For the curious reader of science fiction (scifi) and fantasy
In case you haven’t seen the ads, Barnes and Noble is running a Father’s Day sale on their Nook HD (for high-definition screen) and the larger Nook HD+, marking both down significantly. The best discount is on the HD+, which is almost half off (from $269 down to $149). I’m going to get one myself, even though I already have a tablet, because it will be useful to have as a test platform for ebook formatting.
If you haven’t taken the plunge yet, this might be a good time.
By now, most people interested in books and publishing have heard of Hugh Howey, a self-published SF writer whose eighth (I think) book Wool
hit gold and became a runaway bestseller in ebook. It made a millionaire of the author, and led in the course of time to an extraordinary print contract with a major New York publisher, in which the publisher offered a large six-figure advance for print rights only, allowing the author to continue to mine his own ebook rights to the tune of six figures monthly.
[Deep breath, and expel the envy. All together, now…]
Anyway, Hugh Howey writes on Salon.com about his views of traditional versus self-publishing. It’s pretty interesting, although I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says. (For one thing, he doesn’t mention the role that traditional publishers play in helping writers, especially new writers, improve their craft and produce better books. Some say that that role is diminishing these days, but I think it really depends on the publisher and the editor.) Still, it’s hard to argue with Howey’s success.
I write this as I’m taking a break from working on my taxes, wherein I discover that I sort of seriously underestimated the effect my own improved ebook sales would have on my tax bottom line. Ow. I’m not remotely in the same universe as Howey, sales-wise. Nevertheless, last year was one of the best years I’ve had in my modest career in terms of book income, and it was all from my backlist. The paradigms, they are a-shiftin’.
I’m heading off shortly to Boston’s Westin Hotel on the waterfront to spend some time at Arisia, currently New England’s largest regional SF/F convention. I’ll be on a bunch of panels related to writing and ebook publishing. Tonight at 10, the subject is “Self-editing your SF/F Novel” —self-editing being the first step in rewriting a manuscript, to be combined (preferably) with critique from trusted readers, followed by more revision as needed. I happen to have a self-edit checklist just for the purpose! (If you don’t catch the panel, you can always read my checklist at writesf.com—click the link for Rewriting.)
Tomorrow, I’ll be talking about “Punching Up the Action,” “Self-publishing” (particularly, from my point of view, as it relates to self-publishing one’s backlist), and “Plot and Structure.” If you’re in the area, come on down!
I’m also eagerly looking forward to seeing the art show. The artist Guest of Honor is Roger Dean, creator of all those wonderful Yes album covers (which were in fact one inspiration for my novel Panglor)!
Show us your Nook! Or your pretend-Nook, if you don’t have a Nook. From now through Dec. 31, a bunch of authors, including the one attached to my fingers, are giving away a free ebook from Book View Café. All you have to do is visit Katharine Eliska Kimbriel’s Live Journal page at http://alfreda89.livejournal.com/. She has the instructions there. The idea is you post a picture of yourself with your Nook to Cat’s Livejournal or Facebook page, and in return you get some coupon codes for free books. Just go to Book View Café to collect. Nothing to register—just use the coupon codes to download epub editions of the books.
I’m giving away Eternity’s End, a Nebula finalist. You’ll also get Cat’s Fires of Nuala, Vonda N. McIntyre’s Starfarers, and Jennifer Stevenson’s King of Hearts, all in DRM-free epub editions. (Which means, among other things, that if you have a Kindle pretending to be a Nook, you can easily convert the epub to mobi-Kindle format with Calibre, a free program.) See Cat’s page for a list of other participating authors.
Here’s where you can go to collect your epub copy of Eternity’s End once you have your coupon code: http://bookviewcafe.com/bookstore/bvc-author/jeffrey-a-carver/.
Hurry! Before we run out of ebooks!
Before this gets away from me and I forget to promote it (What good are specials if you keep them to yourself?), I have a few book specials lined up for the holiday season.
Ebooks first. At Book View Café, you can pick up my two short story collections, Going Alien and Reality and Other Fictions, for just $1.99 each through December 31. (That’s a dollar off the regular low, low price of $2.99!) Epub or mobi (Kindle) format, your choice, DRM-free.
