New Year's Eve Giveaway!

Update: That was FAST! Both copies have been claimed already!

Happy 2018! In honor of my upcoming release of Alien Bonds, I'm hosting a giveaway of two paperback copies of Turnabout. Giveaways can go quickly, so act now if you're interested! Here's the link.

After Christmas sale!

Smashwords is having a sale! Smashwords is an ebook-only online vendor.  They provide ebooks in pretty much any format; when you buy an ebook from them, you download it to your phone, tablet, PC or Mac. If you want to read it on an ereader like a Kindle or a Kobo, they have an excellent FAQ explaining how to move the book to the ereader (look under the Getting Started heading).

All my books are part of this sale. The novels are half price, and the novella Where Magic Rules is free, as is the first Wakanreo book The Sixth Discipline.

To browse all the free and on sale books, check out this page and note the coupon codes listed which are used to get you the sale price on checkout.

Check out my post on The Science Fiction Romance Brigade blog!

The Science Fiction Romance Brigade is a group of writers who all write SFR. Their blog has periodic guests posts on assorted topics related to the genre, and today, it's one by me, about the reasons I like to combine romance with science fiction.

The SFRB has a Facebook fan page, if you're interested, and writers can join the Facebook group.  You should check them out f you have any interest, as a fan or as a writer, or both.

My X-Rays are in!

I finished the X-Ray set up for all my titles! It was actually a fair amount of work, not difficult but a little tedious. Electronic housework, in fact.

As I blogged about earlier, Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform has a new tool for indie authors and small publishers (possibly they have something similar for big publishers). The tool creates an X-Ray file for a Kindle book and enables that function for that book.

X-Ray is a very useful feature, especially in certain kinds of books. If you're reading a sprawling fantasy trilogy that has dozens of characters, spreads over a decade or two, and has six viewpoint characters, and suddenly a vaguely familiar character's name pops up, your reading pace can stall as you try to figure who the heck this new elf or mage is.

The feature isn't supported in all versions of the Kindle app. Kindle for PC still doesn't have it, but the Android and iOS versions do. And of course, the newer Kindles all have it (not entirely sure about the ones before the Kindle Touch).

How X-Ray Works

Here's what it looks like on my Voyage when I highlight a character's name:

Here's the same function on my Android tablet: About the only difference is in the menu that lets you create colored highlights, impossible (naturally) on an e-ink Voyage screen. 

You'll notice the source is listed at the bottom as Shelfari. The new X-Ray tool allows the author/publisher to either write custom descriptions for characters and "terms" or to link to Wikipedia articles. However, before there was a tool, Amazon would use the information that authors and publishers could list in Shelfari, a book-lovers site Amazon bought. I had done that for The Sixth Discipline, and when I had a BookBub promo and gave away 14,000 copies of The Sixth Discipline, Amazon created an X-Ray file from the Shelfari info I had entered. I have since edited and added a lot of the info using the new tool, but I can't see those changes unless and until Amazon support staff push the changes to my copy of T6thD.

Here's what it looks like when I pull up the menu and Select X-Ray (next to Go To):

You can see from the menus that you can get a list of characters or terms on the page, with references to where they appear in the text (clips). I couldn't find a way to use this part of X-Ray from Kindle for Android, but I don't know if that's because it isn't there or I couldn't figure it out

For any other authors out there thinking of using the new tool, I will say that you should always go back into the tool after you publish your changes, because either it is easy to miss something, or sometimes the changes I had marked did not actually get published. Also, the sorting features are very helpful in looking for variations of names and terms.

So now, anyone who looks at my book descriptions in the Kindle store will see X-Ray enabled!  Here's Saronna's Gift, to illustrate:

Questions?

Any authors who want more info on how to do this, or readers who want to know how to use it, feel free to comment!

I'm really looking forward to launching Alien Bonds with this feature enabled from the get-go! 

World Fantasy Convention 2017, San Antonio

Update: Google made a video/slideshow of my photos!

We just got back from the 2017 World Fantasy Convention, which this year was held at the Wyndham Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas.

WFC is a unique convention for the science fiction and fantasy crowd. Dressing up is discouraged, and there is no masquerade. Program is minimal except for readings. The writers, editors, and agents who attend are there to network.  In spite of the name, there are plenty of science fiction fans and writers there, too.

The first thing that happens when you register is they hand you a bag full of books.

Next, you check out the lobby, to see who's here. In the Wyndham, the main bar is right off the lobby, which makes it easy because anyone not in the lobby itself is probably in the bar. 

