Glad Tidings for Self Publishers

I write about human clones, so I keep an eye out for news on cloning advancements. Here is a startling article I found on news.yahoo.com.

Boyalife in China is setting up an extensive animal cloning factory in partnership with Sooam from South Korea to be located in Tiajin, China where it will to clone cows, dogs, racehorses and other animals.

Okay…is this step one? How soon will human cloning follow, and what will be the guidelines? Scientist there have already indicated that they can clone humans but are holding back because of politics and public sentiment.

I just published on Amazon my eighth book, Time’s Equation in ebook and I’m waiting for the proof of the paperback. Now I’m staring marketing in the eye and can’t hide out with the excuse that I’m under a publishing deadline. Marketing my favorite exercise…not.

To inspire myself and confirm that I’m on the right path, I am reproducing (with additional comments) an article I saw on wiseinkblog.com.

Read and rejoice all indie authors.

Self-published books accounted for 31% of all e-book sales in the Kindle Store in 2014. Indie books account for 31% of e-books.

However,
40% of all e-book revenue is going to indie authors. In other words, indies are raking in more money, which means that their sales figures are higher than many of their traditional counterparts. Comment: We can receive 70% of retail revenues for eBooks over $2.99. And self publishers can set their price for both ebook and paperback, balancing marketability and margin profit.

Which brings us to …
Indie books represent 25% of books on Amazon’s e-book bestseller list. Readers aren’t nearly as prejudiced against indie books as they were even a few years ago, and their buying practices suggest it! Comment: Looks like self publishing is becoming more and more “acceptable.” Maybe the story is more important than who publishes it. Maybe Indie authors are being more careful about how it is written.

And in addition…
You can safely dismiss the 50 Shades effect. Only 1.2% of self-published books sales are for erotica titles, which proves that you can indie publish successfully without writing a sex book. Comment: Thank goodness as porn is not in my writing comfort zone.

But best yet…
In Smashwords’ 2014 survey, they found that pricing your e-book at $.99 won’t make you rich. In fact, $2.99-3.99 is the sweet spot for a bestseller, and earn more in sales than books priced higher. Comment: I read Mark Coker’s excellent article on self publishing and have priced all my eBooks at $3.99. However, I see a movement by traditional publishing to raise the bar, and in fact a large number of popular authors published traditionally are ebook pricing at $10 and up.

Think you can only release shorts and novellas on e-book? Think again. The bestselling books in e-book are usually over 100,000 words. Maybe because they’re easier to hold? Comment: I usually shoot for 100,000 words, although read my previous blog that discusses a trend towards shorter novels that get bundled later on.

And increasingly…
According to Bowker, 458,000 books were indie pubbed in 2013 in the US. That’s up 437% from 2008! The self-publishing ranks are growing, and with increasing number comes more exciting and innovative strategies to publish your perfect book. Comment: I own my own ISBN and list on Bowker.

Best news yet…
It’s a good time to be a woman. Indie bestsellers are twice as likely to be written by a woman than traditionally published bestsellers (67% versus 39%). Comment: Yeah! Since I am one, this was good to hear. Science fiction used to be male dominated, but new female authors are getting noticed.

(See me jumping up and down)

This week I’m reading two polar opposite books. Golden Son by Pierce Brown and Solar Express by L. E. Modesitte, Jr.

Golden Son is part of a trilogy consisting of Red Rising, Golden Son and Morning Star.
A universe where color dictates the social hierarchy of humans. Darrow is a red, his father a low class miner under the thumb of the golds. After Darrow’s beloved wife is hanged by Golds, he vows vengeance and using high tech and body carvers is transformed into a gold where he hopes to infiltrate and destroy them from within. Then, he gets to know Golds from the inside; their conflicts, their deceptions and their humanity. Darrow becomes “Reaper” a feared battle warrior who kills thousands, but not without remorse or guilt as he tries to change a society spread out among worlds.

While the reviews were overwhelmingly positive, I personally found the story a bit overly dramatic. Darrow is on a mission to disrupt a rigid and inequitable social structure and provides some exciting battle sequences, but the angst and internal drama was a bit much for me.

