Tout your Kindle and E-Publishing!

Good---good

My E-novel is live at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/459861 with the new file.

The new file won't be up at B&N and other sites for maybe a few days though.

I still don't know how to do the image on the post--I have experimented but nothing works for me. So please click the link to see the cover at least.

I still don't know how to do the image on the post--I have experimented but nothing works for me. So please click the link to see the cover at least.

1. Click the "Img" button above the post
2. In between the brackets, paste the URL to the image

The code below should do the trick:

[img]https://dwtr67e3ikfml.cloudfront.net/bookCovers/767cc830a7eadf2208aaa78f9976897a23eeabd6[/img]

Theoretically you can resize it using:

[img width=14pt]

but I can't seem to get that to hold, so it'll probably cut off half your cover regardless.

Thanks for the effort.

I gave it a try. I did try Img before, but couldn't get it to work .

The first line you suggested cut off a section on one side and the other didn't do anything.

Like Tears in Rain: Meditations on Science Fiction Cinema

Published August 20, 2014 -- approx. 35,000 words -- 1st Digital Ed., Kindle KDP Select

Kindle Purchase Price: $2.99

Amazon.com Book Description:

The essays that follow were written out of a love for science fiction in all its forms: on film, in fiction, in video games, in comics. They were written neither for money nor as a means of declaring myself some kind of self-appointed expert on the genre. Many of them appeared for the first time in Amazing Stories, the world's very first science fiction magazine, while others are original to this volume--but each and every one of them has been revised and expanded for the sake of remaining timely. Science fiction has a hard time keeping up with the world, though, for many of us, it stands ageless and forever relevant in our hearts, a constant beacon of youthful exuberance and wonder at the full breadth of the universe.

I hope you'll enjoy my various explorations of the big-screen myths SF has given us in recent years. Imperfect though they sometimes are, I believe that seeing worlds beyond our own brought to life in a way that's both visible and readily accessible to the next generation of readers, dreamers, and creators is vital to keeping not only the written literature alive, but also to the mission of scientific discovery that is so often forgotten in this age of hardship and cynicism.

Whether or not topics like transhumanism and interstellar flight ought to be among our most immediate social concerns is something I leave up to the reader. But I will say this: Tomorrow is coming sooner than we may think, and science fiction gives us a vast canvas for exploring its various challenges and questions from the relative safety of our imaginations, long before we are forced to face them in reality.

So: if the future is Skynet, then science fiction is a kind of "T-850"--a Cyberdyne Systems Model 101, reprogrammed with a more benevolent temperament and sent back in time to warn us about the various Bradburian follies we'll inevitably make as our species advances.

(I use this last term in its loosest possible sense.)

Alex Kane lives in west-central Illinois, where he works as a freelancer, plays too many first-person shooters, and blogs about culture and technology in his spare time. A graduate of the 2013 Clarion West Writers Workshop, his stories have appeared in Omni, Spark, Digital Science Fiction, and the YA anthology Futuredaze, among other places. His reviews and criticism have also been published in Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, The New York Review of Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, Bookgasm, and SF Signal. Follow him on Twitter @alexjkane.

Contents:

• Introduction
• “Like Tears in Rain”
• “All Your Rebel Base Are Belong to Us”
• “The Ancient Fear”
• “Guardians of the Galaxy”
• “What Is to Give Light”
• “Ten of Sci-Fi Cinema’s Best-Kept Secrets”
• “Comes the Dawn”
• “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”
• “My Dream Anthology”
• “Strike Suit Zero: Director’s Cut”
• “Karmic Demons and the Power of Compassion”
• “Kaiju Rising”
• “The Star Wars”
• “Clarion West”
• “Man of Steel”
• “Ten SF Novels Deserving of Film Adaptations”
• “The Cabin in the Woods”
• “Jingoism and the Culture of Fear”
• “Alone on the Moon”
• “Iron Man 3 as Critique of Techno-Darwinism”
• “Oblivion”
• “Individualism, Atheism, and the Search for God in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road”
• “Metadrama and SF in Affleck’s Argo”
• “Nintendo’s 3DS XL”
• “Django Unchained”
• “The Lost Vamps”
• “David Fincher’s Alien III”
• “The Fire Must Be Kept Burning”
• “Kubrick’s 2001 Vis-à-vis Clarke’s”
• “The Safest Place There Is”

