Some Semi-Random Musings

My Publishing Journey So Far — 25 September 2026

The Missing Singer: A Hank Retzer Mystery, my featured novel, is one proof-copy away from actually being published, I hope, but four months ago I also thought I was sooooo close. It's been a bit of a journey since I "finished" the novel more than two years ago. Since it's a longish story here's a synopsis in case you don't want to slog through the whole thing:

• Finished novel 🎉
• Spent a useless, and fruitless, year searching for agents and publishers 🙄
• Searched for an editor …
  Engaged Megan Austin and started two rounds of edits
• Prepared bible of cover art
• Searched for a cover artist …
  Engaged Michelle Lee Designs (aka BWL Art Director) and started multiple rounds of design refinements
• Researched hybrid publishers and started contract discussions with one but rejected all offers
• Engaged KDP to self-publish …
• Researched website building tools …
  Decided to handcraft my own since I'd done it before

The publishing part of the story probably started when I finished writing and thought what I produced was a reasonable, finished product (that's a bit of foreshadowing — just in case you missed it). My critique group (The Fictionists) had seen most of the novel a couple times, and I must have gone through it many more.

My first mistake, as a new novelist, was thinking I needed to look for an agent and, barring that, at least get a publisher. I did my due diligence and started lining up some of each using QueryTracker. I prepared query letters, synopses, and sample chapters to suit the whims and fancies of each (of which there were many — whims and fancies, that is). My focus was on agents, adding publishers when I was further along. I sent out batches of queries and started accepting the rejections. On average, at the end of the process, only a little more than 50% responded to my query. All rejections, but at least they took the time to send me a rejection letter, even though I had my doubts whether they actually read what I sent. A goodly number might have stopped at the subject line about a new noir mystery (now rebranded as a hardboiled mystery) before hitting the REJECT button. Most of the rejections amounted to not in our wheelhouse.

Except for one of the publishers, the rejections were along the same lines, but only 40% bothered to reply to my query. The others were all no shows. The one exception took the time to read what I sent but replied with a short and scathing review, telling me I had nothing original to add to the genre. It hit hard. I soldiered on but ended my experiment shortly afterwards. At the end of that useless year I'd queried 124 agents and 18 publishers with nothing to show for it.

After that experiment I started exploring options for self and hybrid publishing, but realized I needed to have a real editor have a go at the novel. I tried my luck with Reedsy first, but was disappointed. Someone then pointed me to Editors Canada. Out of seven candidates who I queried, five gave me a quote and a sample edit. Megan Austin was the one who impressed me because she was the only one who pointed out historical inaccuracies in the limited sample I sent her.

The editing process was humbling. As I said at the beginning, I thought I had a finished product, but little did I know. In addition to the many, many, (many, many, …) actual edits, Megan also highlighted my numerous factual errors, some of which required fancy footwork to work the corrections back into the story.

The two rounds of edits took a bit longer than I expected, but I think that was a consequence of the due diligence Megan gave to making sure my 1956 Los Angeles and jazz references were accurate. I've taken to spending more time fact checking places, events, and people for my sequels. Getting citations when using search engines, AI or otherwise, is definitely not a nice-to-have.

While the edits were underway, I started thinking about what I wanted for cover art and researched styles and palettes that would show off a hardboiled detective novel. I put together a bible with examples of covers for novels of a similar nature, both recent and historical, links to websites with suitable images, and a suggestion for a cover that might work. Suitably armed, I started discussions with some local artists and graphic designers, as well as several recommended by Reedsy. Prices, approaches, and quality varied, and I was starting to dispair. My last stop was the BWL art director, Michelle Lee Designs, Bonny used for her cover art. The price was very acceptable and she was willing to work with me until we got it right. The final step was sizing the spine art for the paperback page count.

