Can one of our local historians lay out a timeline of Pat’s publishing career? I’m not clear on the exact sequence and details of his humiliation. For example, when did his publisher tell him they refused to publish the third book in his intended trilogy after nobody bought the first two? Did he just get one deal for three books and then go to writing on spec ever since? Did he publish anything before that three-book deal or were they really retarded enough to give him that based on a moderately viral tweet about something completely unrelated to sci-fi?
I don't have exact dates, but in 2011, he got his first publishing deal with Angry Robot (just before the Ade divorce). This was a 3 book deal. For some reason (maybe someone can explain this or I'm getting some details wrong), his first book (The Ark) was released in 2015, doing pretty good for a first-timer, and remains his most successful release. His 2nd book (Trident's Forge) sold half of what The Ark sold, and the 3rd book in the series (Children of the Divide) sold half of the 2nd. He was not resigned by Angry Robot. In 2017, just after his plagiarized (
https://philpapers.org/rec/DAMSSE) abortion thought experiment and at the height of TDS, he was signed on by Tor Books for another 3 book deal. The person who signed him stated on a podcast that he signed Patrick for his political beliefs. His first book in this deal, Gate Crashers, did about half of what Children of the Divide did. Starship Repo and In the Black were released in 2019 and 2020 respectively, and each sold about 300 copies. He was not resigned by Tor Books. Since then, he wrote a book called "Herd Immunity" which he desperately shopped around at various cons, but could not find a buyer. He recently finished his first draft of his Tiny Tim book, and is probably going to be shopping that around soon as well.
To answer your quuestion about why they "refused to publish the third book in his intended trilogy", Pat's 1.7 GPA tactic to always have publishers resign him (which has never happened), is to end the last book in any publishing deal on a massive cliffhanger, thinking this would cause the audience to demand to get the sequel. The sequel to his most recently published book, In the Black, is titled In the Red, and he occasionally tells his followers to pester Tor Books on Twitter hoping they'll give him another deal after losing easily 6 figures on their last (and only) one.