On Adjusting the Schedule

As you might probably tell from my lack of ecstatic cartwheels, I didn't win the Suvudu writing contest. The news comes as somewhat of a lack of a surprise, given that nearly 700 novels were submitted and my little science fiction action adventure story was likely lost in the crowd. I would still enjoy hearing about where I placed in the pack (after all, Wolfhound could have come in at number 5 of 700, but they only recognized the winner and three runners up), but I wonder if the fact that I didn't win has highlighted some of the issues of going with traditional publishing. The odds of getting published with any particular label are likely much worse than 700 to one, and it depends almost entirely on getting the right book in front of the right editor who happens to be in the right mood. I know Wolfhound is a good story, and I don't want to see it languish in obscurity simply because agents don't want to take a chance on sci fi, or because the editor who reads it just isn't all that into adventure stories. I might need to look into e publishing it instead.

However, there is a more short term consequence as a result of the contest. I have a pretty good draft of Wolfhound that I would want one last batch of readers to do a quick readthrough on before I send it out to publishers, or before I try and get a copy edit done on it so that I can put it up online. At the same time, I am nearing completion on Kingsley's second draft, and will be looking for alpha readers on that story. I get the sense that my writing group is much more excited about reading Kingsley as well, and that there might be some disappointment over getting stuck with Wolfhound instead. So if I do both I run the risk of asking people to read two of my books fairly close together, which may not work out that well. After all, there's only so much reading a person can take...

So what do you guys suggest? Do I wait on Wolfhound and get an alpha read of Kingsley done first, or do I try to do both at once? Or should Kingsley wait instead? Or maybe divide up the readers into alphas and others as omega readers? Nuts. Decisions, decisions...