To be continued…?

As an indie author, I'm always looking for new or better ways to publish my work.  I've been a smashwords fan from the beginning of my indie career (a breathtaking 3 years) and am still a happy client.  I expanded to amazon because, well, it is amazon, though I really have not been too thrilled with their treatment of non-amazon exclusive authors (or even non-prime members on occasion).  I dabbled with 'draft to digital' but found no reason to switch from smashwords.  Today I thought I'd explore google play, but apparently they are closed to new authors temporarily (I believe it dates back to May!) but, 'hey, come back soon and check it out!'  Soon?  Six months is not soon (this is November).  I begin to wonder if they are scrapping the program, and if so, it would be nice if they'd just be honest and say so.  But I do believe they also purchased Oyster (a monthly reading subscription service) so maybe something is brewing?  But for now, I guess I'll just stick with the same old same old.

'Tis the season!

Yes, it is that time of year again: time for the random Christmas Hymn Lyric Review.  What does it have to do with my books?  Nothing, but who cares?  Now down to business.  This hymn has always been a little odd to me, and I don't think I've ever heard more than the first or second verse, but we're working on a piece in choir right now that contained the words 'Glorious now, see Him arise, God and King and Sacrifice,' with the traditional melody and it made me curious.  So I found the entire thing for your erudition (and my own).  It is actually quite an interesting little composition, if politically incorrect, but then any traditional Christmas hymn is technically that nowadays so without further ado: 

'We Three Kings:'

We three kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts we traverse afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain
Following yonder star

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect Light

Born a King on Bethlehem's plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again
King forever, ceasing never
Over us all to reign

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Frankincense to offer have I
Incense owns a Deity nigh
Prayer and praising, all men raising
Worship Him, God most high

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes of life of gathering gloom
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Glorious now behold Him arise
King and God and Sacrifice
Alleluia, Alleluia
Earth to heav'n replies

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

Bits and pieces!

I was going to enter a writing contest based on the classic fairy tale of sleeping beauty, but in deciding I am not author enough to compete therein, I have published my two attempts at remaking the classic tale in 'Over the Hills and Far Away,' for the more serious tale and made a Foible out of the other.  Look for 'On Sleeping Beauties: A Foible.' at smashwords, apple, and barnes and noble soon!

I have also released my fourth 'In Shadow' book, 'Captain of Shadow,' so forget the preorder.  It has also been released at Amazon in both stand alone and as part of the complete collection.  Enjoy!

To preorder or not to preorder?

Well we are a day older and a day closer to the release of my new preorder and I don't think anybody cares, when I was assured this preorder thing was the best thing since sliced bread, but then store-bought sliced bread isn't all that great either, so maybe I'll just take my chances next time and release the book when I'm done with it.  It's a great little trick to rack up opening day sales for big name authors, but for us nobodies, it really is kind of silly!

No trick, just a treat!

Get a free copy of my new book, 'Captain of Shadow,' but act fast, like good chocolate, this deal won't last long.  Use coupon code MX94P at smashwords.com before Oct. 21!

Perks

The book is done and scheduled for release on November 1st, but if you have the entire 'In Shadow' collection in one volume and are actually excited about this book, you might want to update your copy:)

Dipping a toe in

So I have tried 'draft to digital' with one book, limiting distribution to a bookseller called Tolino since it is already everywhere else with smashwords, and I'm still having trouble publishing a multivolume set in one volume, even with their automated system.  Smashwords has a 'style guide' that is rather extensive, but once tried, is not difficult to implement though more complicated books are still rather indigestible to their 'meat grinder.'  D2D boasts that it has no style guide save your own, which has its own set of problems.  I cannot say that I am so impressed I am going to bother switching over quite yet, but we'll see once I try updating my 'In Shadow,' box set when the new book comes out.

Update: it seems that though D2D does not have a style guide, they have a style guide, go figure.  I'll be sticking with smashwords rather than reinventing the wheel.