Tout your Kindle and E-Publishing!

Just a quick self-promotion to let everyone know that if you buy the anthology Extinct Doesn't Mean Forever by Friday, July 15, 2011 (Central USA time), all the publisher/author proceeds will be donated to help save the Tasmanian devil.

For those who don't know, devils are currently seriously endangered in the wild because of a communicable cancer that is devastating the population. However, recently a test was developed to identify animals that are not infected, allowing them (theoretically, if there's enough funding) to be isolated into disease-free breeding colonies. This is an animal that truly can be saved, and will almost certainly be lost without action.

The anthology contains one of my stories (previously published in Cosmos Magazine), and 18 original stories by other authors, all for just $2.99. It's available on Amazon,[url=http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Extinct-Doesnt-Mean-Forever/Phoenix-Sullivan/e/2940012338044?r=1&itm=1&usri=extinct+doesn't+mean+forever&if=N&cm_mmc=VigLink-_-k244266-_-j12871747k244266-_-Primary]Barnes and Noble[/url], and Smashwords.

OK, end commercial. I now return you to your regularly scheduled self-promotion.

My God, Taz could go into extinction...

I would buy one, but I don't have a Kindle or e-reader. Otherwise, I'd be first in line.

I would buy one, but I don't have a Kindle or e-reader. Otherwise, I'd be first in line.

The Smashwords version is also available as a .PDF. Also, don't give up on e-books just because you don't have an e-reader. I use a program called Calibre on my Mac, which is free and does a good job with .epubs. It's available for PC, too. I'm told Amazon also has software available to let you read .mobi format on a PC.

Kindle for PC is also free. Downlaod from Amazon. They also have phone versions.

What gets my goat up is that I can't buy a lot of stuff that's been published traditionally, because of the territorial rights nonsense.

I have posted for sale as a short story single one of the stories that got me into Clarion this year if anyone is interested. I never submitted this story to WotF because while I think it is an awesome story (so far my favorite one that I've written), the speculative element isn't until about page 8.

Here's the cover-

And here's the link to the Smashwords page- http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/81011
And here's the Amazon Kindle link- http://www.amazon.com/The-Scent-of-Sunl ... 005H7Q03M/
And here's the Nook link- http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Sc ... 0013132436

Beautiful cover, Annie! Do you plan a Kindle version? Will it be on Amazon soon like your others?

And wow, I didn't realize how many you have on Amazon! I have some catching up to do!

Martin- it'll be on Kindle soon (in a day or two I think). Hehe. I only have 11 things up now (4 are under another name). Hopefully it will be at 15-16 by the end of the year with more novels out.

Beautiful cover, Annie!

Concurrence there. Congratulations, Annie!

I know some writers have wondered if a story that didn't win in WOTF could do well in the publishing world. My story The Cageless Zoo received an HM in Q4 of last year. I published it late in the spring. Recently, my sales have taken a huge jump and I'm hitting the Amazon lists in a number of science fiction categories. I've also received a bunch of five star reviews and wonderful words of encouragement.

Right now (or as of this morning) it was #5 on the bestselling sci-fi short stories list. I'm not going to retire anytime soon on the sales, but the number of them encourages me that there are other ways that just traditional publishing. Also, it helps remind me that even if a story isn't the right one for the contest, it can do just fine out there, even if it only got an HM. The story is novella length and sells for $0.99.

I also talked about it on my blog -- http://thomaskcarpenter.com/2011/09/02/more-bestselling-news-the-cageless-zoo/

So keep writing!

Also, it helps remind me that even if a story isn't the right one for the contest, it can do just fine out there, even if it only got an HM. The story is novella length and sells for $0.99.

I have one more market to try, and then I'll be following your example with my Finalist.

I'm serializing a novel on my blog. First chapter is up- http://overactive.wordpress.com/2011/09 ... apter-one/

Here's the rough description:
A genetically engineered bodyguard addicted to the drugs that prolong her life. An ex-cop struggling to provide for his children. An obsessive-compulsive cybernetically enhanced computer genius. This band of misfits scrapes by below the radar of their iron-fisted government in an enclosed city where all is not as shiny or under control as it appears.