The constructed world, however, with Roman names and culture that contrasted with high tech weaponry and biology was very interesting.

Due to the holidays, I have not completed Solar Express, but L. E. Modesitte is one of my favorite authors. So far, it is dry and a bit slow, but that is Modesitte at the beginning of many of his stories. The idea of discovering what at first appears to be a comet, but turns into an alien artifact that changes the sun, is fascinating. So I’m sticking with it for now. Stay tuned.

While husband and in-laws have recently chopped and brought home the living room tree (I’m in Oregon where there are tree farms ten minutes away from me), decorated the house, enjoyed a large Thanksgiving dinner with new relations (daughter’s newly engaged), published my eighth book, Time’s Equation, I haven’t finished reading Solar Express and will report on it next week.

As people immerse themselves in the holidays, reading may taper off, but hopefully buying picks up, although November was a good month for my sales. How about you?

After all, a good book makes an excellent gift at a good price for anyone to enjoy. And the sheer variety of great titles makes it easy to personalize for that special person.

Book Trailers

Trailers

No, not the kind you live in…the kind that keep popping up on a blog, Facebook or Utube.

We’re not anything if we’re not a media generation.
And the media is currently appearing all over mobile devices.

Recently two writers in my group put together their own trailers to promote their books.

Ted Blasche’s The Rust Bucket Chronicles has a trailer link in his e-mail signature.

https://youtu.be/npcdiizMgTw
.

Using Animoto, Clayton Callahan whipped together this trailer for an anthology, Five Elements, in which I’d contributed a fun story called, “Peace Treaty.” (See right panel) He posted the trailer on Facebook. I’ve noticed this year a lot of short videos are being posted on my Facebook.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rJhFZCjUDeE

Then I was on TOR’s blog. TOR has been using trailers for a while to announce new shows and new books. I recently saw they had a trailer for the new Sherlock Holmes series I have been waiting for, so I eagerly tapped on the link. Are you eagerly waiting also?

http://www.tor.com/2015/10/08/new-sherlock-christmas-special-trailer-bbc-one/

So trailers are easy to make (Clayton did so), cheap, and popular on several platforms. Add interest to your blog, Facebook, e-mail, or Twitter. Send a trailer out to enthusiastic fans.
It’s another arrow in your marketing quiver.

This week I read Liar’s Key by Mark Lawrence. I’m into several series, and this is second in Mark Lawrence’s Red Queen Series. The first in the series is the Prince of Fools.

Very much like the book I’m currently writing, Worlds Too Far, it’s in the same universe as a previous series, the Broken Empire, but has totally different characters at another part of the world and is considered a separate series. The Dead King is mentioned several times and the main character, Jalan, comments in a conversation on his cousin, Jorg of Ancrath, as a blood thirsty king. (Prince of Thorns, King of Thorns,)

Liar’s Key is a buddy adventure that continues the story of Jalan, Prince of Red March, a self-centered scoundrel, who only wants to return to the palace and resume his hedonistic lifestyle. He has no desire for kingship or power, but prefers women, wine and leisure rather than his current position of poverty and the cold North. He rationalizes his cowardly deeds, which ironically often end up appearing heroic by happenstance. Preventing him from returning to the palace is his Viking companion and big-hearted Snorri Snaggonson. (yes that’s his name) Snorri has somehow finagled Loki’s key that opens all doors in hopes of opening the door to death and retrieving his family. Jalan has been magically tied to Snorri by a powerful mage, the Silent Sister, his aunt, consequently where Snorri goes, so goes Jalan.

Of course Loki is the trickster god who created the key, so nothing happens in a straight forward way. Many powerful beings covet the key and try all manner of means to possess it.

I laughed at and loved this adventure. Mark Lawrence wrote Jalan perfectly as the rogue who unwittingly does good, and towards the end actually makes a few sacrifices. Snorri is the perfect foil, full of valor, loyalty and everything heroic who constantly drags the band toward danger and death, putting them in impossible situations. Often in an attempt to bed a woman or run away, Jalan unwittingly saves the day.

