Welcome to my blog

Hello visitors. On my blog I'm talking about my books, but also about what I'm currently working on and, maybe, some other stuff. Browse through my posts and don't forget to check out my older posts in the archives. If you are interested in my books, please, visit my website Fictitious Tales for more information and a few excerpts. Also, take a look at my second blog Herbert Grosshans, where I talk about fun-stuff and things that concern me.

Wednesday, August 07, 2013

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




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