 As you can see, it's still a pretty casual crowd, even if no one is in costume. The hotel restaurant is also off the lobby, and this one did a nice job handling the crowd. Most folks had either breakfast or lunch there but for dinner, everyone seemed to head out to find a restaurant n San Antonio's famed Riverwalk.

The Riverwalk is a beautiful venue for a walk or for dining al fresco (except it was too hot and muggy). The river itself isn't deep, but San Antonio makes the most of it. The walk is a little below street level and nicely landscaped.  There are a lot of stairs, which makes it difficult if you have mobility issues. 

I always try go to readings at WFC, but one I would hate to miss is Joe Haldeman's. As I said, the F in WFC isn't as restrictive as it sounds. Joe has written a few fantasies, but science fiction is what he's known for.

If you have occassion to walk at street level, one thing you'll notice is that San Antonio is making an effort to preserve the look of older buildings, even when it re-purposes them. This building is no longer a theater but they left the ticket booth. 

Of course, from the air, a lot of the buildings look like every city. This was the view from our 11th floor room.

Next year WFC is in Baltimore.  I already have my membership! 

I'm Becoming an X-Ray Technician!

Not really. I mean, I won't be x-raying people. But Amazon's KDP platform now offers the ability to create ae edit X-Ray files for Kindle books. X-Ray is a cool feature in Kindle books that lets you find out about characters and terms (places, organizations, etc) used in the story. It's handy especially for books with a huge cast of characters.

I blogged about X-Ray before, when Amazon created the file necessary to create that feature for my first book The Sixth Discipline. That method relied on my having created the set-up in Shelfari, but I don't think that site even exists anymore. It was absorbed by GoodReads. Now, however, I don't need to rely on Amazon creating X-Ray for me, because KDP has given me the tools to do it myself. I've already created and published files for several books.

KDP has a pretty good write-up on what to do in their help section. The only thing that wasn't clear to me is that you need to click the "Item Reviewed" link for every character or term you edit and are ready to publish. I really do like that you don't have to have done all the characters to publish. And the program that creates the list that you work from is pretty good. It captures pretty much all the characters names; if anything it errs on the side of too much rather than too little, at least when it comes to terms.

I'm excite to think that when Alien Bonds comes out, it will have X-Ray from the get-go!

Writing technology into stories

As someone who was born smack in the middle of the 20th century, I know first hand that the pace of change has accelerated. When I compare my childhood with my children's I see huge differences:

When I was a kid:

• Only a few moms worked outside the home; not everyone had washing machines and not many had dishwashers.
• Rural areas still had party telephone lines; when the phone rang, they had to listen for the pattern of the rings to see if it was for them or for someone else who shared that line.
• Not everyone owned a television set, and most who did had a black and white set.
• Dogs ran loose, for the most part. If there were leash laws, they didn't apply in suburban residential neighborhoods.
• If you had kids and could afford it, you owned a set of encyclopedias, because that's where you looked things up.

When my kids were small:

• Very few moms were stay-at-home mothers; everyone had washing machines and dishwashers. 
• Everyone had a phone and after about 2000, many had cell phones; my daughter had one at about age 10.. After the Columbine shooting, I wanted to be able to call her any time. 
• People owned multiple TVs, some of them huge, and all of them with color screens.
• Only people with really well trained dogs ever let them run loose. 
• If you could afford it, you had internet access, either dial-up or DSL. Encyclopedia salesman were out of business. 

Actually, my kids are about six years apart in age, and even that made a difference in when technology influenced their lives. My son was a teenager before he got a cell phone. 

Putting the detection in detective fiction

I was thinking about this recently because I read a fair amount of  older novels, very often mystery novels. Publishers (or in some cases authors) are willing to price older titles very reasonably in ebook form, so I often pick them up even if I don't know the author. I can't always tell when the book was published because usually the date shown in the meta data is the date of the ebook only, so I look for clues as to when the story is set. If there are no references to dates or to world events, it can be difficult to tell if a story is set in 1910 or 1930 or even 1940. After WWII, some differences appear-- cars, and telephones become more common. But from about 1970 to 1990, it can be difficult to pin down the time frame. 

The one thing that makes it clear a book is set in the last 20 or so years is the presence of cell phones. in fact, if it's only a cell phone, with a physical keyboard and no web browsing ability, it's usually set in the 1990s.  

