Sale on Smashwords!

 Draft2Digital acquired Smashwords earlier this year, but they just recently made it possible for their authors to distribute their books to that site. If you're familiar with Smashwords, you may know that they also hold sales twice a year around the solstices. From tomorrow (December 15th) through January 1, 2023, my books will be available for free on Smashwords. (Please note that ebooks are available on Smashwords only in the EPUB format.) You can find a list of my titles on Smashwords through my author page. Enjoy!

A Farewell to Smashwords?

When I published Lyon's Legacy in 2011, the first place it went live was on Smashwords. If you're not familiar with Smashwords, it's an e-book distributor that not only makes books available on B&N, Apple, Kobo, and several others, but also sells e-books directly in many formats. (This is handled through their infamous Meatgrinder, a program that converts books in Word into different formats. I haven't had major problems with it, but I know some authors have.) In some ways, Smashwords is a competitor of Amazon Select, which requires authors to make their content exclusive to Amazon in exchange for certain perks. Unfortunately, for me at least, Smashwords isn't an effective place to sell my books. Even with Lyon's Legacy being permafree, it's difficult to sell any books directly on Smashwords or the sites it distributes to. It can take a long time for books to be distributed and even longer to remove them from distribution. Smashwords is also known for automatically opting all books into new markets, requiring authors to opt out if they don't like the terms.

Recently, an alternative distributor has popped up. Draft 2 Digital (D2D) also distributes to Kobo, B&N, and Apple, along with a couple of other sites Smashwords can't reach. They have a streamlined process for publishing books that's not only faster with distribution but easier to use. I even seem to sell better through them, and other authors have noticed the same thing.

I've quietly unpublished most of the works I had on Smashwords. Some are now exclusive to Amazon (or else I'm still waiting to make sure they're off other sales channels, months after the fact). The only books I have on Smashwords are Lyon's Legacy and Twinned Universes, and it seems to me it would be better to switch them over to D2D. The problem is dealing with Smashword's slowness and concern about how that move would affect readers. Since Lyon's Legacy is permafree, unpublishing it from Smashwords could cause Amazon to drop the price match, even if the book then becomes free through D2D. (I've thought about it and decided to keep this series out of KDP Select for now.) I also want to make sure readers know about the transition in advance before I do anything.

I'm therefore giving notice to my readers that I will unpublish Lyon's Legacy and Twinned Universes from Smashwords by the end of the month. If you haven't downloaded them yet, you should do so soon. When I know it's down, I'll move it to D2D while keeping the same prices.

Do you have any experience with Smashwords or D2D? If so, what did you think of them?

Seasonal Stories on the Sagan Now Out

This year, I managed to write not just one, but two seasonal science fiction stories set on the spaceship Sagan (which is part of my Catalyst Chronicles universe). I bundled them together under the title "Seasonal Stories from the Sagan."  Here are the story descriptions:

"A Solstice in Space"--Cass wants to celebrate the winter solstice with her friends and family, but they don't share her pagan beliefs. Can they create a ceremony that respects everyone's beliefs, or will she have to observe the solstice by herself? And how can you celebrate a solstice when you're not even on a planet?

"Snowballs in Space"--Paul's plans to have a snowball fight with his friends may land him in hot water with the Sagan's officers when he "borrows" a lot of materials to make fake snow.

There are spoilers for Twinned Universes in the stories, but I tried to make them able to stand on their own.

This bundle is available for $0.99 on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Kobo, Scribd, and Inktera. I hope you check it out!

P.S. This was my first time publishing through Draft2Digitial, and it was a very quick and easy process. It doesn't have all the features of Smashwords, but I will definitely use them again.

Digitial Book Day and Website Update

To celebrate Digital Book Day, I'm giving Lyon's Legacy away on Smashwords. Just click here and use code SW100 at checkout. Don't forget to check out all the other free eBooks listed here. There are over 400 books listed, so you should be able to find something you like.

Speaking of free, I've created free PDF samplers for Lyon's Legacy and Twinned Universes. You can find them both on my website. I've also added more information about Seasons' Beginnings and Indie Writers Monthly there as well. 

Speaking of Indie Writers Monthly, our first annual anthology should be available by now. Additional information will be posted as soon as I have it, so stay tuned!

It's a Summer Smashwords Sale!

If it's July, then Smashwords must be holding their annual Summer/Winter Sale. This year, I have four works enrolled in the sale:

Click here for "Letters to Psyche" and use code SW100 at checkout to get it for free.
Cupid must find a way to break a curse on love between the Montagues and Capulets. If he doesn't, he'll never see his beloved Psyche again.

Click here for "The Mommy Clone" and use code SW100 at checkout to get it for free.
Set between Lyon's Legacy and Twinned Universes. Bouncy houses prove to be more scary than fun when a kidnapper stalks the clone of a rock star.

Click here for Lyon's Legacy and use code SW50 at checkout (Normally $2.99, on sale for $1.50).
A geneticist who blames her rock star ancestor for ruining her life is forced to travel back in time to clone him.

