I finished The Last Humans: A New Dawn in the summer of 2019. Since then this sequel to The Last Humans has seems to have a curse on it. Let me list why.

First, I signed a contract for it in December 2019 with Black Opal Books. Version 1.0 of that small press provided an acceptable home for the first book, so, even with a buyout and reorg of the publisher, I incorrectly assumed Black Opal version 2.0 would be delighted to keep the series in house. Wrong! I should have been forewarned by the delays incurred in signing the contract (July to December 2019). After that signing, I never heard from them again. I eventually cancelled the contract.

Second, while I was able to squeeze my other orphaned book, Death on the Danube, into busy Donna Carrick’s schedule (Carrick Publishing) after Penmore Press discontinued the “Esther Brookstone Art Detective” Series, she had no time available for The Last Humans: A New Dawn until later in 2021. I’ll admit patience isn’t one of my virtues; I don’t like to leave manuscripts that are already beta-read and edited (even before submission to Black Opal!) sitting around. Besides, both books had already suffered the ubiquitous delays associated with traditional publishers—even small presses usually have full queues. That’s part of their business model.

Third, I had no luck in finding another small press that could be a home for either Death on the Danube or The Last Humans: A New Dawn. Not surprising, I suppose. What publisher would want to take on a series without having the first books in the series in their catalog? Some authors receive a contract for an entire series. I haven’t…and don’t want one. I rarely know there’ll be a series ahead of time. Hell, I don’t even know whether a story I’m writing will become short fiction or a novel! Agencies rejected me; small presses rejected me (I found they were often nothing more than PODs that take a big share of the royalties). I became frustrated and paranoid, figuring it might be revenge taken against me because I’ve self-published so many books. Like any good detective or scientist, I looked at the evidence and made my conclusions.

Fourth, the “Last Humans” Series is post-apocalyptic sci-fi about the main character’s adventures surviving and fighting back after a worldwide pandemic pommels the planet. If I wasn’t sure whether readers would want to read about a fictional pandemic when they’re in the middle of a real one, how could I expect any publisher to risk publishing it?

Yes, the book seemed cursed! But my desire to publish the manuscript and then forget about it overrode all caution. I learned how to publish with Draft2Digital (with the test case Sleuthng, British-Style) and used that ebook aggregator to publish the cursed tale. Lo and behold, a fifth stage of the curse slammed me: There are a few gaffes left in the book either I or my beta-reader/editor missed (and possibly not an exclusive “or”—they’re not that obvious, so most readers will never realize they were made), and I’m the one who has to own them. I do so because I’m a perfectionist and always insist the author has ultimate responsibility for the quality of a book, especially if it’s self-published. (To be precise, D2D is actually something between self- and traditional publishing.)

It’s possible the editors at Black Opal version 2.0 would have caught some of these gaffes. Those at version 1.0 certainly made my life miserable with their content editing of the first book—they tried their darnedest to change the content. But I never heard from anyone at Black Opal version 2.0 after signing the contract, let alone their editors.

So this tale is cursed. Remember that if you see gaffes, and remember my odyssey described in this article. I prefer to forget about it! And this series! At least for now. (If you read it, you’ll see a trilogy is possible. Don’t hold your breath.)

***

Comments are always welcome.

Email newsletter. Interested in news about my writing life like that contained in this post? Do you want access to Smashwords sales of my ebooks? You’ll have to subscribe to my email newsletter. My online newsletter, “News and Notices from the Writing Trenches,” will no longer appear in this blog. By subscribing to the email newsletter, you’ll be able to receive news about reading, writing, and publishing as well as save on my ebooks. Although they’re all reasonably priced, the sales prices are even more of a bargain. If you don’t have a Smashwords account, consider getting one. You’ll have access to a world of ebooks, many not available on Amazon, including mine…and you won’t have that huge retailer breathing down your neck all the time!

The Last Humans: A New Dawn. You might still want to read this sequel, especially if you read the first book, The Last Humans—just for closure. Here’s the blurb:

Penny Castro survived the biowarfare apocalypse and created a family. Her post-apocalyptic idyll on their citrus ranch is interrupted by the US government’s plan to stop another attack…and get some revenge for the first one. Penny and husband Alex, along with others, are drafted to carry out the plan—in their case, forced to do so by the government’s kidnapping of their young children. But the enemy has surprises awaiting them when a submarine delivers them to that foreign shore.

By the way, and as far as I know, the first book is still available from Black Opal Books. I can’t afford to buy back the rights from them! And I don’t want to do so anyway.

Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2021 at 2:53 am and is filed under Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.