Tomorrow's technology today

As someone who writes science fiction, I pay attention to how people use technology.  I can tell you the cell phone has had a huge impact on fiction. Nowadays, if a writer wants to strand a character in the middle of nowhere or lock them in a haunted house or otherwise make them inaccessible, he has to account for the character's cell phone.

And of course, in stories set in the far future, the trick nowadays is to guess how the future will work. Which can be damned hard when it seems like the future is happening every day. When we look at the communicators in StarTrek TOS, we might wonder why Mr Spock needs a communicator and a tri-corder. If our "phones" can do so much, why can't theirs? 

But of course, another factor is, what do people want technology to do? Do they really want a device sitting on the kitchen counter than can hear and possibly see everything that goes on?  Will they trade convenience for privacy? 

I guess the future will tell.

Turnabout is now in other ebook stores!

I always launch new ebooks in KDP Select, which means they're only available on Amazon, but eventually, I let that enrollment expire and launch in other stores.  That has happened with my newest novel Turnabout, now available as follows:

Buy links

US Kindle store (also available in every other Kindle store)
iBooks

B&N Nook, 

Kobo

Smashwords

Google Books  

And as a paperback: Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Updated: Finally got Google Books to accept my file; or rather, their tech staff did. I have to say both B&N and Google Books could make their interface easier to use.

From the first Amazon review:

"This is a fascinating story, looking at a lot of society’s issues from a different view point, but still exploring them in a very interesting way. Buxton creates some wonderful characters to tell this story. Marjani and Esi are two that stand out amongst a cast of exceptionally well written characters that don’t just tell this story, but through their portrayals give us a true understanding of what it is like to live in this alternate universe.
Buxton has also done an interesting job of creating Makoro, building this alternate universe and timeline, and how it has evolved under such different circumstances."

And, as a bonus, I dropped the ebook price to $2.99, at least for now.

I'm about to give birth to a new series!

I have a new 3-book series planned. All three books take place in my ThreeCon universe and all are set on the planet Wakanreo, so I'm calling it the Wakanreo series. The first title is called Alien Bonds. I just updated the Coming Soon page to include the back cover blurb. As that update says, this one is a science fiction romance.  Here's a little piece of the cover draft.

The entire premise behind the series is that a culture is affected by what the rules are for couples pairing off. On Wakanreo, the native sentience species doesn't select their mates. The process is purely biological.  When an un-mated adult gets close to someone to the first time, it either happens or it doesn't but it can't be controlled— not to make it happen and not to stop it from happening.

What would a society be like with that kind of mate selection process? As I envision Wakanrean societies, looks would matter a hell of a lot less. Also, there would no real stratification of classes, and no contempt for people in menial positions. And since there is no control over mating, there is also no shame over it, regardless of who it happens with.

On the other hand, what happens when the person you mate with is a thief or a murderer? What if you're bound for life to someone who doesn't respect you or just plain doesn't like you? So much for happily ever after. Imagine what that would do to fairy tales, ballads, great literature?

The second book will be called Alien Vows, and the third Alien Skies. I have a rough draft of Books 2 and 3, but they both need a lot of work. Book 1, though, is getting close! The cover is almost ready, too.

I feel like I should go buy some candy cigars to hand out.

A Kindle feature for writers

One thing my lovely Kindle Voyage doesn't do is read out loud. Older Kindle models can read aloud, though, and I keep an old Kindle Touch for just that reason. Because I'm my own production department, I sometimes make edits even after the copy editor has gone over the book. For one thing, some of her question/comments make it clear I need to re-write a sentence or even a paragrah. This means I can introduce new errors,

When I'm getting a book to the page-layout stage, I send a copy of the file to the Kindle Touch and then have the KT read the m.s. aloud to me, while I follow along in InDesign, the page-layout software I use. I find that proofing this way makes it much easier to identify mistakes. On the screen or even on paper, I can read a line like this:

"Yes," she said, "I do plan go with you,"

. . . and totally miss that the word "to" is missing! So long as the missing word is tiny, my brain just fills in whatever is left out. But when I hear that sentence read aloud, the mistake is completely obvious. In addition to errors, sometimes I realize I have used the same word too often, just from hearing it over and over. Whatever the problem, I stop the robot voice, make the correction and then go on.

Another advantage is, I get to hear how someone might pronounce any made-up words. I'm working on a new manuscript, a science fiction romance called Alien Bonds. It's a novel set on an alien world with a lot of made-up names and words. When the robot voice tries to pronounce my invented words, sometimes it's the way I would pronounce it and sometimes it's a little different. Sometimes I like it better, and sometimes I think it sounds totally wrong. But either way, it gives me information.

