Going into this year, my plan was to self-publish my novel Raw Meat around the start of October. Raw Meat is a dystopian urban fantasy horror set in a city struggling to control the spread of an endemic lycanthropic virus. Including rewrites and edits, the novel took me four years to complete.
You may have noticed that it is almost the start of October, and the novel is still not out. Unfortunately there have been some technical issues with the distributor, and I’m still waiting for those to be resolved. At the moment, I have no idea if or when those issues will ever be fixed, so as things stand the release is indefinitely paused. I can’t even release the novel for free here on my website, as this could potentially cause further complications in the future.
It goes without saying that falling at the last hurdle like this, after so much hard work, is disappointing. It’s made me question my approach to releasing my writing, especially self-publishing, which I’m now much more hesitant about in general. I had no idea technical problems like this could even happen, let alone cause such prolonged delays.
Earlier in the year I was making good progress on a horror novella, but for the past couple of weeks I have taken a break from writing fiction. I can’t bring myself to do it right now, after such a frustrating setback. Doubtless I will pick it up again soon, though. I always do.
Edmund Axton 