With the edits complete I started looking at my publishing options — self or hybrid. I was reluctant to go the self publishing route because I was disinclined to do all the non-writing work in getting my book out the door and into bookstores. I contacted four hybrid publishers and was mostly disappointed. The upfront cost was, in some cases, prohibitive, although there was obvious value there, but the kicker was none of them would give me credit for what I'd already spent for editing. What they could and would do for you was, generally, impressive, but when you got into the fine print, a lot of the things that interested me were extras.

After all that I decided on the self-publishing route, but with a pedal assist — Amazon via KDP. Their basic package still didn't give me credit for the editing, but they were more economical than the hybrids, and would handle the mechanics of getting things set up on Amazon. They also offered a global distribution add-on to get my books into bookstores like Indigo and Barns & Noble. The representatives were very helpful but had a strong propensity to upsell during every conversation. Sometimes a simple "no" was insufficient to stem the sales pitch but they ususally stopped when I said I had no money. As far as I was concerned the part of the process I needed them for was getting my book set up into the print format I wanted. A hardboiled, detective mystery deserves a standard paperback format with lower-grade (coarser?) paper and bindings.

I kicked off the process in early April with high hopes of having printed copies in hand for the WGA conference in June. Numerous back-and-forth's with the KDP team saw that deadline fade into the distance. The When Words Collide Conference in August was my next dream. The formatting for the standard paperback version was locked down by the end of July and I received three proof copies in early August. Imagine my excitement fading to disappointment when I opened the box and saw they didn't use my art for the spine. Also, the cover, body, and binding were more suited for a 6x9 version and not a pocket paperback. I was not impressed. Still, I had a hardcopy to parade around the conference.

Given all the missteps while they were trying to get the formatting right, I did another cover-to-cover read through of the print version. A totally different reading and editing experience. Unfortunately, I picked up another five typos / errors missed by the many eyes that had been through the document already. They were minor errors (e.g. changing "a" to "at") and KDP said they'd correct them before printing. I was promised new proof copies (although they're some doubt about that) at the beginning of September. Here it is almost the end of the month and nothing has materialized. My hopes of having copies that I could shop around at BoucherCon 2026 appear to have been dashed. I had no plans to attend, but I might have been persuaded if I had books in hand.

Now my hope is I can have a book launch in time for the Christmas book season. It's been a journey and I'm still not at the end.

When Words Collide Festival 2026 — 20 August 2026

The 2026 edition of When Words Collide Festival wrapped up on Sunday after a full three days of presentations and panel discussions. The venue was the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Calgary which, IMHO, was a significant step up from the two previous festivals I attended — bigger rooms which were closer together, and better amenities in and close by the hotel. The big change in Festival scheduling this year was the extra time (15 minutes) allocated between sessions so we didn't have to run from room-to-room, only to find it was SRO or closed. That, and the fact the rooms were close together, resulted in a more relaxed atmosphere, and allowed for a bit of time to network.

Being downtown, I was (almost) committed to riding my bike every day. Day one had a forecast of rain, so I wussed out and took an Uber. Day two was great so I rode to the hotel, which, BTW, has free, secure, valet parking for bikes. Unfortunately, the weather started to turn when I was leaving. By the time I made it to Sunnyside station it was coming down hard. Also, unfortunately, Sunnyside station was closed. My choice was ride back downtown and catch a train there, or just ride home. It was a toss-up, but I chose to soldier on and ride the rest of the way even if it was uphill, and into the rain and wind. My alleged rain jacket was great for keeping out the wind but not the water, so I was thoroughly soaked by the time I dismounted. Of course, the rain stopped when I put my bike away. I didn't bother on day three. If we're downtown next year (which, I hear, is quite likely) I will try bike commuting again.

My biggest (minor) complaint with the festival, as for both previous years, was there were too many sessions and too little time. I started out with 60+ selections spread over about 20 time slots, sometimes 3 or 4 at the same time, After a last minute panic, I managed to whittle it down to one per slot. That filled up all available time from the first session in the morning to the last one at night, barring the special events. Overall, I think I made some good choices, along with some less-than-ideal ones. You can see the complete festival schedule here.

