Michael Jensen asked Brent Hartinger:

Very excited to read your new book! Why so long since the last one?

Brent Hartinger Well, it's a bit awkward to write about, but I couldn't find a publisher!

I finished the first draft of INFINITE DRIFT more than five years ago, and I was pretty sure I’d written something special: a roller-coaster ride of a book with a provocative theme and some truly unexpected twists.

And sure enough, my agent loved it and said, “This is the most cinematic book any client has ever sent me.”

So you’d think it would be an easy sell, right?

But (IMHO) YA publishing has been in a weird place for more than a decade now: too trend-driven, too socially and politically insular, and too paralyzed with fear about “offending” someone online.

Sure enough, we received lots of fear-driven feedback from editors, all of it concerning race and sexuality. One editor said to us outright: “Right now, we’re only picking up new books from authors who are from ‘marginalized’ communities — and Brent’s being gay just isn’t ‘marginalized’ enough.”

But honestly, I think the bigger issue is that I don’t think there’s ever been much of a place for me in traditional publishing: I think my books are too fast-paced and plot-driven to be considered “important” or “literary,” but they’re also too quirky and/or wonky to be overtly “commercial.”

So I decided to self-publish.

But I did wonder: Am I fooling myself? If none of these editors want to publish my book, maybe it isn’t as good as I thought!

So I entered the book in two major book-to-movie publishing contests, both with blind submission processes. No one knew my name, race, gender, or sexuality. Each contest received thousands of submissions, but the judges were from Hollywood, not New York publishing.

My book made the top ten in both contests.

So I think I’m good. But I guess we'll see what actual readers think!

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