Monthly Archives: June 2013

June 9, 2013 · 3:04 pm

Why I like the “gatekeepers” of book publishing

So while I was going through the Great Uncertainty over the past two months — the will-they-or-won’t-they of the Skyhorse/Night Shade deal — a few folks opined that I should just grab my rights and self-publish The Daedalus Incident on my own. Some were simply being encouraging and wanted to see the book published somehow and anyhow.

But there were a few ready to raise the tricolor over the battlements and sing out in defiance of traditional publishing. Why did I even go down the traditional publishing route, bowing in subservience to the Great Capitalist Machine instead of embracing both Art and Personal Freedom by self-publishing? Surely, the Night Shade near-debacle was a warning sign of the Terror to come.

Obviously, I’m being somewhat snarky here, not to mention a bit too referential of Les Miserables. And in fact, I’m not anti-self-publishing at all. As you may see in the weeks and months ahead, I personally believe a hybrid model of traditional and self-publishing may serve myself and other authors quite well.

But I did go the traditional route for my debut, The Daedalus Incident, and I actually liked working my way through the “gatekeepers” of the publishing business. Here’s why.

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Filed under Books, Publishing

June 6, 2013 · 5:30 pm

Tor.com’s review of The Daedalus Incident

So it’s been a busy week here, what with the whole Skyhorse/Night Shade thing finally settling down. But there’s a book out there, and people are reading and reviewing it. Lost in the shuffle earlier this week was Stefan Raets’ great review of The Daedalus Incident on Tor.com. In part:

This is a fast-paced and smooth read from the very beginning, and towards the end Martinez builds up the suspense and urgency like a pro…. The Daedalus Incident is a true genre-bender. It mixes alchemy, quantum physics, and historical figures in ways you haven’t seen before. I’m not saying which historical figures, by the way, because discovering that is part of the fun, but let’s just say that some of them open the door for some potentially fascinating sequels. The Daedalus Incident isn’t perfect, but it’s adventurous, original, and a blast to read.

Perfect is a pretty high bar, so I’ll take it.

Stefan’s review is very fair, nuanced and extraordinarily well informed by his knowledge of the genre. Yes, he liked the book, but even if he didn’t, I’d still have to respect the work he put in. (They don’t do a rating system on Tor, but Stefan gave The Daedalus Incident four out of five stars on Goodreads, for those who prefer their reviews numerically calibrated.)

To say I’ve been pleased with the reviews Daedalus has garnered is an epic understatement; I’m freakin’ thrilled. And now that the dust has settled and Skyhorse is in the driver’s seat, we should have smooth sailing toward a summer launch. I’ll provide more details on an exact date when I get them, but until then, feel free to click on the pre-order links on the right-hand side of this page, or click here and scroll to the bottom for a more exhaustive list of pre-order sites.

More on Skyhorse/Night Shade, and a huge thank-you to SFWA

Now that things have calmed down a bit, I wanted to talk a bit about the business dealings that, ultimately, guaranteed that The Daedalus Incident would finally set sail.

I say “guaranteed” because even going back to last fall, I had my doubts. It took several months for me to even get my standard, boiler-plate contract, and I assumed (correctly, as it turned out) that this was due to issues on the business side.

It took until February, just as copyedits on Daedalus had been wrapped up, to finally get my contract. That allowed me to join the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, which I was very happy to do. For one, I simply wanted to be part of an organization that included real SF/F authors; it was an achievement. But more importantly, I figured that if things continued to be…iffy…on the business end of things, I wanted as many folks in my corner as I could muster.

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June 3, 2013 · 9:06 pm

Skyhorse finishes Night Shade deal; Daedalus is go for launch!

Thank God that’s over. Now we can get on with the business of getting The Daedalus Incident properly launched!

Today, Skyhorse Publishing and Start Media LLC announced the completion of its purchase of Night Shade Books’ assets. In English, that means Night Shade has a new owner, and I have a new publisher for Daedalus.

Furthermore, it’s pretty safe to say that my new publishing overlords are pretty happy with me and my little novel; they invited me last week to offer up comment for their press release announcing the sale. You can read the entire release here on io9.com. You may also recognize the art used to illustrate the piece. (Big hat-tip to io9 for doing a nice job on the coverage of all this, by the way.)

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