Reviews are welcomed and enormously appreciated. I'd love to hear what readers thought of my books. Feel free to direct any relevant comments or questions to my email at [email protected], or come say hi on Twitter (@alexjkane).

The above collection is available FREE through the 27th.

Found out that my Indie book is now available in paper or trade version. A couple of days earlier than predicted.

Right Here

Not sure if this really goes here but I after having some fun and practice writing very short stories I decided to place them on my blog. Titled "Rod's Tales". They are Urban Fantasy about a young Mage who has some interesting, different, some deadly, some not adventures. I have at least 14 of them at the moment. When they reach 22 or more I will do a book.

The stories didn't stay very short; a couple got as long as 3,000+ words, but I'm still putting them up with the idea of doing an indie book eventually. I wanted to put three at a time but that will only work for the first couple of sets. The longer stories will be cut up with only half a story at a time, one or three will be split in thirds, some will be one tale at a time.

I just posted the second set of three. These three have a total of 793 words. Here

Just released a short story that earned an honorable mention in V30 Q3, The Cancer Under St. Paul's.

Blurb: To save his father, a child must stand against an ancient evil. Backed into a corner, without options, Will clings to the suggestions of a simple doll—the one that started this mess in the first place. Innocent, trusting, Will hurtles to confront a foe with no such qualities or compunctions. Will must find a way to save his father, and his innocence.

Interesting thing happened.

I have two story sets and my Indie novel up at smashwords. The views on all three jumped lately probably because of the novel. But they died down as probably expected, however they jumped a little a few days later. I have redone the covers on the story sets and had problems with the file for one of them. It worked for the smashwords but not their premium catalog In the middle of trying to get a file to work right the numbers for all three rose a bit. Hmmm, maybe a few people noticed the placement of the story set I was working on. That story set has more looks than the other story set though.

Just e-published a new short story at Amazon. To Walk the Earth was a WotF Honorable Mention and was published in Perihelion Science Fiction in January 2014.

Caldress Mai is a fugitive--a pregnant cyborg who desperately longs to be human. In a world where the government exercises strict reproductive controls, soldiers will hunt her to the edge of civilization, where the sea pounds the cliffs in a churning swirl of mist and brine, to terminate her unborn child. To survive, Caldress must learn to embrace the mechanical side of her nature, while driven by the most human of emotions--a mother's love.

6,744 words

It's available now, but in a month, I'll be running a $0.99 promotion.

As mentioned in my earlier post, this story is now on sale for $0.99 until September 9. If you're interested, now would be a good time to check it out!

Well got my first review, on Amazon, and a four star rating. All of one person

And according to reviewer I did something I hadn't thought about doing--hadn't planned. Nothing bad, in fact a lot of pro writers do it and it's usually considered good. But as I said I didn't plan it.

I may have done this before but I still don't know if it is kosher for here,

But anyway:

If you haven't read it I am placing a series of mostly very short stories about Rod the mage, up on my blog. Many stories are under 500 some are just over, some however will be 3,000 to 4,000 words.

A new one is 794 words. It is number 7 and so far the longest. I will be placing them in a book form when I have 22 or so.

Right Here

My Kindle-published novelette, "The Abbot's Garden" is on sale this week for only $0.99.

Here's a link to direct you to your regional amazon: http://mybook.to/SCB_AG_1

Nice cover and interesting premise. I need to check it out.