Finally, click here for Twinned Universes and use code SW50 at checkout (Normally $4.99, on sale for $2.50). 
 The way to solve a murder may be in an alternate universe--but an assassin lurks there too.

If you want to sideload one of these stories to your Kindle, all you have to do is look up your Kindle e-mail address (go into "Manage Your Content and Devices" on Amazon, then click the "Your Devices" tab) and e-mail the mobi file to that address. 

This sale runs through July 31, so make sure to take advantage of it. As Shakespeare said, "Summer's lease hath all too short a date."

Writing/Publishing Updates

It's been a while since I said anything about my writing projects, but I finally have some news. I finally finished the second draft of Season's Beginnings, the prequel and first book of my fantasy Season Avatars series. I'll let it rest for a couple of weeks before re-reading it. Hopefully there won't be too many changes before I feel it's ready for beta readers. Please let me know if you'd be interested.

My second announcement has to do with distribution. My haiku collection, Life at Seventeen Syllables a Day, is now available directly from Smashwords and should be coming soon to other retail stores. Additional links will be posted on my website when they're available.

Please check back next week for another Blog Ring of Power interview.

Two SF Books 50% Off on Smashwords Through 3/8/14

I think the title pretty much says it all, doesn't it? Both Lyon's Legacy and Twinned Universes are 50% off this week at Smashwords as part of their Read an EBook Week. I don't intend to put them on sale at Amazon until I publish another work in the series, so this is a good time to grab them. You can find Lyon's Legacy here and Twinned Universes here. Use code REW50 for both. Why should you read them? Because they're both well-written, professionally edited, and just darn good reading. But don't take my very biased word for it; go download the samples and read them youself.

Sometimes being a geneticist isn’t enough to understand your family....

Joanna Lyon is the great-granddaughter of the legendary TwenCen musician Sean Lyon. Joanna may have inherited some of her ancestor's musical talent, but her parents' bitter divorce and her Uncle Jack's attempts to remake her into another Sean have left her hostile toward her family and music. Her passion is for science, but since she has no access to the family funds, she struggles to earn enough credits for graduate school. Then her uncle sets up a business deal with her employer to make Joanna go on a mission for him: travel via the spaceship Sagan to an alternate TwenCen universe where Sean is still alive. Joanna must collect a DNA sample from Sean so her uncle can create a clone of him. She refuses at first, but finally agrees to go. Secretly, however, Joanna believes her uncle will exploit the clone, and she plans to sabotage the project to stop him. But when she falls in love with one of the scientists in the Sagan's genetics lab, clashes with other time travelers who fear she'll change how history develops on the alternative TwenCen Earth, and receives devastating personal news, Joanna will find herself pushed to her limit even before she comes face-to-face with her hated ancestor. Their encounter will leave her changed forever. Will she still be able to thwart her uncle's plan, and what will she have to sacrifice to do so?

Paul Harrison always wanted to play Hamlet, but he never expected he’d live the role first.

In the aftermath of a family tragedy on 21st century Earth, Paul discovers he’s the clone of Sean Lyon, his great-great-grandfather and a famous TwenCen musician. Suspecting his mother’s death was no accident, Paul comes up with a plan to trick the answers out of the great-uncle who had him cloned. But in order to make his plan work, Paul needs help from Sean himself—and Sean’s time is running out in the TwenCen universe next door. Although Paul’s family lives on the spaceship that travels between the universes, he’s never been allowed on TwenCen Earth. Now, with the help of his friends, his disguise-creating holoprojectors, and a quantum quirk, Paul must make his way to Sean while evading other time travelers who fear he’ll change the history of the TwenCen universe. If Paul is to achieve justice, he must not only risk his own life, but the wormhole connecting the universes. “To be or not to be” was a simple question in comparison....

Enjoy the rest of the week!

"The Mommy Clone," A Catalyst Chronicles Short Story, Now Available

Actually, I published this story Sunday evening, but since I already had pre-scheduled posts for the last couple of days (and I needed to tweak something), I'm making the official announcement today.

For some time, I've wanted to write something in my Catalyst Chronicles universe set between Lyon's Legacy and Twinned Universes. I finally got an idea and a setting for a story late last year. Since I was sick and in bed Sunday, I had enough time to revise and format the story. Anyway, here's the cover and the blurb:

All Joanna wants to do is entertain her children for a couple of hours while her husband is busy. The multi-story bouncy house promises to be fun, but someone else stalks them, someone wearing Joanna's face. Will Joanna escape with both children, or will her son fall prey to the Mommy Clone?

(The cover was done by Meghan Derico of Derico Photography. She also designed the covers for Lyon's Legacy and "The Book of Beasts.") 

The story is currently free on Smashwords and $0.99 at Amazon and B&N. Please report the lower price to Amazon so they price-match. I want to use this story as a loss leader (at least for now) to encourage readers to try my other books. I'm also going to run an experiment with this short story and the next one I publish (which will initially be in the Kindle Select program for three months): is it better to use Select or price-matching for promotion? I'll report results when I have them. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the story!