The Ghost of a Chance?

I mentioned a while ago that I had a new Peyton McKean mystery under construction. Well, I’m proud to announce that it’s finished and it’s been sent for consideration by the editors of one of the prominent mystery magazines. The story, entitled “The Ghost Trees,” deals with a murder in a grove of cedar trees sacred to members the Duwamish Indian Tribe who live hereabouts. Suspicion lands on one person and then another, but the answer is shrouded in mystery as thick as the fog and drizzle dampening the rain forest in Puget Creek Canyon.

I know I mentioned that the story would be published soon, but I’m going back slightly on that promise. You see, when I submit to the editor of a mystery magazine I never know what the outcome will be, although I do know the process will be slow. If they like the story then it might be published in the fall, perhaps just in time for Halloween, good timing for a story called “The Ghost Trees.” But if they decline my manuscript, then I’ll get it back in a timeframe of two or three months. That’s slow, but understandable. Publishing is a time-consuming business.

On the other hand, those manuscripts I’ve put online as ebooks have tended to be available to readers in a one-to-three week timeframe. That’s much nicer for author and reader alike.

Any means by which I can get my stories into people’s hands is all right by me. I like to support the traditional paper publishing industry because they are real pros who know a good story when they see one, so the reader can trust them to bring out some excellent material.

On the other other hand, and as I’ve said before, there is a long line of authors ahead of me, waiting for those same publishers to check out their manuscripts. Hence the long wait and, to be frank, the low likelihood of one of my stories showing up on their pages. Quite a few of those other authors have long histories with the publishers, many fans, and friendly first-name relationships with the editors. So newer authors like me often get bypassed or neglected. I don’t blame anyone, that’s just how it is.

So I’ve decided on a strategy that I hope hits the middle ground. I love to have my stories published by the big names, so I’ll continue to submit my Peyton McKean mysteries to mystery magazine editorial departments, and I’ll send some of my Dinosaur Wars science fiction stories to the science fiction magazines as well. But I’ll only go so far. If turned down by the first one, I won’t move on to the second, third and fourth. That becomes a double- triple- or quadruply-slow process, in which one of my stories might languish in editorial “slush piles” for more than a year.

I’ve already had enough calls from my reader fans for more, more, more, to know that I write good stories. It’s not fair to them or to readers as yet unaware of me, to eclipse my stories too long in the machinery of the paper publishing industry. So, as I said before, “The Ghost Trees” will be published soon — one way or the other.

Finally, one other rather mundane aspect has to be considered. I got my first royalty check from Amazon’s Kindle publishing service the other day and I must say, at the rate the royalties are coming, the rates paid by traditional paper publishers look like chicken feed already. All that said, I’d still love to see “The Ghost Trees” in print on paper next fall.