Two new e-books up on Amazon, The Martian Ascent (an old WotF HM) and Elinor's Little Book of Funny Critters. The latter includes two previously published yarns plus an unpublished one.

The Blurb Bit: Little people have colonised Mars. Three of them struggle to become the first humans to scale Olympus Mons, the highest mountain in the solar system. But they have to contend with more than just the hostile conditions of the planet. Their climb becomes haunted by eerie noises. They begin to wonder if they are going mad. Does the mountain hold secrets they never imagined? Will they ever make it to the top?
The Martian Ascent (Amazon US): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P1SRKMC

The Martian Ascent (Amazon UK): http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00P1SRKMC?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

An ordinary British couple go on holiday to Florida — as alligators. What can possibly go wrong?
Two cantankerous old witches have been at war for centuries then suddenly find themselves living next door to each other in an ordinary suburban neighbourhood. It can only end badly.
A young man on holiday in Spain witnesses an extraordinary sight when one of his friends is “kidnapped”. Nobody believes his account of what happened. Can he convince them and find his dear friend before it’s too late?

Elinor’s Little Book of Funny Critters (Amazon US): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P49CJVA

Elinor’s Little Book of Funny Critters (Amazon UK): http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00P49CJVA?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

People are beginning to announce their awards-eligible publication lists, so I'm doing my best to get the word out about my December 2012 finalist, "Nootropic Software Blues," which was published in 2014.

Read the story online here.

If you enjoy it, please consider a pay-what-you-wish tip via PayPal--or recommending it to others.

For this week my e-novel "Above My Pay GradeX2" has been cut to $1.99 and my two stories sets(one Science Fiction, one Fantasy) .99 each.

You can check them out Here

Still haven't figured out how to place a pic here. Someone tried to help but only half of so of the picture showed up.

Speaking of specials. I had been thinking of discounting my E-book for Christmas, probably not as much as the Thanksgiving-Black Friday discount, and giving out one of my story sets to anyone who buys the Novel-from anywhere- but I'm not sure of the mechanics of that offer. I don't think smashwords has that type of deal you can set up. So that leaves them sending me an E-mail to tell me? Other people have had that type of offer but I don't know how the do it. Any suggestions?

Speaking of specials. I had been thinking of discounting my E-book for Christmas, probably not as much as the Thanksgiving-Black Friday discount, and giving out one of my story sets to anyone who buys the Novel-from anywhere- but I'm not sure of the mechanics of that offer. I don't think smashwords has that type of deal you can set up. So that leaves them sending me an E-mail to tell me? Other people have had that type of offer but I don't know how the do it. Any suggestions?

No idea, LD, I didn't even know you could package books together like that. I was planning on giving away one of my stories, "Europa Spring," but since somehow or other it got into the paid kindle short reads bestseller lists anyway I figured it might do more harm than good to start giving it away for nothing. Maybe I'll give it away eventually, or maybe I'll give away one of my other stories.

Anyway, I've just put up my fourth story. Here's the cover:

Amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Q731UYY
Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00Q ... entries*=0
Amazon.com.au: http://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B00 ... entries*=0

Hmm, the number of views on my blog post dealing with my Black Friday sale are still going up even if they slowed. 150. That's good for me even though for some that would be way low.

A couple of those have now looked at my story page, it's at 100, but only 3 to 5 I think. Less on my Rod tales page.

And so far no one has bought the book. It's like something is blocking them. I will leave it on sale unto Cyber Monday but the price goes back up to normal Tuesday. 

Well, my sale is over so all the prices are back to normal or soon will be on Barnes and Noble and other places. Which means you can still get it for $1.99 for a day to three days.

One thing is that I know that the price wasn't what is keeping people from buying the book.

Now my E-book is on Kindle

http://www.amazon.com/Above-My-Pay-GradeX2-Doggett-ebook/dp/B00R33IGJY/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418881662&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=above+my+pay+gradex2

Well, looks like this sale is going to be like last month's. It brought in a ton of views on my blog--even a couple on "My Stories" and "Rod Tales" pages---but no sells.

