I think 2021 was a weird year for most of us. I usually do a great deal of research (it’s pretty much a necessity for science fiction writing) but during 2021, I did more research than ever before on getting published. It’s been a LONG time since I self-published my first novel and, after some initial success, my book sales have simply dwindled. All the effort I put into marketing clearly counts for very little and I tend to find my marketing experience seems to be out-of-date before I learn it. Many courses, books, videos etc. have had no effort on the decline so I’m shifting my effort into doing this properly.
Four months of reading acceptance criteria from many, many literary agents, listening to genuine experts in the field and more have taught me a few things. First, literary agents mostly don’t want science fiction. This is extremely annoying. Second, as my best science fiction novels have not received any positive feedback at all from dozens of literary agents, I would be wise to jump to another genre. Third, anyone’s writing is only going to be great if they love the genre in which they are working. I’m not going to be able to make a go of Romance or Women’s Fiction, so I need to stick to what I like and know.
Back when I started writing, almost four decades ago, I wrote fantasy novels. They weren’t any good but I loved writing them. 2021 has sent me back to Fantasy, so I’ve been writing “Rise of the Witch Queen”, the first of a series of light-hearted fantasy novels set in the land of Karduga. I’m well over 50,000 words in and hoping to finish before the middle of February.
This leaves me with a problem: Do I start a new website or post announcements and progress reports here on Astronomicon.co.uk?