Human Legion Story Arc and Book Lengths
January 14, 2015Beowulf’s support craft
January 16, 2015
As I come across exciting new releases and special offers on space opera and military sci-fi books that I’m interested in, I’ll occasionally post the news here. It’s not going to be an everyday thing, and it’s not an affiliate advertising thing where I get commission; I just think that if you enjoyed the Human Legion books, you might also enjoy occasional updates on books by great authors such as Marko Kloos, Christopher Nutall, and Phillip Richards (to name just a few).
All that’s still true, but I’m going to first of all mention a book that was put on pre-release last night. It’s called Total Conflict and is an anthology of 18 short stories about conflict, nearly all of them being military science fiction.
It’s written mainly by British science fiction authors, and features some well-known writers such as Dan Abnett (2000AD scribe, Horus Heresy and over 20 Warhammer 40k novels), Lauren Beukes (won Arthur C. Clarke best novel award), Neal Asher (Gridlinked and the Polity Universe). Good storytellers all.
I’m in it too.
Don’t get this!
I’ve mentioned before that the idea of the Human Marine Corps came out of a short story I wrote some years back (Welcome Home, Janissary) and sold to Newcon Press in 2010 for their anthology Further Conflicts. Newcon put out the short story as a standalone eBook to help promote Further Conflicts. As a promotion, I don’t think that worked at all, but they did at my request reissue the short story recently with revised text that tied more faithfully to the Human Legion books.
Ian Whates, the main man at Newcon Press, rang me a week ago and asked whether I’d be willing to let them use my Human Marine Corps short story in a new compilation built from Further Conflicts and an earlier anthology called Conflicts.
This publishing business can be convoluted at times, but the lowdown is that if you were wondering about maybe getting my Welcome Home, Janissary eBook, then don’t bother! Total Conflict carries the same story, plus seventeen other short stories, at a launch price of $1.49/ £1.49. I don’t know what price Newcon Press will set in the future, but at present I think the new anthology is much better value.
It’s only available as a Kindle eBook, which you can find here: http://getbook.at/TotalCon
Image credits on the cover and logo: space marine © DM7 / Shutterstock, targeting HUD display © CLUSTERX / Shutterstock, Welcome Home, Janissary © Algol/ Shutterstock
3 Comments
Reblogged this on Tim C. Taylor and commented:
I’m in another book ):-) But it’s not a new story (:-(
Hi Tim,
I should say that I understand your point of view despite the fact that I disagree.
In the last 4 years I bought about 400 plus Sci-fi books, all in kindle version.
One thing that I come to understand is that most people that started to write and publish their books wanted to change their profession and digital books was their way to do that. Many are really good (IMO you included) but didn’t have a good chance with traditional publisher. Digital publishing changed it all and they’ll pay the price. 🙂
When I saw the first sci-fi collection of ten + authors being published I understood that it was to boost the subject or the authors series. I can understand that, but seeing you charge so little for your books (today only 1.17 USD) I should say that I prefer to buy your book full price (I also think you should ask more) so I can give you all the incentive to continue to write your series that economize a couple of bucks just to say I’m a smart guy.
When I was in the developing business I always told my clients that I didn’t negotiate price because quality was not negotiable. I think that this is true to any business, writers included.
Check Ryk Brown work and history, I think that he’s an example of what you can accomplish. You have a good story, plot and universe, so don’t be shy to ask more money for your hard work. I’ll be the first one to buy your books.
BTW, I really liked your second book, Indigo Squad, can’t wait for the third one.
And if you have a “cookie jar”cI would like to be of of the firsts to tip.
Thanks for your hard work
All the best
Hans
Thanks for your support, Hans. I appreciate it. Especially from someone so well read. I remember drawing customers triangles with price, time, and quality sides. I agree that I’m not going to feed my family by selling books at about a dollar a piece. My intention is to put an introductory price up of 99 cents for a few days, and make sure humanlegion.com subscribers get to hear in advance. And then up to something more reasonable, which I’ve done today with Indigo Squad. I hope you’ll enjoy Renegade Legion even more 🙂
Thanks again for your support,
Tim