elizabeth_oswald

I finally pushed the button!

Added 2025-07-06 16:23:28 +0000 UTC

I finally submitted TBK to Aethon, my first choice of publishers. I have to admit that I'm really freaked out by this, and not because I don't think Broken Knife deserves to be published (it will be, even if I have to do it myself) but because I'm truly terrible at writing query letters. What if they never even look at the story, because my CL sucks so much? I just want to roll around and scream for the next 90 days.

And speaking of 90 days, that's how long I have to wait, because if the answer's 'no', they probably won't even send me an email. And I'm not mad about this, because they have so many submissions that sending a response to every one would take a significant amount of time they could otherwise dedicate to reading and publishing more books. (I am frustrated by it, but this is the reality of most agents and publishers with an open submission policy.)

So, if I haven't heard back from Aethon in 90 days (that's October 3, not that I'm counting...oh, wait, yes, I am) then it's 99% a No, though I can send them an email to ask if it's a No, which they might or might not see and respond to....

Phew.

Okay, so if I haven't heard back by Oct 3, and my efforts at LitRPG Con fail, and no other publishers on my list open for submissions between now and then, I will start the process of self-publishing. Just know that when I self-edit, I'm going to miss things that an outside editor would help me fix, which is one of the big things I want a traditional publisher for. (And covers, and audio books, and marketing...)

But I pushed the button!