Dark World, Book Eight in the Xandra series

I've edited Dark World and got it ready for publishing with Smashwords. I've even designed the cover already. I was aiming for October, but I think I'll publish it end of September. I'm disappointed with the performance of Book Seven, Alien World. I expected more action, but it isn't happening. Hopefully, when Dark World is published, it will generate more interest in Alien World.

I'm beginning to wonder if I should continue writing Science Fiction. Are readers actually interested in buying and reading it? I've got a few different story ideas, beginnings of stories that I may work on. It's just, I love my Science Fiction. I'm comfortable writing it. When I write a contemporary thriller, it involves doing a lot of research. It is important to get places right, history, things that are in the news, and everything has to be correct. I've never been to New York, for instance. So writing a story that takes place in New York is difficult. I can't just make up street names and other stuff. When I wrote my contemporary thriller 'Web of Conspiracy', I spent a lot of time on the internet doing research about Iraq and other places. I've never been there and I knew nothing about the culture, its people, cities, countryside, and other important information. It was interesting to do the research, but also time consuming. I have to do nothing like that when I write Science Fiction and Fantasy. I can make up anything and make it plausible. It is important to have a fertile imagination, which, fortunately, I do have.

So we'll see what I'll come up next.

Alien World, Book Seven in my The Xandra series

It is done.  I self-published the seventh book in my 'The Xandra' series with Smashwords. Book eight, Dark World, will probably be published in October. It depends how long it will take me to edit and format it.

It took me a year to write both books. Actually, it was supposed to be only one book, but it ended up longer than anticipated, so I decided to make it into two books.

Why did I publish it myself? Well, my publisher, Melange Books, is not accepting any Science Fiction at this time. I didn't want to wait until they are doing so again. Besides, once they accept a book, it takes a year until it gets published. I couldn't wait that long. My last books were published last year, and to have two years without publishing anything is way too long.

I was a bit apprehensive about going this route. My first choice was Amazon, since I published my book 'The published Writer' with them a few months ago, but publishing with Amazon makes the book available only for Kindle readers. With Smashwords it is available in pretty much every format that is out there. Before I sent in my book, I read the guidelines available for free from Smashwords, and then I began formatting my book. It seemed daunting at first, but it wasn't that difficult. My book published without a glitch.

The most difficult part was designing the cover. I downloaded all kinds of pictures from the internet and tried them out in my paint program, since I don't have Photoshop and won't ever buy it. They want about $600.00 for it. Too much money for my budget. I finally bought a picture from Dreamscape and worked with that. I can even use part of it for Book eight, Dark World.

The book sells for $4.99 and is available from Smashwords.
    https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/345117