What's happening at the writing front?

It's time for a little update about what is going on at my writing/publication front.

1) Dome Child

The biggest problem of the indie publisher is how to reach a broader audience. I submitted the Dome Child to an SF indie book reviewer page – no reply. They are just a handful of reviewers who do that out of sheer enthusiasm and I don't know how many books they are getting every month… a "no thank" you would have been nice, but…

My ad campaign at "Goodreads" is an enigma to me. Maybe once a week their algorithm propels me to some 10,000 or 20,000 views and then I get a few clicks (for which I pay) but for six days a week or so, their algorithm shuns the Dome Child and there are 800 or a 1000 views and no clicks at all. At that pace the money I spent for this ad campaign will only be used up in another couple of months. Hm… don't know if I am supposed to change anything about that.

Next thing I will do is submit the Dome Child to several indie book awards, hope to get into the ranks and that that will attract more readers outside of friends and family.

2) A novella coming out this spring???

I have no clue whether this project is really going to happen. About a year ago, a small US press accepted an urban fantasy novella of mine for publication. Last December I reviewed the line edits and resent the manuscript. The preliminary publication date is spring this year, but I don't know when what is going to happen. I am waiting in suspension.

3) Submission drive

I'm planning to send one of my novels (my other urban fantasy) into the agent submission drive but given my non-native speaker of English, non-US resident, living in Japan triple disadvantage my expectations are very low. If nobody bites that novel is my next indie publication candidate and I'm planning to have it out there before the next SF Worldcon in Chicago at the beginning of September. If someone bites, it will of course not go into indie publishing. I wonder what the chances of someone biting are? 0.00001%? It feels like 99.99999 % of light speed but never getting there .

I've also started to submit some of my yet un-published short stories again, though not as massively as in 2008 or 2009, it just eats up too much time and though short stories are fun, I am much more of a novel person after all .

But speaking of short stories, my "Snotcreek Valley" has found its way into an anthology…