I assume that the reason the newer Kindles don't read aloud is that not enough Kindle owners were using that feature. It's by no means a substitute for audio books, by the way. The robot voice does not do a great job at inflection and pacing. It will recognize that a sentence ends with a question mark, and infect the proper questioning tone, but it won't pause at all before the next word. It will pause for commas and periods, just not question marks. Go figure!  Also, the robot voice has to guess whether to pronounce "read" as "reed or "red" and so on. There are a fair number of heteronyms, like bow (either a weapon or a polite action) which can make for humorous mistakes Sadly, I don't think Amazon will do any work on improving the robot voice. But they might add speakers to future Kindles if audio book sales pick up.

The robot voice is a  reasonably fast reader (you can control the pace) but it takes a lot of concentration so I work slowly. I will post a photo of the cover of Alien Bonds soon, as it's almost ready.

Dueling promotions and Amazon lets me see the future!

I've been running two promotions this month, one to advertise that Turnabout is only 99¢ (for a few days only) and one to advertise that The Sixth Discipline is free.

One advantage to advertising a book, even a free one, is if you sell or give away enough copies it gets into Amazon's ranked groups (100 top free science fiction, e.g,), and folks who didn't get the email promotion notice it.  Turnabout did okay, It made it to:

• #199 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Dystopian

But The Sixth Discipline jumped up to:

• #8 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

Even though the email promotion for T6D was Friday, it's still going strong; I've given away over 200 copies today.. But in checking for free downloads via the KDP interface,I discovered something I had never noticed. Using my phone (I was walking the dog and when we stopped to rest in the shade, I checked my numbers), the Sales Dashboard tab let me select tomorrow's date as part of my date range! And when I did that, I could see I already have 23 downloads, presumably from time zones where it's already August 6. 

The screen shot below was created in Firefox, as I discovered the Chrome browser didn't let me select a one-day future date, but the Firefox version did.  I highlighted the date range so you can see it's for those two days. I couldn't include Thursday because it had over 1,000 downloads and that would make tomorrow's 23 too small to show as more than a tiny blue line.

The really odd thing is, I was using Chrome for Android on my phone when I noticed this! 

Also note, these numbers are for Amazon only. iBooks and B&N take a little longer to report "sales figures" because I get them via Smashwords. 

Praise for TURNABOUT

Scottish book blogger David Killie posted a lovely review of Turnabout on his blog An Eclectic Bookshelf. David is indeed an eclectic reader, You should check out his blog if you're interested in finding new books to read.

Here's an excerpt from the review:

"Overall, this was an entertaining read with a creative and engrossing story which had me hooked very early on. Don't be fooled by the initial chapters on teleportation, this novel is much more than that and I think it would specifically appeal to those who like Sci-Fi novels which explore dystopian alternative societies. Personally, I really hope that there is a sequel in the future as I want to know more about the interaction between our own world and the alternative one."

Smashwords Summer sale is on!

Smashwords is an ebook retailer and distributor. Authors and small press publishers use Smashwords to sell their books on that site, and to push them out to retail partners, like iBooks, B&N Nook store, Kobo, and others. The summer sale lasts through the end of July and applies only to sales directly from Smashwords. However, since they provide ebooks in both epub and Kindle formats, it's not limiting to buy from them. Their FAQ has lots of info on how to get the ebook file to your Kindle or other ereader.

All my books on Smashwords (which is all my titles except for Turnabout) are either free or half price ($1.50 instead of $2.99) during this sale. Check out my Smashwords author page to see my books or browse the catalog of sale books. Use the special coupon code (e.g., SSW50 for half price books) when you check out.

Please post a comment here if you have any questions on or problems with the sale.

And have a happy 4th of July!

Win a Kindle copy of TURNABOUT!

I'm running another giveaway of Turnabout, but for a Kindle copy this time. There are still two copies left to win!

The giveaway runs until June 29 or until all copies are claimed.

Amazon has redesigned the Kindle Highlights page

Kindle readers have, from day one, had the ability to highlight text in Kindle books, and to add notations. I blogged about this in 2011, because it's a very useful feature for book reviewers. While you are reading, highlighted text appears shaded (on a Kindle Fire you can choose shading colors) and notes look like footnote references. But what makes this feature so useful is you can access these notes and highlights from your web browser, which means you can copy and paste them into a Word document or blog post or email or whatever.

