I tried for years to get something published via the traditional publishing house route. I finally said, "Screw them." My decision to eschew the old-school publishing industry was made for several reasons. The mainstream publishers ghost like hell. You send them stuff, and they just don't respond. I mean, seriously, I put blood, sweat, tears, and more than a few lattes into a submission, and they can't even be bothered to say, "Nah." That's too much trouble for them?

Also, I am reading a book now by William Gibson. Pattern Recognition, it's called. It is beyond bad. I mean, it would have to get about five times better for me to call it merely "bad." And yet, because he's previously published bestsellers, he gets not just a title, but a trilogy out of it? I'm not envious, and this is not just frustrated-writer venting. This is the sound of someone who has enough respect for my own time and energy to see that I am writing quality material, and am not willing to be held back by a moribund industry that refuses to get with the times.

My work probably will never see space in a bookstore window display. It will probably never even be printed, except possibly as an exhibit for a defamation lawsuit. But it is mine, and I do not really care whether I get the approval of a publishing house editor, much less some rando on the Internet.

And, by-the-by, if my work is never used to justify murdering a single tree, I will go to my grave with a smile. Have a beautiful day!