Guiding the group through the power of his key, the reader never knows what the trickster god Loki will cause to happen next. That surprise along with the character of Jalan kept me laughing and interested in this fun adventure. Lawrence’s writing is so fluid the reader becomes immersed in the story and the crazy adventures of the foolish Jalan.

Ebook Marketing

Spring is coming!

I feel like dancing.

For whatever reasons, my most recent marketing program exceeded expectations. Many authors had been grumbling that free doesn’t work as well anymore…that ebook libraries are bursting at the seams with free books…And my previous marketing attempt seemed to indicate that might be true.

But if I still see an interesting free book, I grab it.

I’m just that cheap.

And if I like it, and there’s more by that author, I’m willing to pay a certain price for that reading experience. (See previous blogs)

Several readers did just that, buying up my whole series in some cases.

The key is finding a way to get your name in front of readers so they can sample your writing…get to know you.

There are a variety of “free and discounted” book websites that charge the author for displaying his/her book. The cost to the reader is giving out his email address. That’s all.

The cost to the author varies depending on the effectiveness of the website with Bookbub leading the pack. However, there’s a price to pay for the author and hurdles to leap because of their popularity. I did find that the cheaper sites are most often less effective. You get what you pay for. So you have to find a balance.

Why was this program more effective?

I think timing played an important role. Lucky for me, I didn’t realize that a winter storm was coming in to strand a large number of people in their homes where they had more time to read.

Having said that, a lot of the books sold were out of the U.S.A. Sold three in India for crying out loud. And to my Canadian readers… many, many thanks!

Readers in the U.K. are the second largest market (after U.S.A.) but also Germany, France, and Japan sold.

Also, I saw my numbers spike when I advertised on Freebooksy. An earlier website was cheaper, but sold very little even though they put out a lot of tweets. The tweets didn’t translate into sales. So that was interesting.

If you have a compelling cover and a blurb that intrigues readers; it’s key.

So, I am a supporter of Amazon and their marketing efforts because I would probably be selling a lot less without their various programs.

Win. Win.

Speaking of winning…

Recently several writers in my group have won awards for their short stories. They are quite good at it. So in a moment of insa…enthusiasm, we decided to all write a short story. Then, some wise wit suggested each member offer an element to include in the story. We went around the table. I sagely suggested putting in an alien; others suggested a spaceship, a ghost, a conflict with a boss, and then Chelsea grinned and added a fireplace poker.

Yikes!

That’s just like her!

Now short stories are not my strength, but I actually had fun writing mine. Be forewarned, there is a strong humorous component in it. As a result we came up with seven amazing stories that we have put in an anthology called the Five Elements Anthology.

All the profits will go to the Willamette Writers literacy program Books for Kids. It’s priced at an affordable 99 cents. To do this, we had our Willamette Writers member be the publisher and collect the royalties. We are not allowed to funnel funds directly to the Association, so at a given amount, Ted will send a check to the Association in our name. It was important that we communicated with the Willamette Writers and clear the idea with them first. They have been most enthusiastic and already have mentioned the anthology in their newsletter.

You can easily get the anthology on Amazon. Just scroll down a bit since Five Elements is a popular name. You’ll see my name and the rest of the group on the dynamite front cover.

We’ve sold two already in England along with a number in good old U.S.A.

Writing a short story was so much fun, I might try another one and offer it as a special for my website readers. Stay tuned.

The Overwhelmed Author

Are there other authors and writers out there overwhelmed by all they are told they need to do and little time in which to accomplish it?

With Amazon opening the floodgates of self publishing in 2009-2010, I am now hearing the moans of authors saying, “I have no time to write anymore.”

Marketing has reared it’s ugly head.

Even those carrying contracts with big and little publishers are tasked to do the lion’s share of their marketing. Everybody has turned to Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest,Google+, Goodreads, Librarything, LinkedIn, etc. and finding social media can create a black hole in their time and energy without any knowledge of what return is gotten on sales. Everyone’s experience is different. Some swear by social media, while others question its effectiveness. As old ways shift to new strategies, we feel like we’re on unsettled ground.