In the Kindle store, the price of my spaceship-racing thriller, Clypsis (Book One of the Roger Zelazny’s Alien Speedway trilogy) has been marked down by the publisher, at my request, from $9.99 to $5.97. That’s a 40% markdown! Gentlebeings, start your engines! A rousing collaboration with the late, great Roger Zelazny, for young adults of all ages! (Plus, when you compare the ebook price to $89.56 for a new, vintage paperback, it’s a no-brainer. Never mind the $.01 used paperbacks. I’m sure they’re not as good.)
Finally, for lovers of tree-books, I remind you all that personalized, autographed paper books make fine gifts for the discerning gift giver. Why not visit my virtual bookstore at http://www.starrigger.net/order.htm? Take 10% off the book total (not off the postage, please) for any order you send me in the month of December. This sale is not listed on the website. Just take the discount and mention you read it on my blog or Facebook page.
The book is dead? I don’t think so. Long live the book!
Quite accidentally, I’ve discovered that four of my novels recently became available as audiobooks from Audible! News to me! But good news.
I reported earlier that nine of my books have been picked up for audiobook production, and I knew that three of them were in production. I didn’t know any of them were finished, and the fourth was a complete surprise. I had been asked by a producer to record my preferred pronunciations of names and funny words in From a Changeling Star, Down the Stream of Stars, and The Infinity Link. That’s how I knew they were in process. Apparently a different producer was in charge of The Rapture Effect, and on that book I guess I’m at the mercy of the narrator.
Check them out and listen to samples at Audible.com! I notice that three of them have a special offer: Get the audiobook for $1.99 if you buy the Kindle ebook first. That’s a great deal! The Kindle ebooks are only $4.39 right now, so that means you’d get ebook and audiobook combined for only $6.38! Makes me want to go get them for myself.
The Infinity Link
Audiobook from Audible | iTunes
Special Audible price $1.99 with purchase of Kindle ebook
The Rapture Effect
Audiobook from Audible | iTunes
Kindle ebook
From a Changeling Star
Audiobook from Audible | iTunes
Special price $1.99 with purchase of Kindle ebook
Down the Stream of Stars
Audiobook from Audible | iTunes
Special price $1.99 with purchase of Kindle ebook
Also Battlestar Galactica, though that one isn’t new.
Audiobook from Audible | iTunes
Kindle ebook
And more on the way!
This has been a good summer for ebook sales. Although my short story collections haven’t gained much traction (Whattza matter, you don’t like short stories??), the other books have been gaining steadily. There was a big jump in July, for no obvious reason, and August was almost as good, with September so far following suit. I’m talking mainly about the backlist books I put out myself, because those I have timely numbers for—but I have reason to think Sunborn, in its Tor edition, is doing pretty well, too.
We’re not talking headline numbers here, like some indie authors you may have read about. But over a thousand ebooks a month generates a meaningful contribution to the family budget, and represents continuing growth in the audience.
The vast majority of those sales are through the Amazon Kindle store, with Nook, Apple, and Sony bringing up a distant rear. That makes me a trifle uneasy, I admit—not because there’s anything wrong with the Kindle store, but because I wish there were more healthy competition in the marketplace. I wish, for example, that I had more sales in Book View Café, because it’s a terrific little store and a terrific cooperative of great writers. And I wish the Nook store would get its mojo back.
So what’s the funny thing? Here it is: My sales in the UK have taken off in the last two months. In fact, they now account for about half my total sales. In fact, in September, I’ve sold more books through Amazon UK than I have through Amazon US. That’s amazing, and I have no explanation! But I’m delighted to have a lot of new British readers. Welcome to the Chaos Chronicles! And welcome, too, to the daring few German readers who are trying the books.
I’m grateful for every book sale and every new reader. Still, it’s fun to try to figure out the patterns. Only this time I can’t! I’m stumped!
Watch a sweet, kind of sad, 9-minute film that has nothing to do with the topic of this post. I just like it. It’s about a robot marooned in space.
Robbie – A Short Film By Neil Harvey from Neil Harvey on Vimeo.