Now Amazon had redesigned the web interface, and changed the URL. Here's the old look, which was accessed from https://kindle.amazon.com/your_highlights:

Usable, but pretty bland, no?

Here's the new look, accessed from https://read.amazon.com/kp/notebook:

Not only is it visually more interesting, because of the book cover from on the left, but the edit and delete notes and delete highlights buttons are easier to see. When you sync your Kindle, edits you made to the web version are copied back to your Kindle. That's pretty cool! 

Sadly, they did not change the limitation that makes this page only display notes and highlight from books bought at the Kindle store. Any other item on your Kindle, whether it's an MS Word doc containing your shopping list, or a Project Gutenberg copy of War and Peace, is treated as a "personal document." It can be highlighted and annotated on the Kindle, but those will not appear in the web interface. 

Even the look of the tab in the browser is different. New on the left, old on the right:

What I find most interesting is that Amazon has spent the time and money to enhance an existing feature, which suggests that readers are, in fact, using that feature. I can only assume they use the data they collect to plan their development efforts. If so, I wonder if the growth in audio-books will make them restore the read-aloud function, which is not available on the new e-ink models, like the Voyage and the Paperwhite.  They put some development into helping people with limited or no vision with the Voiceview feature, so I would hope they wouldn't give up on read-aloud Kindles. 

Updated: I miss the Update button! It seems slower to load to me, although that might be a function of  Chrome since it seemed to load OK with Edge. 

Win a paperback copy of TURNABOUT!

I'm giving away three copies of Turnabout, my hot new release. I kind of like the blurb I came up with for the giveaway title:

It's not a super power if you can't control it!

Go here to enter, and (hopefully) win! Remember, paperback giveaways go fast!

NB:  This requires  US mailing address to enter.

TURNABOUT has launched!

So, Turnabout  is now available in paperback and on Kindle! I always launch first on Kindle only,as far as ebooks, because that way the book can participate in KDP Select, which allows Amazon subscribers to borrow the book. They pay a flat fee, and the author is paid based on the number of pages they read. The agreement lasts 90 days, at at the end of that time, I will decide whether to renew Kindle Select or launch on additional platforms.

Meanwhile, here's the blurb!

• Jason Miller's biggest worries were keeping up with his homework, paying for his classic jazz habit,and hiding the fact that he carried a flip phone. But then one day he finds himself teleporting from place to place, a talent he can't control. It gets worse when he lands in an alternate world, one that has many, many more women than men. It sounds great until Jason learns the downside to being a precious commodity: Having a harem is no fun when you're the one who's locked up.

Cover by Alexander Von Ness

Happy Mother's Day!

To all mothers and mother surrogates! 

Formatting an ebook: New Amazon tool for self-published authors

If you want to self-publish ebooks, you need to learn some things about ebooks. Ebooks are really just files, and in those files the underlying format is HTML tagging. the same tagging that drives the web. There are two main sets of tagging schemes. Epub (sometimes written as ePub) works for iBooks, Nook, and pretty much all others bookstores. Amazon's Kindle, though, has its own format based on mobi. It still uses HTML tags, remember, but it's a different set of rules on which tags do what and how files are structured.

Amazon's KDP platform for self-publishing actually allows authors to upload a MS Word file. If you have a novel that is all text, and you use Word's formatting styles consistently, KDP does a good job of converting the files. If you want new chapters to start on a new screen, for example, you need to be sure the word style for the chapter name or number creates a new page in print. But of course, you can't really tweak the format easily. If you want to change something, you need to go back to Word, edit the file, reload it to KDP, and look at it again. If you have the kind of book that has fancy formatting or lots of images, this can be tedious.

As first reported by The Digital Reader, Amazon has launched  a beta version of a new tool called Kindle Create.  The Talking New Media blog checked it out, too, and reported on their first impressions.

The new tool is different because you download it and run it locally, o your PC or Mac, and then preview the results from within the app itself. It takes over 500 MB of disc space, but hard drives are pretty big these days. 

Although the Amazon page only mentions Word files, the program will accept PDFs, but there was some discussion in the comments on the Talking New Media post that suggetsed it wasn't really converting the PDF but just wrapping it in code that made it into a "print replica" not a true ebook. 

I'm not sure this new took will help me that much since I have started putting my books out in paperback, also. I now use Adobe's InDesign which can produce a print-ready PDF and also an epub file from the same input. But if you self-publish books with a tricky format and want to try this new tool,Amazon is actively soliciting feedback.

