So, I tried querying Nameless for years.
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So, I tried querying Nameless for years. The original goal was traditional publication. If you've noticed a few errors in it, that's because I had budget for profession sensitivity readers OR editing. I picked sensitivity, bc tradpub would've gotten me an editor.
NOBODY is signing new talent rn.
I had Nameless in a complete, edited state for *over 3 years* as I queried. I got to consult with longtime pros in the industry. Names you've heard. Names you might be following here on Bluesky.
I had every advantage. A PhD in writing. Vibrant social media.
I never even got a rejection letter.
Like, not even a form "thanks but no thanks" email. Literal ***nothing***.
It took me a long time to figure it out, but talking to people, but it seems like new writers are basically just... not being signed these days.
More or less ever, unless someone blows up in self-pub.
I think it's to do with GenAI. Trying to avoid the risk of unknown writers who might be using GenAI, which would expose publishers to lawsuits and strip the percentages from agents. I get it.
But right now? I wouldn't even imagine trying tradpub these days. If you're unknown. It's just *hopeless*.
Anyway, that's the spoiler-free BTS factoid about Nameless for the day.
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So, I tried querying Nameless for years. The original goal was traditional publication. If you've noticed a few errors in it, that's because I had budget for profession sensitivity readers OR editing. I picked sensitivity, bc tradpub would've gotten me an editor.
NOBODY is signing new talent rn.
I had Nameless in a complete, edited state for *over 3 years* as I queried. I got to consult with longtime pros in the industry. Names you've heard. Names you might be following here on Bluesky.
I had every advantage. A PhD in writing. Vibrant social media.
I never even got a rejection letter.
Like, not even a form "thanks but no thanks" email. Literal ***nothing***.
It took me a long time to figure it out, but talking to people, but it seems like new writers are basically just... not being signed these days.
More or less ever, unless someone blows up in self-pub.
I think it's to do with GenAI. Trying to avoid the risk of unknown writers who might be using GenAI, which would expose publishers to lawsuits and strip the percentages from agents. I get it.
But right now? I wouldn't even imagine trying tradpub these days. If you're unknown. It's just *hopeless*.
Anyway, that's the spoiler-free BTS factoid about Nameless for the day.
@Impossible_PhD it was like that before generative ai. its been like that since self-publishing and amazon. traditional publishing has been dead, or in a blind panic, which is about the same thing in business, for twenty years.
i used to say i tailor-made my education to work in publishing and i graduated the year that "Publish" became a button on a website. i even got an entry-level job at a publisher and i just watched everything contract. curled up and died.
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@Impossible_PhD it was like that before generative ai. its been like that since self-publishing and amazon. traditional publishing has been dead, or in a blind panic, which is about the same thing in business, for twenty years.
i used to say i tailor-made my education to work in publishing and i graduated the year that "Publish" became a button on a website. i even got an entry-level job at a publisher and i just watched everything contract. curled up and died.
@miriamrobern reallllll 🫂
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@Impossible_PhD it was like that before generative ai. its been like that since self-publishing and amazon. traditional publishing has been dead, or in a blind panic, which is about the same thing in business, for twenty years.
i used to say i tailor-made my education to work in publishing and i graduated the year that "Publish" became a button on a website. i even got an entry-level job at a publisher and i just watched everything contract. curled up and died.
@miriamrobern @Impossible_PhD I remember reading about how authors I like would just send off manuscripts to publishers and, if they got lucky and it was good, would get their first novel or stories or poems published…and that isn’t a thing that seems to have been real in decades, as far as I can tell. Basically, unless one gets into the Iowa writers workshop or one or two similar things in NYC or other places, seems impossible to be a new writer as far as I can tell.
There are a few exceptions, but it’s mostly niche, small publishers as far as I can tell?
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@miriamrobern @Impossible_PhD I remember reading about how authors I like would just send off manuscripts to publishers and, if they got lucky and it was good, would get their first novel or stories or poems published…and that isn’t a thing that seems to have been real in decades, as far as I can tell. Basically, unless one gets into the Iowa writers workshop or one or two similar things in NYC or other places, seems impossible to be a new writer as far as I can tell.
There are a few exceptions, but it’s mostly niche, small publishers as far as I can tell?
@JoscelynTransient @miriamrobern yep, and there are soooooo many fly by night small presses that have screwed their authors so many times.
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So, I tried querying Nameless for years. The original goal was traditional publication. If you've noticed a few errors in it, that's because I had budget for profession sensitivity readers OR editing. I picked sensitivity, bc tradpub would've gotten me an editor.
NOBODY is signing new talent rn.
I had Nameless in a complete, edited state for *over 3 years* as I queried. I got to consult with longtime pros in the industry. Names you've heard. Names you might be following here on Bluesky.
I had every advantage. A PhD in writing. Vibrant social media.
I never even got a rejection letter.
Like, not even a form "thanks but no thanks" email. Literal ***nothing***.
It took me a long time to figure it out, but talking to people, but it seems like new writers are basically just... not being signed these days.
More or less ever, unless someone blows up in self-pub.
I think it's to do with GenAI. Trying to avoid the risk of unknown writers who might be using GenAI, which would expose publishers to lawsuits and strip the percentages from agents. I get it.