In addition, the Indie author is struggling with formatting, editing, cover design and downloading protocol. It’s doable, but time consuming unless you farm it out…and then beware. Everyone has a book to sell on marketing or book design. Various publishers are ready to rip off the uninformed writer who has no time to research what a good contract should look like, what distribution is best or just the basic business of writing.

Check out http://kriswrites.com to help you. It’s an exciting world out there to be sure….but overwhelming.

And if you’re writing, I am hearing the complaint that there’s no time to read anymore. Welcome to my world…and I write a book review blog. Gah!

This week I strayed off course (“Again!” you say.) and picked up Constellation 2 (just out) by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Constellation 1 is also out.

As some know, I’m deep in the Liadon Universe series and this is a compilation of short stories published over the years for various magazines and venues.

The interesting point here is that these authors kept writing and putting out work while they tried to find a publisher. They kept on. And on.

And developed a fan base, or what everyone is now calling “a platform.”

Think persistence if you want to be successful. Remember the parable of the tortoise and the hare? So, because of their persistence, they also have a wealth of content that they are bundling into anthologies. In addition, they are taking their novelettes and putting two or three together, adding a new cover and title and republishing to a new and building readership.

If you own your copyright, you can do this. Hear me Indie author…the power is yours.

Constellation 2 is a delightful group of stories. Lee and Miller have a way of making their characters feel alive. In each story, the plot is interesting and the action strong.

For example:

In the first story, a young girl struggles in a world where women are controlled and repressed. Father has several wives picked out by his father. Women are not taught to read and are expected to stay home and serve their chosen husband . But Ina Bhar is the mousy third daughter with a clever mind and her father, a scholar, lets her into his world by teaching her to read and think. He bequeaths her the Curiat, a dangerous book that brings about his death at the hands of those searching for it. Using the book, she plots to escape her bonds, her world and those that would kill for its secrets.

Not one normally for anthologies, these stories feel like quick additional peeks into the lives of characters I have read about over the years. They are a side venture, not explored with the major plot but vignettes that adds depth and deeper understanding to characters and events already introduced in the series. They are familiar characters or situations that I am eager to learn more about.

So, here is an example of two authors who are getting creative with their efforts, and stories written long ago for other venues are finding new markets, and adding some efficiency to the role of the Indie author.

Paths for new Writers to Build Readership and Publish

Science fiction and fantasy authors are exploring many new and exciting paths in an attempt to get their name known to readers and find various  ways to publish their works.

Within the genre of science fiction/fantasy, the five writers in my Writers’ Group are following their own unique paths to finding readers and publishing.

One is entering writing contests and winning. Austin Briggs has a website that I have mentioned before that is Flash Fiction and the winner of the month takes home $55 for 55 words.

Allie Vaughn was their winner for her February entry. “Jump Through.” That’s a dollar a word! Not bad. Check out her winning entry.

http://austinbriggs.com/flash-fiction-contest/jump-through/

She has also submitted short stories in various contests with successful results. Her winning short story appears in “Great Tales Beyond the Mystic Door” by Professor Limn and is available on Amazon.com. Sixty-one three minute short stories by sixteen exciting authors.

She also won “Golden Curl Girl” in the Aspiring Writers Short Story competition that will also be published in an upcoming anthology.

Allie is also a winner of poetry and won third place for “Lady Winter” to be published in a poetry anthology.

Winning contests is one way to get your name out there and build a reader base.

Another writer in our group is using the short story anthology route to publishing and also self publishing science fiction/fantasy games, while he waits on acceptance through traditional publishing. Clayton Callahan has just been accepted into a science fiction/fantasy anthology edited by friend Phyllis Radford called “How Beer Saved the World.” Should be very popular. His science fiction story “Beer Today, Gone Tomorrow” is a great read.