A new Kindle Scout campaign

I have new book entered in the Kindle Scout Program. Kindle Scout is Amazon's version of a talent contest. The book is called Turnabout. It's a YA/alternate world/dystopian story. I like to describe it as Jumper meets A Handmaid's Tale, but with the genders reversed.

The way Kindle Scout works, if the books gets enough nominations, Amazon will publish the Kindle version. If it doesn't win, I can, of course, still self-publish, but Amazon gives a lot more help to books it publishes than to self-published books. Either way, I plan to publish the paperback via CreatSpace (Amazon) and Barnes & Noble.

Here's what the print cover will look like

Cover by Alexander Von Ness

Check it out here, and feel free to share this link with anyone who might be interested. Hopefully, that's everyone you know!

Print vs ebook: Amazon Giveaways

I recently used an Amazon feature called "Hosting a giveaway." If you look at the product page of a book, below the reviews and just above the "What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?" section, you will see a link to create a giveaway.

Amazon offers this feature on a lot of items, not just books. Basically, whoever "hosts" the giveaway pays for the items, including delivery. It can be anyone, not just an author, but for books, it's usually hosted by the author. Until just about a year ago, you could give way print books but not Kindle books, but now it works for both formats.

Setting up a print giveaway

The set-up process lets the host determine number of prizes, odds of winning (e.g., 1 in 1000, 1 in 500,etc), and what users have to do to enter (e.g., watch a video, or follow the author's Amazon page).

The process also allows some control over who can share the link. If you want to give away copies a part of your own promotion, you might want to use this option to limit how the giveaway was accessed. On the other hand, if you just want more readers and hope for reviews, you would wanted wider distribution not narrower,

What you don't get is a way to contract the winners. You can see their Amazon user names, but not contract them. But Amazon handles picking the winners, so it's guaranteed to be fair.

I have run giveaways in the past, but this time Amazon had added a new button that let them distribute the link for you. It sounded good,so I went for it.

Based on prior experience, I set the odds at 1 in 150, and since it was for print books, I limited the prizes to two. I created my welcome message, my congrats to the winner (with a plea for a review), my sorry you lost message (with a reminder that I have another book free, in Kindle format), and clicked the button.

I was waiting for the email to tell me that the giveaway was live, so I could post the link. I never got it. The giveaway ended in 16 minutes. A total of 282 people entered and, of course, two of them won.   I was astounded.

The ebook giveaway

A couple weeks later, I tried a giveaway that was as identical as I could make it, but this time with the same title in Kindle format, and three copies as prizes. I used the button to make Amazon distribute the link, and since it was a test, I didn't mention the giveaway here or anywhere else until after I gave away two kindle copies. That took 18 hours!

Once the second copy was given away, I advertised the link but even then, the number of entrants slowed to a trickle. I will be curious to see if the third copy is claimed before the giveaway end date of March 15.

So it looks like, as a prize, a print book is still much more valuable than a Kindle book.

E-Book Sale!

Read an eBook Week starts Sunday, March 5, 2017, and in honor of that Smashwords is running a huge promotion. A lot of ebooks are on sale, including mine.

 If you're not familiar with Smashwords, it's a site that allows authors to publish and sell their ebooks globally.  Authors can opt to also push their books out to iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and a bunch of  other more well known book vendors, but those sites are not where the sale is happening. Smashwords itself sells directly to readers, allowing a choice of non-DRM'd books in a wide variety of formats, and that's where the sale is.

To promote ereading, Smashwords makes it easy for authors to put their books on sale, as they offer the use f coupon codes at checkout, and I've taken advantage of that. If you use the promotional coupon, you can buy any of my books this week only for half price (except for The Sixth Discipline, which is always free, and my fantasy novella Where Magic Rules, which is free this week only). .

Once you buy a book from Smashwords, you can download it, and read it on pretty much any device. If you have a Kindle, be sure to select that format (Mobi/Kindle), and download the file to a location on your PC where you can find it again. I have directions for putting Mobi files onto your Kindle here and here.

You can browse the sale page by genre to see what all they've got. Some books will be free and others really cheap.

Remember, all mine are either free or only $1.50, but you have to use the coupon code RAE50 for the non-free titles..

Win a Kindle copy of KING OF TREES!

Since "alternative facts" are in the news, I decided to host a giveaway for my "alternative world" book, King of Trees. This is an alternate history/time travel time novel with fantasy overtones.

I'm giving away three free copies, but sadly, you have to be in the US to win.

If that's you, enter here!