Well, maybe not an e-splosion, whatever messiness that would entail. But, a little over a month ago, I popped three short stories up on amazon in the form of shiny new .99 cent ebooks and just sort of sat back and watched what they did. This, I’m told, is called a soft launch — you put something up and say very little about it, and just let it stew a bit in whatever storefronts you’ve got it listed. Apparently it’s a way for all those algorithms to start filling in stuff like ‘people who bought this, also bought that’ and ‘if you were as good-looking as you think, you’d have gotten this already at a discount,’ that kind of stuff. Also, by way of experiment, I’ve listed these with Amazon Prime, to see if anyone would borrow them (Prime functions in part like an ebook library). No one has, yet, though I’ve had a few borrows of a book I’ve listed under a super-secret pseudonym. Eventually I will take them off of Prime, and list them at Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, etc., but for now Amazon is the only place to find them.
In addition to those three, my Pathfinder Tales short story ‘The Box’ has also been released as an ebook short available only from Paizo, also for .99 cents. So that’s four pieces of pie you could be having for dessert, not just one. Screw dinner, eat pie!
Anyway, maybe I’ll do a post all about putting ebooks together aimed at authors at a later date, but I don’t want to bore the golf pants off of any civilians reading this particular post. What I do want to do is beg ask suggest that readers out there that have liked my fantasy fiction in the past go check these shorts out. And if you haven’t read any of my fiction and only know me through reviews and police reports, here’s a chance to sample something of mine for a buck.
These stories were selected because they are some of my longer shorts, and they’ve all been published to good reviews, and the Pathfinder piece promises to be the first in a series of stories featuring these characters.
Click on any of the covers for links to the stories:
Hal just wants to stay out of trouble and fence a few stolen goods while in Autrain Ford, but an old friend has other plans. Vocachio, poet and actor, desperately needs the quill of a legendary playwright to rekindle his creative flame, and Hal is just the thief to make it happen. But in a city crawling with soldiers all looking for the source of some mysterious wild magic, it remains to be seen whether Hal and Vocachio can prove that the pen really is ‘Mightier Than the Sword.’
‘The Last of His Kind’ follows Tanout, an aging drake hunter with a brutal disposition, as he searches the desert lands of the Yeq for the fabled Glasswyrm. Joined by the boy Hasn, a child wise beyond his years and touched by mysterious magic, Tanout must find — and kill — the great dragon before his competition. But pursuit in the form of a local shaman and a trio of brother assassins from his homeland complicates matters, and Tanout finds himself lost in a tide of conflicting loyalties and suffering under the heavy hand of his own past.
When Daolong Monastery finds itself mysteriously transported into Hell, only Heartless Gao, general, scholar, and poet, has any chance of finding a way to free it. In his journey through the Chinese Underworld, Gao must contend with demons and bureaucrats, a randy old Immortal and the Greatest Poet Under Heaven, and one of the Yama Kings of Hell himself. Told in the style of a myth, ‘Heartless Gao Walks Number Nine Hell’ is both an adventure through Chinese legend and a playful nod to western conceptions of Hell and the afterlife, as well as a parable on duty, honor, and sacrifice.
Kostin may not be a true Sczarni thug, but he still knows his way around the mean streets of Magnimar. When a new con saddles him with an ancient, mysterious chest, only to have it immediately stolen by a gang of Shoanti toughs, it’s up to the young Varisian and his rough-and-tumble companions to get it back.
So that’s what I’ve got, so far. And it goes without saying ‘likes’ and reviews over on amazon would be very much appreciated by your humble narrator. I mean, when you think about it, one day the world might be devastated by plague, and some dying scientist will probably entrust me with the vaccine, so it’s probably a smart bet to get on my good side now before all the other plague victims start lining up telling me what nice hair I’ve got and stuff. Just saying….
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Very nice covers (much better than my amateurish efforts). I’ve only had one borrow so far on Prime, and I’ve had four shorts on there since it started. I think, because prime members are only allowed 1 borrow a month, they’re more likely to borrow a novel than a short. Anyway that’s what I tell myself.
I’ve found the ability to go free more useful than the prime borrows. It sounds counter-productive, but every time (so far)I’ve put a short free for a day or two it’s generated sales of my other shorts. Sales I probably wouldn’t have got without the visibility the freebie brings.
Oh, by the way I also have access to vaccine, and the keys to an underground bunker system. Just saying . . .
Ooh, a bunker. I better start buttering you up.
I didn’t know that about Prime borrows, that makes sense. I may attempt a freebie drive though, now that you mention it, and before I pull them out of Prime.
The covers were made with powerpoint, btw — not ideal, but I’m pretty happy with the way they turned out.