A new book cover, computer vision syndrome, and lots of hard work

Writing a military science fiction trilogy as a whole, publishing the books within a few weeks of each other, is turning out to be a whole lot more work than I'd bargained for!  Not only does one have to format and prepare each book for publication, but one has to ensure a common structure, "look and feel", etc. across all three volumes - otherwise the trilogy becomes an exercise in frustration for readers, who get used to one format in the first book, then have to suddenly adapt to a new one in the next volume.  That doesn't make for a happy reading experience.

I'm accordingly spending hours each day going through the publication-format files, comparing them to each other, making sure that headings, sub-headings, section breaks, etc. are all handled in the same way and don't conflict with each other.  My eyes are getting pretty tired, I can tell you!  That's the penalty of being a one-man publishing shop.  I'm grateful for the existence of moisturizing eye drops and gels.  I use the gel at night when I go to bed, and flush my eyes when I get up with warm water, followed by moisturizing eyedrops.  That, plus regular breaks to look at something other than my monitor, keeps the dreaded "computer vision syndrome" at bay.

I've just finished a minor revision to "The Stones of Silence", fixing a few errors that escaped notice in the initial proof-reading.  It'll go up on Amazon later this week.  Those of you who've already bought the book will receive the new edition automatically, provided you've turned on your Automatic Book Updates setting.  I'll also be finalizing the print edition of the first book, so that the cover designer, Steve Beaulieu, can produce a version of the cover for dead tree format.

Steve's just finalized the cover for Book Three of the trilogy.  Here it is.

I really like his work.  He takes time and trouble to work up a new cover with the author, being willing to revise, adapt and modify the cover as needed - something some artists simply won't do.  He's definitely worth his price!

As always, if you've read and enjoyed "The Stones of Silence", and any other of my books, please leave an honest review at Amazon.com.  For independent authors such as myself, reader reviews are the life blood of our marketing efforts.  If prospective readers can see what others have thought of a book, they may be more willing to buy it themselves.

There's less than two weeks to go before Book Two of the trilogy, "An Airless Storm", goes live.  Book Three will follow it in early July.  I hope you enjoy them all.

Peter