Last week was Editing Week, so I didn’t write much (for number lovers 3900words). Most of the writing was done on Sunday, when I was done going through the Future Earth Chronicles. And I stayed sorta/kinda in that area by writing from another point of view an episode that remains quite obscure in the books.

Like I told my Street Team (a public Facebook group attached to my Author Page, you can join it here), I know what I’m writing next. I’m going to write the apocalypse from the vampires’ point of view (so, a prequel to the Chronicles), starting from 2020! It will be multiple POVs with the various vampires spreading around in preparation for the Chronicles…

And then I decided the actual prequel is about mortals, some of which will live for centuries in spite of it all. The books from the vampires’ points of view will be in the Vampires Through the Centuries series, and I plan on publishing a collection of shorts that spans the 12th century to the 25th. Most are (or will be) already out there, but one will be new.

As I uploaded the latest title, I was reminded DriveThru also have a sale, called Christmas in July. So you have more discounted books there, as well as the still ongoing Smashwords sale. And the last Star Minds Universe titles are out! One is the giveaway I announced on Sunday (still going, in case you missed it) and then there’s Star Minds Interregnum Volume 2 (that includes She-wolves Team and a few more new stories along with reprints).

More stories set between the fall of the Galactic Empire and the birth of the Federation of Humanoid Planets.
The Chameleon (5204-5230)
A Wegan telepath loses his love and twenty years later discovers he has a son
Daughter of C’est’aran (5218)
A scientist’s daughter on SETH World challenges the woman who seems to want to take her late mother’s place
Mother (5225-5247)
A young woman meets a handsome young man who vanishes, leaving her pregnant
One Line of bad code (5240)
A battery-operated girlfriend malfunctions
Battery-operated Boyfriend (5242)
B.O.B Theft from the point of view of the B.O.B.
Codename Dark Lord (5245)
Assassin Cyrus Wildner finds his long lost mother
The Widower (5245)
Wealthy Terran widower loses a family heirloom but finds love
The Queen’s Niece
Arica of Sylvania’s daughter on her cousin’s starship
Smuggler
Azzadar owns the Vortu Sprinter and gets in trouble quite a lot…
She-wolves Team 5245
Arica’s daughter’s team of fixers is out in the galaxy
Wegan Woman (5250)
From Galaxy Police officer to independent fixer
Extraction (5260)
Retired albino assassin Elsa needs to extract her granddaughter from a Vilas Lok secret club

Since there are new people onboard and I got questions, I shall summarize here my indie publishing experience.  On January 2011 I uploaded my first title to Smashwords – it was the only place that allowed me to distribute in the US from Italy (or without a Mac in the case of Apple). But Mark Coker never managed to strike a deal with Jeff Bezos, so by April, when I uploaded the first novel, I signed up for KDP (Amazon Italia would arrive a few months later, if I remember correctly).

In 2012 I joined KWL, Kobo’s direct upload, and Draft2Digital, another distributor with no shop but better features than Smashwords. Some titles also go on DriveThruFiction or DriveThruComics, as you can see above. I did some attempts at KU/KDPSelect when it showed up, but so far it worked only for the Italian titles.

I’m still on Smashwords because of Tori (*waves*) and because every now and then I participate in their site-wide sales (like right now), or use their coupons to gift copies of my books, but I much prefer D2D and their free ebook templates. I distribute my box sets (except the first, Books of the Immortals) through them, and they send even to Amazon.

I send my books to libraries through them and even used Findaway Voices through them (they partnered with them before Smashwords) – now, I have no idea when I’ll do more audiobooks, but it might be the matter of a Kickstarter sometime in the future, LOL!

I usually format the collaboration anthos through D2D, since I don’t have Vellum, and then upload the files to BundleRabbit for distribution and splitting royalties – although I no longer put my books on BundleRabbit to be bundled (I’m still waiting to be invited to some StoryBundle, LOL!). Some are still there and some bundles are still live, but these days it’s mostly collaborations that go to the usual suspects (when KDPprint doesn’t throw a tantrum and doesn’t talk to KDP, that is).

So, since next year is my tenth anniversary, you can tell I’m not giving up. But then, Dean Wesley Smith is my guru and if he kept 3000rejections in 5 years and now is where he is, so can I! 😀 I still send out stories to magazines and anthologies, although I’ve lost count of the number of rejections, but if I find a topic that intrigues me, I’ll write it anyway.

That’s how I wrote a story for Nuns With Guns, for example. That’s why I’m going to write another couple of stories I won’t know where to put in my indie publishing, so eventually I’ll make a collection of those spurious stories, LOL!

My friend and cover artist Cristina Fabris needs to buy a new computer and graphics tablet, so she’ll be taking commissions and selling originals. She did the covers for my Books of the Immortals and the Southern Kingdoms  as well as a few more Silvery Earth titles, but she normally draws erotica. You can find her works here, and if you’re interested, contact me, and I’ll put you in touch with her (I’m her interpreter, since she speaks only Italian…)! 🙂

And I shall end with a video again… this is how I feel this week, with everything crumbling down around me… Have a great week!