Hopefully by now you’ve heard the news that Galactic Hellcats will be re-released by Lethe Press this November, annnd they will also be releasing the sequel, Andrei and the Hellcats, next year!
How did this happen?
The process of getting here was a two-year journey rife with mistakes. When Vernacular Books, the little press that gave me a chance, folded in 2022, another small press, Underland, offered to take on their titles, but I left them hanging, thinking I could maybe do better. I was a Nebula Finalist! Couldn’t I move GH and its sequel to a non print-on-demand press, where the costs would be lower and the distribution greater? I queried agents, got a pitch session with Tor editor Claire Eddy – who said I could submit the manuscript to her! – and I queried the not-so-small presses like Erewhon and Angry Robot, basically, any place that was open (and a few that weren’t.)
I got a heartbreaking rejection from one of those not-so-smalls in January this year who said they loved the book, but my sales figures were too low for them to take it on.
All in all I racked up 58 rejections in two years, trying to get an agent or a bigger press. When Claire Eddy finally said no this month, well, I decided I had tried enough. There’s no forcing your way into a higher echelon. I am, in fact, not the hot new thing. I may never be.
I’m still glad I tried – I would be eaten up with “what ifs” if I hadn’t, though I regret the slipshod way I handled the smaller presses. I kept them waiting like boys I wasn’t actually interested in, but wanted to be able to call on if I didn’t have a date for prom.
I tried to remember the three or four small presses that had said yes, but which I had put on hold because they were just as small as Vernacular, and the deals were all about the same… and I did not keep good notes. (I owe apologies to Undeworld and Epic, two presses that I failed to get back to.)
Why Lethe?
The embarrassing truth is, I went with Lethe because a friend of mine told me to. Lethe had actually already rejected me, but my friend has a book coming out with them this year, and on his name-fame I was able to send the manuscripts to the editor directly, and he said yes, and I took the bird in hand.
Advantages of Lethe: while they are a small press, they have been around since 2001, which is ANCIENT in the small press world. I like that established feel. At first I worried that they are primarily an LGBTQ+ press and I am not a queer author, but their “about” page clearly says they are breaking out into other avenues. Also, they have gorgeous covers. I am really looking forward to seeing what they do with Hellcats.
Finally, they agreed right away to BOTH books. Most of the offers I kept hanging on the telephone were “We just want book one, if it does well, we’ll talk.”
Why was I such a prima donna about all this?
I started writing Andrei and the Hellcats before Galactic Hellcats was published, back in 2021. The moment I hit on the idea of writing from the point-of-view of Andrei the Sex Robot from Near Jefferson Station, the first draft flowed from my fingers.
To me, it’s felt like I’ve had this book burning a hole in my pocket for three years. Couple that with an anxiety to succeed. I’d gotten a lot of advice from my writing mentors, and many of them lamented careers that petered out because, “I took too long to get book two out.” Or “You have to keep producing.”
I had decided, long ago, that once I sold a novel I would burn the ocean to sell one a year there on out.
That was dumb. One of those secret rules you don’t even realize you’ve set for yourself that make everything harder. Throw it on the pyre with the personal rules I broke or destroyed, like needing to publish before 18. Needing to publish before 30. Needing to “network”. etc. etc. etc.
Damn, it’s only as I’m typing this up I realize that… this has not been 5,000 years. My first draft of this post began “It’s taken many years.” Then I went and looked up how long it actually had been. Three years. That’s it. That’s the total journey. My first published novel started its life in 1989. I should have learned patience on the way, eh?
I started seriously submitting Galactic Hellcats in 2016, so it was only 5 years to sell it. The Gods Awoke had a longer run, my first recorded submission for that is 2008, and it sold in 2022. Fourteen years! Really, waiting 3 years isn’t AGONY, yet I feel like… well… I suppose my hopes were up? I’d sold a BOOK A YEAR for three years, and I was a NEBULA FINALIST. Surely it was time to seize the reigns and gallop to fame and fortune?
The lesson is not to be discouraged you aren’t winning marathons when you are winning 5ks. We’re all climbing up a mountain one step at a time, and usually you reach the peak only to see another, higher mountain behind it. That’s okay. It’s about the journey, not the destination.
And the consequences of not getting to the top first are usually nothing, whereas the consequences of shoving your fellow-runners will haunt you for life. Think about it: no one remembers which successful author published first.
So, yes, I’m ashamed of myself, and embarrassed, and a little quietly disappointed my hustle didn’t shoehorn me into fame, but more important than that: I am THRILLED you are all going to get to read Andrei’s story!
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