Plans for two novels

I currently have several novels that were started and not completed, or completed but are presently resting in limbo.  One is my novel that was published as the fantasy "Rast" that I removed from a publisher where it was---presumably--- invisible. It is worth reviving as a number of readers have raved over it, and the submissions editor at the publisher says, "it deserved better".

I am trying to decide whether to self publish it as a series of four novellas (it would make more as $1.99 times four that as a single at $4.99---e-book readers are really cheap these days.) or else look for a new publisher for it. Some of the decision will hinge on the success of my two Steampunk novels at Tyche http://tychebooks.com/book/steam-strategem/ because I would play up its steam connection to 'brand' it.

It dawned on me a couple of months back that even before my Steampunks were accepted, four out of six of my published novels have a significant steam connection. "Rast", for example has the imperialist invaders riding in multi-legged steam powered walking land transporters. From an engineering standpoint they would need computer controlled hydraulic leg mechanisms to work, but hey...this is a fantasy. It would not require a large change of emphasis in the text to make the novel a Steampunk fantasy.

The other novel has been sitting in the same slush pile for about a year. I'm quite certain the publisher doesn't want it, but I have been too busy with the Steampunks to do anything about removing it. This one is my SF offering "Mindstream" that has the abbot of a Zetetic Monastery who can mentally visit other worlds in the universe by entering the Nth dimension 'Mind' through a sort of meditation technique. The Abbot is a retired lecturer in cybernetics...which makes his experience more 'scientific'.

I have been thinking about posting it in one of those reader/writer reviewed forums (fora) run by publishers looking for a cheap way to find new voices. I was participating in one a few years back...slightly... to see if it was worth keeping. I’m not convinced, and don’t remember what it was called..but I will be able to find it somewhere amid the clutter in my Internet world.

I’m somewhat of a cynic when it comes to trusting writers to promote someone else’s work. I was following a young lady’s novel for awhile that I thought had promise, but she seemed offended if I suggested improvements. To get a really good following it looks like an immense amount of reading, that would almost ensure your own writing would go off the rails. But if the gophers at XXX Publishing recommended one’s work to the submissions editors one might find a painless way into a professional publishing house.