Then they uncover a plan with deadly side-effects aimed at taking control of a top government position. As hundreds start dropping dead in the streets from an engineered virus, the criminals find themselves in a race to decode the information they’ve stumbled upon and unravel a terrifying plot. Faced with betrayal and pursuit on all sides, the three quickly realize that they must save the spiral city and very government that has outlawed them if they are to have any chance of saving themselves.
------------------------------
If I decide not to trash this version and take a fourth and final run at this novel from scratch, it will also be available as an ebook eventually.

Beautiful cover, Annie!

Concurrence there. Congratulations, Annie!

All your cover art is really lovely, and engages the potential reader / buyers. Very nice.

And now I have another SF short story collection up. It includes "Pele's Bee-keeper" which not only got me into Clarion but was also a semi-finalist in the contest.

Here's the cover:

And here's some links:
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/87676
Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Deep-Black-Beyond ... 005M7BNHA/

Killer cover, Annie. I've got some reading time scheduled today on the couch. I'll pick up a copy and give it a whirl. I'm curious to read your Bee Keeper story.

Ah, I loved that one! And yes, the cover looks great.

Thanks guys. I really need to get more novels done and out.

Available on Kindle, contains my horror story “The Shredded Tapestry.” All hail Algernon Blackwood!

I recently published yet another novella:

In a far future, a fleet of ships hurtles through space on its way to a distant war. Aboard the ships is an army of artificial human soldiers, highly trained and dangerous. Doctor Charlotte West, the neuro-technologist responsible for the soldiers’ artificial brains, travels in the support fleet. Two months before the arrival at the war site, the soldiers start fighting each other and disobeying commands. When they are brought in for tests, Charlotte finds that all seven thousand men share a pathological obsession with her.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/90862
or
http://pattyjansen.com/?p=763
or
http://www.omnilit.com/product-charlotte039sarmy-601926-245.html?oid=3
or
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005OOFFPC

This is a "Heron of Alexandria" short story, based on the main character from my novel Fires of Alexandria.

When the Magistrate of the Rhakotis District calls Heron of Alexandria—the greatest inventor the city has ever known—to help him solve a curious disturbance involving the Temple of Bacchus and an agitated numerologist, he learns the true cost of numbers.

The short story can be purchased for $0.99 at Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/The-Price-of-Numbers-ebook/dp/B005NRXVRO/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_6

Well, I was going to wait until I could provide you with a link to Barnes & Noble as well, but they seem to operate under a definition of "24-72 hours" with which I was not previously familiar, and have not bothered to put it on sale yet. (Amazon has managed to process the original e-book and the version that corrected a typo in less time that it's taken B&N to process the original.)

But anyway, I'm pleased to announce a standalone novelette, "The Survivors' Menagerie":

A passenger off the Titanic, a Roman gladiator, a temporal physicist. They've all been rescued from certain death, but now they're stuck in a strange research facility that operates on the fringes of the law.

You can get it on Goodreads (for those who prefer a proper .epub and don't want to wait for B&N), Amazon (for you Kindle users), Amazon U.K. (for those who prefer to shop in Pounds), and Amazon Deutschland (for those who prefer to shop in Euros). [If you don't have a Kindle but prefer Amazon, I've found the Kindle app for my Mac to be very reliable.] It's only $0.99 (or the international equivalent), and if any of you are reviewers or book bloggers, message me and I can get you a review copy (.mobi, .epub, or .pdf).

This was a particularly interesting story to write, because I got to turn my hard-SF instincts to getting the history right, which meant this bears very little resemblance to the story I set out to write, and is even stronger as a result. I hope y'all enjoy it!

And... another short story collection. This one contains "River Daughter" which got an HM and "Roping the Mother" which got a Silver HM in the contest.

Here's the description:
A pregnant witch must decide between protecting her heritage and protecting her unborn child… A man looking for a better life learns there is a permanent price attached to change… Grieving for his lost brother, a man faces the mother of all tornadoes with a little magical assistance… When a social worker threatens to break apart her family, a single mother of two must use all her imagination and courage to escape to a better world.

