So, I tried querying Nameless for years.

So, I tried querying Nameless for years. The original goal was traditional publication. If you've noticed a few errors in it, that's because I had budget for profession sensitivity readers OR editing. I picked sensitivity, bc tradpub would've gotten me an editor.

NOBODY is signing new talent rn.

I had Nameless in a complete, edited state for *over 3 years* as I queried. I got to consult with longtime pros in the industry. Names you've heard. Names you might be following here on Bluesky.

I had every advantage. A PhD in writing. Vibrant social media.

I never even got a rejection letter.

Like, not even a form "thanks but no thanks" email. Literal ***nothing***.

It took me a long time to figure it out, but talking to people, but it seems like new writers are basically just... not being signed these days.

More or less ever, unless someone blows up in self-pub.

I think it's to do with GenAI. Trying to avoid the risk of unknown writers who might be using GenAI, which would expose publishers to lawsuits and strip the percentages from agents. I get it.

But right now? I wouldn't even imagine trying tradpub these days. If you're unknown. It's just *hopeless*.

Anyway, that's the spoiler-free BTS factoid about Nameless for the day.

@Impossible_PhD it was like that before generative ai. its been like that since self-publishing and amazon. traditional publishing has been dead, or in a blind panic, which is about the same thing in business, for twenty years.

i used to say i tailor-made my education to work in publishing and i graduated the year that "Publish" became a button on a website. i even got an entry-level job at a publisher and i just watched everything contract. curled up and died.

@Impossible_PhD it was like that before generative ai. its been like that since self-publishing and amazon. traditional publishing has been dead, or in a blind panic, which is about the same thing in business, for twenty years.

i used to say i tailor-made my education to work in publishing and i graduated the year that "Publish" became a button on a website. i even got an entry-level job at a publisher and i just watched everything contract. curled up and died.

@miriamrobern @Impossible_PhD I remember reading about how authors I like would just send off manuscripts to publishers and, if they got lucky and it was good, would get their first novel or stories or poems published…and that isn’t a thing that seems to have been real in decades, as far as I can tell. Basically, unless one gets into the Iowa writers workshop or one or two similar things in NYC or other places, seems impossible to be a new writer as far as I can tell.

There are a few exceptions, but it’s mostly niche, small publishers as far as I can tell?

So, I tried querying Nameless for years. The original goal was traditional publication. If you've noticed a few errors in it, that's because I had budget for profession sensitivity readers OR editing. I picked sensitivity, bc tradpub would've gotten me an editor.

NOBODY is signing new talent rn.

I had Nameless in a complete, edited state for *over 3 years* as I queried. I got to consult with longtime pros in the industry. Names you've heard. Names you might be following here on Bluesky.

I had every advantage. A PhD in writing. Vibrant social media.

I never even got a rejection letter.

Like, not even a form "thanks but no thanks" email. Literal ***nothing***.

It took me a long time to figure it out, but talking to people, but it seems like new writers are basically just... not being signed these days.

More or less ever, unless someone blows up in self-pub.

I think it's to do with GenAI. Trying to avoid the risk of unknown writers who might be using GenAI, which would expose publishers to lawsuits and strip the percentages from agents. I get it.

But right now? I wouldn't even imagine trying tradpub these days. If you're unknown. It's just *hopeless*.

Anyway, that's the spoiler-free BTS factoid about Nameless for the day.

So, I tried querying Nameless for years. The original goal was traditional publication. If you've noticed a few errors in it, that's because I had budget for profession sensitivity readers OR editing. I picked sensitivity, bc tradpub would've gotten me an editor.

NOBODY is signing new talent rn.

I had Nameless in a complete, edited state for *over 3 years* as I queried. I got to consult with longtime pros in the industry. Names you've heard. Names you might be following here on Bluesky.

I had every advantage. A PhD in writing. Vibrant social media.

I never even got a rejection letter.

Like, not even a form "thanks but no thanks" email. Literal ***nothing***.

It took me a long time to figure it out, but talking to people, but it seems like new writers are basically just... not being signed these days.

More or less ever, unless someone blows up in self-pub.

I think it's to do with GenAI. Trying to avoid the risk of unknown writers who might be using GenAI, which would expose publishers to lawsuits and strip the percentages from agents. I get it.

But right now? I wouldn't even imagine trying tradpub these days. If you're unknown. It's just *hopeless*.

Anyway, that's the spoiler-free BTS factoid about Nameless for the day.

@miriamrobern @Impossible_PhD I remember reading about how authors I like would just send off manuscripts to publishers and, if they got lucky and it was good, would get their first novel or stories or poems published…and that isn’t a thing that seems to have been real in decades, as far as I can tell. Basically, unless one gets into the Iowa writers workshop or one or two similar things in NYC or other places, seems impossible to be a new writer as far as I can tell.

There are a few exceptions, but it’s mostly niche, small publishers as far as I can tell?

@Impossible_PhD

I write short stories but I've been a member of a local writers' group off and on for almost twenty years.

It's not genAI, well not just genAI. It was already drying up unless you were an established name with guaranteed sales or a workhouse churning out genre paperbacks like clockwork.

Amazon Kindle seemed to be the beginning of the end based on the slow change in our speakers presentations.

And traditional publishers were enshitifying before it was a word. You, as the author, have had to do all of the work for a long time. Build your audience, market yourself, practically plan your own press tours unless you were profoundly lucky or well-known.

I hear the old workhorses are being laid off now. They aren't saying "we'll just use genAI" but I think that's the direction. Rather, have genAI spit out a novel and then you, an actual author, get paid shitty wages to "edit" it instead.

Some authors are writing dozens of books a year and still barely making ends meet. The only ones I've known who are "making a living" as writers are older folks who are retired from regular jobs and that's been the case for at least ten years.

If I ever get enough time to put together an anthology of my own short stories, I'll just self-publish and be fine with it. I'll never make money at it. I still write because I love writing.

@JoscelynTransient @miriamrobern yep, and there are soooooo many fly by night small presses that have screwed their authors so many times.