Clayton is also a gamer and has been involved in gaming for a while now. He just recently wrote a non-fiction article, “Playing a Role in Science Fiction.” Check it out  online at Perihelion, a professional science fiction magazine. http://www.perihelionsf.com under Clayton Callahan. He also has self published several non-fiction gaming manuals, one which is Battlefields: from Broadswords to Bullets. Another is a handbook for a game called Star Run, also available on Amazon. I used his information on military and weapons in several of my scenes.

“Pointy side out.”

Another author in the group, Ted Blasche, has also published in Perihelion a delightful short story called, “To Dance with the Girls of IOS-5.” http://www.perihelionsf.com/archives/blasche001.htm

In addition to publishing in a well known online magazine, Ted is going the traditional route of submitting to major science fiction publishing houses and is currently waiting on a response to a military science fiction novel he has completed.

But Ted has also gone the script to screen route and has won a finalist spot in the Willamette Writers contest FiLMLaB. The final few will be used at the Willamette Writers’ conference and will be announced April 11.

http://willamettewriters.com/wwfilm/?p=147

We’re rooting for you, Ted!!! Screen plays from novels or short stories is another way to get your name out there.

A small subsidiary publishing house, Mockingbird Lane Press, has accepted Diana Peach’s novel Myths of the Mirror. Her website here gives a taste of her soon to be published book on dragons. http://mythsofthemirror.com.

Already, she is busily writing a sequel and has recently put Dragon Soul into the hands of the editors there. There’s nothing so great as a book with dragons in it, and Diana writes wonderfully well. Look for Myths of the Mirror coming soon.

Many valid small publishing houses are springing up to service new writers and help them with editing, book covers, formatting and other needs. Increasingly, individuals are offering classes and panels (for a price) on various aspects of publishing, including marketing. The new writer has to tread carefully and investigate those he does business with as the scam artists are finding this new area of publishing and writing fertile ground. Even the well known publishing houses are buying out publishing businesses like Authorhouse and writing contracts for eager new authors that don’t realize what they are getting into. So authors beware. Check out editors and predators: http://www.pred-ed.com.

Several established authors in my Portland luncheon group are going the traditional route, but also are exploring other venues.

These are professional writers that have been writing for a while and are “connected.” David Levine has sold over fifty of his short stories and was recently on the cover of Analog Magazine.

I did an interview with him in my February blog about his short story anthology, Space Magic. This is a collection of his own short stories that he came out with in 2008, and now in January, he has reformatted the collection and put it out digitally through Book View Café.

Many known authors with backlists are bringing them out again in digital format and reselling their story. David has teamed up with other well-known Portland authors to do readings and book signings all over the area. He recently did a successful reading and signing with other authors at Powell’s at Cedar Crossing in Beaverton. Getting out face to face is a tried and true method for known authors. Pairing up with other authors swells the attendance.

Phyllis Irene Radford, in addition to her recent forays into editing anthologies, has just published the third trilogy in her Dragon Series. The Silent Dragon: Children of the dragon Nimbus #1, which is now available on Amazon through DAW. Phyllis also has published a series on Merlin’s descendents with her Guardians of the Balance and also a series on fairies of which Chicory Up is the latest. Adding on to a popular series is also a recommended route to success.

While following the traditional publishing route, she also has a serious eighty-six-page nonfiction called Magna Bloody Carta. This was published through a writers’ online co-op called Book View Café. Writers getting together and providing exchange services for each other on a website that lists and sells digital books is becoming a popular way to build readership, become known and sell books. Self-publishing authors are banding together to help each other. Many online websites that offer digital books are providing an avenue for authors, both new and old.

She also has gone into other anthologies with her own short stories: Gears and Levers 2: a Steampunk Anthology and Breaking Waves through Sky Warrior Book Publishing, a small publishing house.

And I’m going the self-publishing route via Digital Imagination Publishing. You can check out my series on the right. All are available online at most known booksellers, Smashwords, Kindle, Amazon, ibookstore, and others. I’m following the advice of Dean Wesley Smith and using serial writing to get my name out there. I recently experimented with the KDP Select program that offers Caught in Time for free to Prime members of Amazon for ninety days…so pass it along. Hopefully, they’ll like it and buy others in the series.

