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Year in Review, Part 2. Publishing!
Dec. 31st, 2023 04:04 pmSee my last post for the writing/personal review. How is my 2023 best summed up? A few months back, I stopped to give some money to a homeless man (I keep small bills and/or bags with socks and necessary stuff in the car for this). We chatted for a moment and he introduced himself, then squinted at me from the passenger side window and said, "If you don't mind me saying so, Ma'am, you look pretty tired. Are you working too hard?" And there we have it. He was not wrong; I feel like I've aged a decade this last year. But anyway, onto other things!
The Queen of Swords Press year started rough. I published a book that my designated team and I had worked quite hard on, the author decided that things were not meeting their expectations and informed me they no longer wished to work with me (which doesn't leave one many options, as it's me or the cats) and I gave them a date in midFeb for rights reversions and reverted their books to them. This brought on, I dunno, a quest for vengeance? Buyer's remorse? At any rate, they reported this to SFWA Griefcom and, despite the situation not meeting the basic requirements outlined on Griefcom's website, a sympathetic ear was found. Cue about 6 weeks of emailing back and forth in which I was threatened, bullied and then finally toadied up to, with absolutely none of the results the volunteer seemed to think he should be getting (he is no longer on GC). Eventually someone more sensible took it over and tried a different tack, got the document they asked for and a very cranky response from me. Now I see that they have announced that they will abide by the original guidelines they set forth for which grievances they will take on. So much eyeroll.
At any rate, in the meantime, I:
The Queen of Swords Press year started rough. I published a book that my designated team and I had worked quite hard on, the author decided that things were not meeting their expectations and informed me they no longer wished to work with me (which doesn't leave one many options, as it's me or the cats) and I gave them a date in midFeb for rights reversions and reverted their books to them. This brought on, I dunno, a quest for vengeance? Buyer's remorse? At any rate, they reported this to SFWA Griefcom and, despite the situation not meeting the basic requirements outlined on Griefcom's website, a sympathetic ear was found. Cue about 6 weeks of emailing back and forth in which I was threatened, bullied and then finally toadied up to, with absolutely none of the results the volunteer seemed to think he should be getting (he is no longer on GC). Eventually someone more sensible took it over and tried a different tack, got the document they asked for and a very cranky response from me. Now I see that they have announced that they will abide by the original guidelines they set forth for which grievances they will take on. So much eyeroll.
At any rate, in the meantime, I:
- I submitted our books and got them accepted for distribution by Weightless Books
- Did an author/publisher panel featuring J.M. Lee, Charles Payseur and Kat Weaver at the Eau Claire Library sponsored by the Chippewa Valley LGBT organization.
- Saw this lovely post appear on Tor.com. Judith Tarr gave my werewolf series a magnificent shoutout, which sparked a run on the books And
- Inspired Tantor Media to reach out to me for the audio rights. The audio books are out now for Silver Moon and Blood Moon. Blue Moon (Book 3) is in progress!
- I subsequently got a creditable media rights inquiry about the books, but it was during the strike so nothing is likely to come of it. But very flattering regardless.
- Heather Rose Jones's novella The Language of Roses, made the BSFA Longlist.
- I was featured in this Publishers Weekly article about LGBTQ folks in publishing.
- Did a metric crapton of cons, Prides, radio shows, Twitch channels and other events. Some favs: Rochester Pride, where we sold every book I brought; St. Cloud Pride, where we met interesting people and where a young person charged up to the table and wanted to know if I had written Silver Moon (a few times every year, someone tells me that it was their coming out novel and such was the case here), then they bought Blood Moon, got it signed and left happy; Raedial Reads Book Fair in St. Paul; and the Twin Cities Book Festival. I missed Columbia Heights Pride due to recovering from norovirus and the World Oddities Expo due to injury.
- Signed contracts with Melissa Scott for new editions of her Astreiant Series (Point of Hopes, etc.) , plus a new novella in the series, all to be released in 2024 (squee!). Signed a contract with Michael Merriam for a new Weird West novella, due out in March to coincide with his 2024 Guest of Honor appearance at MarsCon Minneapolis.
- Speaking of Guest of Honor appearances, I accepted a Guest of Honor invite at Capricon 44 in Chicago the first weekend in February and Melissa Scott will be a Guest of Honor at a still to be revealed Ohio con happening in March that has not announced guests yet.
- We published 3 other books in 2023: Little Nothing by Dee Holloway (terrific sapphic novella about resistance and magic/award-eligible for everything with a novella category!), and Death by Silver and A Death at the Dionysus Club by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold, an excellent gay gaslamp mystery duology. Matthew Bright of Inkspiral Design, Caitlin Cadieux and Terry Roy all did terrific work with covers and interior design.
- Queen of Swords Press had its best sales year ever, clearing $14k for the first time. Our expenses also went up quite a bit, but we should be profitable this year. Some of the things were not repeatable, like my Tantor advances, But I am hoping that we are really growing our audience too. And 6 books by Melissa Scott on the docket for 2024 will definitely help!
- Our authors did a ton of stuff not directly related to us! Jennie Goloboy had a great year as a literary agent, wrote a couple of award-winning screenplays and taught a bunch of high profile workshops. Michael Merriam also had great success with his screenplays, seeing several screenplay contest wins. Alex Acks released a tie-in book for World of Warcraft (building on the success of their 2022 book tie-in). Dee Holloway began writing for Ancillary Reviews as well as writing music reviews for a local site in New York. Heather Rose Jones added more stories and history to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project and appeared at several cons. A.J. Fitzwater was once again a featured author at the WORD Christchurch Festival. Melissa had two books out this year with Candlemark & Gleam, Master of Samar and Fallen, got featured in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas and was a featured guest at several cons. Amy Griswold was also a featured guest at multiple cons. Heck of a year all around!
- And last, but certainly not least, we wrapped the year getting collected by the University of Minnesota Libraries Upper Midwest Literary Archive! Look for more stuff about that soon.