If you are an author or writer, I have three interesting links for you to check out. The first is a lecture series on Utube given by Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn, Way of Kings, etc.) for classes at BYU. Seventy-two fascinating lectures cover all aspects of writing: characters, setting, plot and the business end of getting published the traditional way: networking, queries, agents, etc.
You might want to grab a bag of gummie bears before you start. A great lecture series from one of our current best, free on Utube.
The second is a link to the short story market. Where to put a short story if that’s what you write.
The third is a survey by Freebooksy, an advertising site for free and discounted books. (So they are biased) The author signs up and when his book is offered free on KDP Select, Freebooksy features it for the date requested. Readers sign up and get e-mails of these free and discounted books at no cost for the service. Sometimes, the sites that do this charge quite a hefty fee to the author for a promo and are picky about what books they list. Still, the numbers in the survey are interesting.
This week I read Poor Man’s Fight by Elliot Kay. This is the first in a series recommend by my ex-military reader and I quite enjoyed it. Bonus is that it is a well-written Indie published series; a gem glittering in a pile of self published novels. To see a self-published author take care with his story and presentation makes me proud.
Having said that, the plot isn’t dramatically new or the characters unique.
And that isn’t a bad thing.
Tanner Malone’s stellar school performance comes to a unexpected end when family problems and a rigged test cause him to flub his final exam for college placement. His poor performance requires him to go deeply in debt if he is to continue on to college.
Rather than go into debt, he enlists in the military that is ramping up its forces to combat the increasing threat of space pirates.
A large portion of the book deals with his trials and tribulations at boot camp. Then, the story picks up the viewpoint of the pirate horde and their grievances against the current government practices. The author flashes back and forth between the two.
Kay balances his characters nicely. You have both good and bad in both camps. In addition, he does a nice job of portraying Tanner Malone as a highly intelligent nerd caught in the grinder of the military boot camp where physical prowess and guts counts for more than independent thinking and intelligence.
Even in the pirate’s camp, brute viciousness is balanced with a likable leader and his capable, but deadly, female boatswain.
As you enter both worlds, you feel the inevitability of them meeting with violence and a lot of fighting.
If you like military scifi…future worlds with spaceships and battles, I suggest you gear up and try this one. 
Reviews on the sequel, Rich Man’s War, are even higher.
ScifiBook Review 