I am also dabbling with social media (ex. this blog) as another way to get my name out there. In fact, I just won a Liebster Award for my blog submitted by Andy McKell. This is a new fun way smaller bloggers are spreading the word, so stay tuned next week for the details.

The paths to establishing a following of readers, eventual publication and greater sales is varied in this new world of writing, and new writers are trying many new and interesting ways to find a reader base, get published and sell their story.

Discovering the Science Fiction Anthology

Okay, so many science fiction readers are busy people and don’t have time for a Peter Hamilton tome or a Patrick Rothfuss compendium, but prefer to get their science fiction satisfaction a gulp at a time.

What to do? What to do?

How about a well thought out anthology?

Now, I’m not usually an expert in this field and there are many anthologies out there. I’m the doorstop novel kind of reader. However, I wanted to cover this topic and present three varieties of anthologies, with the caveat that there are many others out there.

But here’s three.

1. Legends edited by Robert Silverberg.

I received this as  a Christmas present in December 1998 and it blew away my mind. If you want an anthology organized around the heavy weights in the field, then here are eleven stories by world famous science fiction/fantasy writers. The list starts with Stephen King and includes Anne McCaffrey, Robert Jordan, Raymond Feist, Orson Scott Card, George R.R. Martin, Ursula Le Guin, Terry Pratchett, Tad Williams…with illustrations by Michael Whalen. Need I say more? Although published over fourteen years ago, the stories are still timely. And subsequent Legend volumes have come out since.

2. Legacy of Stars  by Danielle Ackley-McPhail  Maybe you just want some science fiction military stories with a  kick-ass heroine. Enter  Katrion Alexander who never does what is expected.  With forwards by such notables as John G. Hemry a.k.a Jack Campbell (Lost Fleet Series), Jack McDevitt, Bud Sparhawk  and others. This collection of stories focuses on Private Katrion Alexander and hard science military. In fact, the first story in the anthology, (but not the novel) is entitled “Carbon Copy” and has quite a nice twist to it that would please any hard science/military scifi reader. Interspersed between Katrion’s  adventures in the Alliance Universe, are other military science short stories that will have you turning the pages just as rapidly. Several thought provoking poems break up the action between stories, and all in all, provide the military scifi reader with a well balanced read. A hidden gem.

http://www.amazon.com/Danielle-Ackley-McPhail/e/B002GZVZPQ

3. Space Magic by David Levine. Sometimes you are a short story superstar like David. You have won a Hugo for “Tk’ Tk’ Tk’, published over forty short stories, many award winners, and now it’s time to wrap them all together and put out your own anthology. Anthologies can be a way to develop  a platform for further work.

Linton Robinson of LinkedIn blogging notoriety has an excellent blog on this idea and I encourage you to read what he says in the link below. He has started a thread on LinkedIn for authors interested in writing for anthologies and anthology editors looking for submissions. Check that out too.

http://www.indiesunlimited.com/2012/12/24/anthologies/

Now, I’m lucky enough to know David, so I asked if he would subject himself to an interview by me and he graciously obliged.

David’s stories plumb the depth of character, both alien and human and sometimes the interactions between them. Start with a story that takes place in the mind of a starfaring alien, visit a very unusual junkyard and check out “I Hold my Father’s Paws” that introduces, not transgender, but transpecies medicine. Walk with a salesman trying to sell on an alien world and meet a fairy like no fairy you have ever met before. His stories are different, fresh and provocative.

So here now without further ado, is David Levine.

Welcome Hugo winner David D. Levine who has just launched his new anthology, Space Magic.

Sheron: It seems to me that I ‘m seeing more and more science fiction anthologies coming onto the market. Do you agree, and why do you think that is?

