towel in recent years. They just got tired of pounding their head into the wall. I really don’t blame them.

Now, I’ll put on my publisher hat, because I am a small press publisher as well. I have never seen such drivel as I am getting from writers. It’s as if none of them had ever read a writing book. They don’t even seem to know what a manuscript should look like and refuse to include even the basic contact information like a name on their manuscripts. I don’t know why this is, though I note it.

There’s an old saying: "Be careful what you wish for." I hate my publisher. I hate them so much I no longer care if they sell any more copies of my novel, The Devil’s Due. It took a year to get my first quarterly earnings report, but the first signs of trouble appeared much earlier. This science fiction novel was not listed as science fiction on their website when the book came out. It was listed as humor. It is in no way a humor book. It is still listed that way on Fictionwise a year after I asked that it be changed.

That’s the problem with getting published. The happiness of getting published can often be displaced with the reality of it. Your book is placed in the wrong category. The publisher refuses to send out review copies, and so on. The dream quickly becomes a nightmare. Then, it just becomes a waiting game to try and get the rights back so you can go and do it all over again.

As for the humor thing, a lot of people don’t understand a basic concept of humor. The fact a work has some funny lines does not make it a humor work. My favorite example was The West Wing when it was on TV. It had some of the funniest lines on TV, but it was in no way a comedy. I’m not comparing my book to a TV show, but the presence of humor in a work does not make a book a humor work. Unfortunately, some people are too blasted stupid to realize that. 

It has been pointed out that my stories, or some of them anyway, have a similarity to steampunk and I’ve been encouraged to take advantage of the current steampunk craze. Well, that’s easier said than done. I submitted to steam anthologies recently. Today, I was told to shove it by both–cause my stories were not steampunky enough, paraphrasing. Oh well.

In a few days it’ll be the one year anniversary of the release of The Devil’s Due. Frankly, the sales of this book have been disappointing. I blame the publisher. They blame me. Their refusal to send out a single review copy or even a press release had a lot to do with this flop, in my opinion. On the other hand, I sent out a few review copies and those books quickly turned up for sale online by used bookstores and were never reviewed. So, it seems the destiny of this book is to be ignored.

Heck, even people who loved its predecessor, The Two Devils, would not buy it. I base that on a half off offer they were sent. There were no takers. To some degree, the crummy economy has taken a toll. On the other hand, this book is dying in obscurity and I seem unable to stop it.

Miles and Paul may ride again, but it would just be nice if the people who claim to be fans of the weird western genre would support weird western books when they come out.