I had a number of top choices this year and no particular favourites:

• Angela Ackerman, always an excellent presenter, gave two presentations on a couple thesauri she's co-authored: How Fear Rewires Your Character’s Behaviour, Logic & Responses and The Most Powerful Characterization Detail You're Overlooking: A Character's Job. Hank Retzer already has a job, so that session was interesting, but not particularly relevant, although I picked up a few things I might be able to use for some of my secondary characters, and other stories.
• Any presentation with Dave Sweet is going to be entertaining and informative. I took in a couple of his this year: He co-presented a Bucket of Bones: Building the Skeleton of Your Murder Mystery, and was part of a panel discussion on Inside the Villain's Mind: The Psychology Behind The Crime. I also had an opportunity to talk with him later about his work as a security consultant.
• Something I did that was a surprise, because it's not something that is a significant part of my writing, was Brenna Bailey-Davies' presentation, Let's Talk About Sex: Writing Effective Sex Scenes. I have written a couple short stories that had more sex than usual in them: a romance for the NYC Midnight Short Story contest, and, as a lark, more-or-less, an erotic thriller, both as a screenplay and short story, which I considered quite salacious.
• My detective is (almost) fully formed, but the panel discussion with Jonathan Whitelaw, Creating a Unique Detective Figure, was interesting. I'm not sure I learned anything I could use, but I was entertained. Also on the panel was Lexie Angelo who, apparently, teaches a crime writing course at the University of Calgary.
• The panel discussion, Writing Beyond the Self: Creating Characters Outside Our Lived Experience, featured a lot of back-and-forth about writing characters outside of your own race, gender, orientation, culture, or identity. The general consensus was you can, but tread carefully, be respectful, and engage sensitivity readers, if possible. The panel featured SF writer Robert J. Sawyer and Finnian Burnett.
• The presentation I found very interesting but with nothing, literally, more-or-less, to do with writing, was Butterflies and Plot Twists: Chaos Theory for Writers, by Ron Friedman. The overview of the science underlying Chaos Theory was the presentation, and it was done very well, but Friedman admitted he really didn't know how to apply it to writing. Our homework, I guess, was how to introduce Chaos Theory into our writing.
• I took in the panel discussion on Tricks, Tips & Traps for Successful Writing Groups, but came away with no new information. Most of the advice related to very large writing groups (upwards of 40 people), or to groups where everyone writes in the same genre, or about drop-in groups. I am part of the Fictionists critique group which has been successful for the last six years. We are a small (very small, by some standards) multi-genre, novel writing group. Part of what made us successful seemed to be at odds with some of the sage advice coming from the panel. Perhaps I will elaborate on our success in a later blog.
• The presentation I probably got the least out of was Offstage Characters: What Are They Up To? by Susan Forest. She introduced an interesting template but I found I already did a lot of the character development using other tools that were more adapted to my process.
• I had my lunch on the last day while listening to Kevin McDonald, of Kids in the Hall fame (at least that's where I know him from) talking about his Stupid Career. He is funny and engaging, but he only touched on his writing career very briefly (at all?).

Adventures in Website Development — 8 August 2026

Soooo.... Having done this before (hand-crafting websites), poorly, some would say, and after much contemplation, I made the decision to build my website using bare metal programming instead of with commercial website building services like WIX or SquareSpace. I was also seriously contemplating doing something with Wordpress but gave up because it seemed more complex than building my own from scratch.

Actually, it wasn't entirely from scratch. I suppose some would call it cheating, but I had ChatGPT layout the rough framework based on some basic concepts. I added my content and some specific functionality, and turned to Claude for debugging assistance. My last hands-on experience with website development was decades ago and technology has changed in the interim. Anyways, still a work in progress. Also, I'm not sure I'll be totally engaged with this blogging thing.