David: If you’re seeing more SF anthologies — and this is not a phenomenon I’ve observed — it’s probably because the market for SF short stories is in transition. Although science fiction and fantasy is one of the few places in literature today where you can still get paid for a short story, and the main print markets (Asimov’s, Analog, and F&SF) are still going strong, a lot of the other markets that were out there five or ten years ago have vanished and many new ones have appeared.  With all the changes in this area, it’s not surprising that a lot of writers and editors have decided to release their short stories in anthology form.

 Sheron: You’ve had an interesting and successful writing career, writing over 40 short stories, writing for George R. R. Martin in his Wild Cards series, handing out the Hugo for short stories in 2012 and even winning a Hugo in 2006 for “Tk’ Tk’ Tk'” yourself. What would you say was one of your best moments as an author? And what would you say to encourage other writers in this genre?

David: Winning the Hugo was an awesome, overwhelming career highlight (you can see my overwhelmed response here:  http://youtu.be/q7cnM3ra79o  Selling my first story (“Written on the Wind”, to Beyond the Last Star) and my first acceptance at a major magazine (“The Tale of the Golden Eagle” at F&SF) were also fabulous moments, and getting a good review is always a thrill.  These moments are really brief, and it’s important to keep them in the back of your mind and haul them out whenever the writing feels like a pointless slog.

Sheron: I hear you there. We always need those moments to keep us going forward. Where do you get your inspiration? Or what got you started on this career path?

David: I’ve been writing SF stories since I could hold a pencil. I still have a two-volume SF novel I wrote in fourth grade (it was two volumes because I filled up the first spiral notebook) and a disturbing little book called “The Boy Who Could Fly” that’s considerably older than that.  But, although I took an SF writing class in college and was encouraged to submit my work, I got into technical writing as a career and that consumed all my writing energy.  I didn’t write a lick of fiction for about 15 years, during which time I met my wife Kate, so that when I declared in 1999 that I wanted to spend my Intel sabbatical at Clarion it was a surprise to her. But I did go, and I learned a lot, and I started selling shortly thereafter.  I’ve been selling 3-5 original stories each year since then, plus reprints.

Sheron: Why did you decide to publish Space Magic and where can it be found?

http://www.amazon.com/David-D.-Levine/e/B00A3F05FW

 David: People have been asking me for several years now whether Space Magic was available as an ebook, and I think it was in 2010 that I took some of the stories off of Fictionwise (which required exclusive rights) so that I could produce an ebook of my own. But there were a lot of options — should I do the work myself, or pay someone to do it, or send it to an e-publisher? — and I waffled for years.  Then, back in October, I had a really bad day. I got four novel-related rejections in a period of three days.  (Despite my success with short stories, I’ve been trying and failing to sell a novel since 2006.)  I got depressed, and then I got angry, and then I decided to channel the energy of that anger into areas I could control. I started up three major projects that week: my new website (daviddlevine.com, which went live in December and looks fabulous), the Space Magic ebook (which launched on January 15), and a video of my story “Letter to the Editor” (which goes public on January 21).  Now that all of those are out of the way I hope to be focusing my efforts on another novel.  Hope springs eternal.

http://www.daviddlevine.com

Sheron: Rejection in all kinds of forms seems to be part of this business. It’s those that listen to the ideas, incorporate the helpful comments to make their work stronger and keep on trying that eventually become successful. If you’re looking for constant accolades, take up another career. Kudos to you as Space Magic is the result.

So, what’s next?

David: I’m working on a YA Regency Interplanetary Airship Adventure, which takes place in an alternate English Regency that includes airship travel to Mars and Venus (which are, of course, inhabited).  Arabella is a Patrick O’Brian girl in a Jane Austen world.  Born and raised on Mars, she was hauled back home by her mother, who didn’t want her two younger sisters turning out as wild as Arabella had.  She finds England’s gravity, climate, and expectations of women stifling, and when she learns that her cousin Simon plans to kill her brother, still on Mars, and take control of the family fortune, she disguises herself as a boy and joins the crew of a Mars-bound merchant ship in order to save him.  But pirates, mutiny, and rebellion stand in her way.  Will she arrive in time?

Sheron   Sounds terrific. I look forward to publication. Thank you David.