A little late here But my novel "Above My Pay GradeX2" is on sale for Christmas. It's the first in a Urban Fantasy series.

$3.99 at smashwords.com, Barnes and Noble, iTunes and Kobe, and even on Amazon--yes I have a kindle version now. Discounts on my two story sets too.

I also have a coupon code for createspace.com if you like a paper version better.

3XB5XCH2 $4.00 off.

This is just a warning.

I almost have a steampunk novel ready to Indie publish. I call it a novel since its somewhere around 56,000 to 63,000 words--I forget for sure at the moment--but it's made up of five stories. One is from 26,000 to 28,000 words. Two are over 10,000, one is about eight and a half thousand and one is just under ten thousand.

Anyway I just need a cover and a forward, then put them all together. Tonight I worked on the forward and am about half way done.

I think depending on the cover, I will have it published by mid Jan.

If you like steampunk and/or Special Ops and/or war with some emotional stuff thrown in think of this one.

Oh yes I also need a title.
I have two I could use but I want a more unique, better, shorter one. A title that can roll off the tongue easy.

Amazing on two sides. Much like my Black Friday sale post but more so.

This post has 171 views and 16 plusses. For me that is a record--a large one.

But on the other side or the second amazing thing, none of them bought my book. I guess the 16 liked the idea, but not enough to go on to the next step.

I may have asked this before but is a series on your blog considered E-publishing?
I don't recall an answer if I did.

Anyway:

I added half of a Rod Tale to one serial I am doing. "Rod's Tale"s pages and while I was at it I added some short-short stories to My Stories page. Fine both here. Free.

Right Here

Oh my god I am so happy to be reading all this valuable information from so many prolific authors. I find myself colored green with envy! At any rate I see most literary uploads (e-books) are ranging from less than 1,000 words which I guess to be about 5 or 6 page short stories to complete books of near 200+ pages. My problem as a writer is that I find myself providing more information and detail then needed. I think I have begun to correct my problem however my books continue to be well over 300 pages. As of yet I am a rank amatuer with nothing posted on any e-book sites. My daughter has suggested I work the indie route to get her favorite and my favorite book actually published in print working through the kickstarter program for investors. Has anyone gone that route and been successful? Again, my difficulty with this is the first book I would like to have published is nearly 700 pages long! It is the first in a series of three books. Arrgggh... someone help me.

Arrgggh... someone help me.

Judge for yourself what help this is, but I can report that there is no great difficulty in publishing an e-book on http://www.smashwords.com/. This also involves no financial outlay unless, like me, you decide you must have a professional photograph for the cover. I tried Kindle next and proceeded thence to Createspace, which can be done automatically if you wish. These also require no outlay. Amazon ask for exclusivity, which I declined, since I was happy with Smashwords.

Your main problem is that your profile is unbelievably low. Everybody and their aunts is publishing e-books these days. Marketing takes determination, time and outlay in most cases. Therefore you want to make sure your book is in the best possible shape before you publish it. If it is very long, you need to decide whether it needs to be that long or whether you have been wandering and digressing. I cut mine from about 205,000 words to about 165,000 and then I made access to the first 20% free because there was not much by way of a sample of my work available to prospective customers.

Then I started to try and publish short stories in order to try and raise my public profile and discovered that was really difficult!

As yet I am still at the stage of individual sales, probably because my marketing is underwhelming. So don't expect miracles.

Good luck.

Ishmael, yes your comments were quite helpful. Another author commented by e-mail that I should not place all my stories, novels, books, onto one medium. I had heard about Amazon requiring exclusivity rights of authors works which I find appalling, especially if one is so successful a movie or TV series option becomes available (too much for me to hope for). I wonder does Amazon's exclusivity extend to all of an authors works or simply the single work submitted? Again thank you for your reply Ishmael.