But right now? I wouldn't even imagine trying tradpub these days. If you're unknown. It's just *hopeless*.
Anyway, that's the spoiler-free BTS factoid about Nameless for the day.
I write short stories but I've been a member of a local writers' group off and on for almost twenty years.
It's not genAI, well not just genAI. It was already drying up unless you were an established name with guaranteed sales or a workhouse churning out genre paperbacks like clockwork.
Amazon Kindle seemed to be the beginning of the end based on the slow change in our speakers presentations.
And traditional publishers were enshitifying before it was a word. You, as the author, have had to do all of the work for a long time. Build your audience, market yourself, practically plan your own press tours unless you were profoundly lucky or well-known.
I hear the old workhorses are being laid off now. They aren't saying "we'll just use genAI" but I think that's the direction. Rather, have genAI spit out a novel and then you, an actual author, get paid shitty wages to "edit" it instead.
Some authors are writing dozens of books a year and still barely making ends meet. The only ones I've known who are "making a living" as writers are older folks who are retired from regular jobs and that's been the case for at least ten years.
If I ever get enough time to put together an anthology of my own short stories, I'll just self-publish and be fine with it. I'll never make money at it. I still write because I love writing.
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So, I tried querying Nameless for years. The original goal was traditional publication. If you've noticed a few errors in it, that's because I had budget for profession sensitivity readers OR editing. I picked sensitivity, bc tradpub would've gotten me an editor.
NOBODY is signing new talent rn.
I had Nameless in a complete, edited state for *over 3 years* as I queried. I got to consult with longtime pros in the industry. Names you've heard. Names you might be following here on Bluesky.
I had every advantage. A PhD in writing. Vibrant social media.
I never even got a rejection letter.
Like, not even a form "thanks but no thanks" email. Literal ***nothing***.
It took me a long time to figure it out, but talking to people, but it seems like new writers are basically just... not being signed these days.
More or less ever, unless someone blows up in self-pub.
I think it's to do with GenAI. Trying to avoid the risk of unknown writers who might be using GenAI, which would expose publishers to lawsuits and strip the percentages from agents. I get it.
But right now? I wouldn't even imagine trying tradpub these days. If you're unknown. It's just *hopeless*.
Anyway, that's the spoiler-free BTS factoid about Nameless for the day.
@Impossible_PhD I must be doing something right then! i got a next-day fuck off from someone already!
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@miriamrobern @Impossible_PhD I remember reading about how authors I like would just send off manuscripts to publishers and, if they got lucky and it was good, would get their first novel or stories or poems published…and that isn’t a thing that seems to have been real in decades, as far as I can tell. Basically, unless one gets into the Iowa writers workshop or one or two similar things in NYC or other places, seems impossible to be a new writer as far as I can tell.
There are a few exceptions, but it’s mostly niche, small publishers as far as I can tell?
@JoscelynTransient @miriamrobern @Impossible_PhD This is basically how things looked on the comics side. I never pursued any kind of traditional publisher when I was actively making comics (not that my comics were ever particularly publishable) because it was just this accepted truth that it didn't happen. The best you could hope for was to get a job as part of a glorified assembly line, for McDonalds money, and even that was hard as shit to break into. The exceptions were things like the Tokyopop "work for free and maybe we'll pay you" contests, or nowadays, the Webtoon "work for free and maybe we'll pay you" model. (Why Jennifer, it sounds like you don't like this practice!)
Honestly, I like the idea that the only option we have is just small publishers. (Setting aside what Zoe just mentioned about how a lot of them are just scams, because of course, scamming is just Good Capitalism.) I don't want to be on Baen's website next to [fashy military sci fi guy], if I ever get to the point of committing ink to paper I want it to be some small collective of queers doing tiny print runs. And even then, I'd be handing it out for free as well, because I genuinely like artistic anarchy more than I like being able to pay my rent.
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I write short stories but I've been a member of a local writers' group off and on for almost twenty years.
It's not genAI, well not just genAI. It was already drying up unless you were an established name with guaranteed sales or a workhouse churning out genre paperbacks like clockwork.
Amazon Kindle seemed to be the beginning of the end based on the slow change in our speakers presentations.
And traditional publishers were enshitifying before it was a word. You, as the author, have had to do all of the work for a long time. Build your audience, market yourself, practically plan your own press tours unless you were profoundly lucky or well-known.
I hear the old workhorses are being laid off now. They aren't saying "we'll just use genAI" but I think that's the direction. Rather, have genAI spit out a novel and then you, an actual author, get paid shitty wages to "edit" it instead.
Some authors are writing dozens of books a year and still barely making ends meet. The only ones I've known who are "making a living" as writers are older folks who are retired from regular jobs and that's been the case for at least ten years.
If I ever get enough time to put together an anthology of my own short stories, I'll just self-publish and be fine with it. I'll never make money at it. I still write because I love writing.
@jrdepriest Truuuuuth!
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@JoscelynTransient @miriamrobern yep, and there are soooooo many fly by night small presses that have screwed their authors so many times.
@Impossible_PhD @miriamrobern very very true. The only one or two I would consider are literally where I literally know a person involved with the press, or Little Puss Press which is managed by Casey Plett and Cat Fitzpatrick and is doing some real trans lit publishing…if I ever manage to get to that point…
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