Drum roll, please. Thanks, you can stop now. I said, thanks, you can… thank you.
It’s official; it’s live; it’s up for sale! My second of two short story collections, Going Alien, has just launched. Look to the east, in the sky. In the sky. See that bright spot of light? That’s Going Alien, on its way into space, where the aliens are!
Here’s what it looks like when it’s not a spot of light in the sky. It’s up now in the Book View Café store. It’ll be up momentarily at Amazon, too—and Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. It’ll be up, as the world turns, in all of the other stores, like Apple and Sony and Kobo.
About the stories. I’m always leery about rereading my own stuff. I mean, what if I don’t like it? What if I find it amateurish and derivative? What if I hate it? Well, to my own delight (and relief!), none of that happened! I actually really enjoyed reading through these stories, published over most of the years of my career. All of them, by the way, have bona fide aliens in them. And all have accompanying introductions with my reminiscences about the writing of them, and how they fit into the general scheme of my career.
Here’s the list of stories, most of them appearing for the first time since their initial publication in places such as original anthologies edited by Roger Zelazny and Orson Scott Card, and in magazines like Galaxy and Galileo.
If I may offer a review quote from an editor I asked to look at them: “These stories are great! I’m really enjoying them!” And, “This illustration is beautiful!”
Okay, the editor, Allysen Palmer, is technically also my wife, but still. She’s a genuine professional editor. And she seemed really objective as she said that to me.
Why not give it a try? No aliens were harmed in the making of this ebook, and it’s affordably priced at $2.99, wherever fine ebook story collections are sold. Right alongside my first collection, Reality and Other Fictions.
If you’re one of the excellent people who have bought a copy of my omnibus ebook of the first three Chaos books, I have good news for you! (At least, I hope it’s good news.) The book has gone through a complete reformatting and general steaming and dry cleaning, and the new, vastly improved version is now up in the Kindle store, the Nook store, Smashwords, and eventually will also be in the Book View Café store, the Apple and Sony stores, Kobo, and wherever Chaos Chronicles books are sold. No actual prose was harmed in the making of this new ebook! It’s the same thrilling story, unchanged except it looks way better on your reader now. (If it’s a Nook, the centered text will actually look centered—not a slam-dunk certainty on a Nook, as it turns out. Or in Aldiko on an Android, for that matter.)
Please be my guest and go back and download the updated version. I’m reasonably sure you can do that without cost, though if you ask me the actual mechanics by which you do it, I’m suddenly going to go all vague on you and excuse myself to go get more coffee. But let me know if you have trouble.
If you haven’t yet sprung for the ebook, well, pay no attention to me; I’m just going to sit in the dark, mumbling to myself about lost opportunities. ($6.99 for three books, are you kidding me?)
By the way, the individual novels, Neptune Crossing, Strange Attractors, and The Infinite Sea are also going to get an update—coming soon, as soon as Ann (who’s doing most of the actual work) finishes up. I’d love to give them new covers, too, but that must be a project for another day.
It’s been a while since I reported on what I’m doing, writing-wise. Here’s the short form:
Chaos 5: The Reefs of Time — Yah, it’s coming; it’s coming. Piece after piece keeps falling into place. It’s long and it’s complex, and there are a lot of things in it that I could not figure out beforehand; I could only discover these things by pushing at the story and the characters—that is, by writing and sometimes taking wrong turns into blind alleys. That process involves many hours of pounding my head and pulling my hair. Hell of a way to run a railroad, but there you have it. The train called The Reefs of Time will come in.
Audiobooks — Production at Audible has already begun on the books they’ve licensed for audiobooks. These guys move fast; I’ll give them that. I’ve recorded pronunciations of character and place names and like that for three of the books. And three narrators are now at work on From a Changeling Star, Down the Stream of Stars, and The Infinity Link.
Going Alien — My second short story collection is near to completion. I just have to put final touches on the new introductions, and finish proofreading the stories. My able assistant Ann has already done the lion’s share of the formatting work, so the conversion to ebook will be quick. The launch is planned for August 28. I’m enjoying rereading the stories, some of which I have not looked at in many years. Good sign. Here’s what it’s going to look like.
And that’s where I am in the writing projects!