This is a collection of four fantasy short stories from Annie Bellet. Included are: River Daughter, La Última Esperanza, Roping the Mother, The Scent of Sunlight.

*Bonus Material*
The first five chapters of “A Heart in Sun and Shadow”, a fantasy novel set in a re-imagined ancient Wales.

Here are the links:
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/93998
Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/River-Daughter-Ot ... 005SM8372/

Another marvelous cover, Annie.

Thanks, Kyle. I'm pretty happy with the stuff my cover guy does for me.

And now for something completely different, "The Case of the Basher: A Colm Ramirez Mystery" by James Ipse.

When a string of gay bashings turn out to have a supernatural culprit, Colm Ramirez is on the case! This novelette follows Fresno's favorite private investigator in one of the most difficult cases of his career.

Now available on Amazon, Amazon U.K., and Amazon Deutschland. It's only $0.99 (or the international equivalent). As always, if any of you are reviewers or book bloggers, message me and I can get you a review copy (.mobi, .epub, or .pdf). There's an upside to owning the company.

My Q2 SHM story, Mother is for sale at Smashwords and Amazon

Smashwords gives you the option to upload a video. Here's what I posted: Mother Tease

Here's the blog post. I would post the cover, but it's a little large.

http://amandamccarter.wordpress.com/201 ... published/

I'm continually impressed by the covers WOTF folks are putting on their e-books! And self-published book covers supposed to suck? That's what I keep hearing...

I'm continually impressed by the covers WOTF folks are putting on their e-books! And self-published book covers supposed to suck? That's what I keep hearing...

I echo that ... Almost every cover WotF folks have shared has been really impressive!

And not just in comparison to the other e-books out there (which I will suggest DO, mostly, suck) ... but as individual selling elements AND as artistic works. Good stuff.

I'll offer an observation (just an opinion though, just two cents personal taste):

Take as much care and creativity deciding your typefaces / fonts / title design as you would choosing your cover images.

There's a comment common to low-budget filmmaking, that to some at first seems counter-intuitive: You can get away with poor-quality video and not be labeled "amateurish" before you can get away with poor audio.

You'd think that visuals would be more important for a "professional look" right? Sight is the more important sense than Hearing etc. But in a film, VISUALS are often considered an AESTHETIC, ARTISTIC CHOICE (gritty, grainy, colours dimmed or oversaturated, over or under-exposed) ... where as poor sound hits many folks as mere technical or amateurish defect.

So too sometimes with our cover art and typeface/fonts etc.

EVERYONE is familiar with the range of fonts available, yet sometimes writers may choose to be too conservative and merely use a larger size of Courier rather than a truly expressive choice (what that choice might be, who can say? But if you can tell your readers that your novel is about RUSSIA by merely giving your title a Cyrillic flavour ... that might be a good thing, an artistic, art-not-mindless nuance. Part of the ART.)

ETA: You can download many unique fonts for free or cheaply, some very unique "Your reader never saw this on a cover before" at misc sites.

http://www.instantshift.com/2009/07/05/40-fresh-free-fonts-to-enhance-your-designs/
Dunno about these guys in particular, but free fonts are all over the internet ...

http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=108&page=2
<---------- Lots of Cool Fonts

I myself am rather the Philistine when I see a page in a novel devoted to telling us the history of the typeface used; I'm pretty much "can't tell the difference" myself. (And even calling something 'Philistine' is an odd choice, because historically it was a tribe of goat herders sneering at the refined cultures of quite sophisticated city-dwellers. Solomon's Temple wasn't decorated by nomads after all, it was all Splendour, and Splendid. Holding on to the nomad-aesthetic was hard to do, faced by Pagan Opulence.)

But we've all seen books where the typeface was just damned wrong! (ummmm ... some are attuned to forum threads where, y'know, something's horribly outrageous too )

TITLES can hit me as bad or amateurish, often before the art choice does.

Anyway ... just imo and personal taste there, but an observation ... Look thee to thy typefaces, O Babylon.

Good advice, soulmirror!

Oh, and I think I forgot to say, "Congrats, Amanda!"