Monday, June 10, 2013

My second book is almost ready!


I've been hard at work on getting the print edition of 'Take The Star Road' ready to roll.  It should be available late next week, pending the arrival of a test copy to check formatting, etc.  I'm very pleased to report that sales of the e-book edition have already exceeded 2,000 copies - far better than I'd hoped to accomplish after less than a month on sale.  Thank you all very much for your support!

I'm also finalizing the manuscript of the second novel in the Maxwell Saga, which will be titled 'Ride The Rising Tide'.  Miss D. has been helping me do final revisions (she's becoming an excellent alpha reader and story critic), and I'm incorporating 'lessons learned' from reader feedback about the first book.  (I really do value your reviews, you know - if you identify something that needs improvement, it allows me to implement that in subsequent books, while your words of encouragement keep me hard at work on the sequels.  Sincere thanks to everyone who's left a review at Amazon, or here on the blog!).

I've been working on the cover for the second novel with Oleg Volk.  He's a genius at this sort of thing.  I sit in awe as I watch him, with a few mouse clicks and keystrokes, accomplish tweaks and fine-tuning that I'd never even have thought of!  That sort of professional assistance is absolutely invaluable.  I think he should do more book covers - he seems to have a gift for it.  Here's a preliminary draft of the cover for 'Ride The Rising Tide', to whet your appetite.




The white bars at the bottom are where I hope a few words from another author will appear, just as they did on Book 1, where novelist Sarah A. Hoyt was kind enough to endorse my work.  Look for e-book and print editions by mid-July!

Peter

9 comments:

Rev. Paul said...

Just be sure & let us know when we can pre-order. :)

Me not you said...

Enjoying the first book, can't wait to buy the second!

Old NFO said...

Woo hoo! :-) If you ever need another alpha reader, I've done that for a couple of folks too... :-)

Cameron said...

I borrowed the book on my Kindle first and finally sat down this weekend to read it. Three chapters in, I bought it. There were a few things about the story that didn't work for me, but it was still a solid bit of reading that had me looking forward to the next installment.

Anonymous said...

I just finished reading your book. Just before that I read Dan Brown's new book and I must say that I enjoyed yours more. My only quibble was that your description of the ship's capacitors charging was a bit cringe worthy, though I suspect that's because I'm a physics teacher. Also, I should say that it is a very, very minor quibble.
I do have a question, however. When I ordered to book from Amazon, I had the choice of buying or lending via Amazon Prime. From which do you get the most money? I bought the book, but I recently read that authors get paid if their books are borrowed.

Peter said...

@Anonymous at 7:01 PM: Yes, authors get paid for a loan if they're in the Kindle Select program; but the amount they get paid depends on how much Amazon has put up in the loan 'kitty' that month, and how many loans of how many books take place - the 'kitty' is divided by the number of books borrowed to arrive at a sum per loan.

Personally, I prefer a sale. I like to think that my readers will re-read the book from time to time!

:-)

Mike_C said...

Really looking forward to this one. Just finished Take the Star Road having made the mistake of starting it at 1030 pm. ("I'll just read a few chapters.") I'd say excellent first novel, except it doesn't need the qualifier.

perlhaqr said...

Can't wait to read it. I really liked part one.

Also, heh, apparently I was wrong about having beta'd it, I must have been thinking of something else. Dunno what it was now, though...

*headshake* I'm only 36! I shouldn't be losing my mind like this already!

Anonymous said...

Last time I checked you only had the first book out. The reviews on Amazon were great (congrats)! I'll definitely have to read them when I get the chance. Not that you serve the whims of your readers, but some advanced civilizations would be pretty nice (if you already don't have plenty) in future releases.