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Having watched the publishing industry for a while, and having tried the traditional publishing route, I opted to independently publish my YA sci-fi novel CONVERGENCE.
Synopsis: Anya is pissed when her family moves from earth to the Space Station Convergence. Everything is strange from the food (soy paste in all its colors and forms) to the frequently changing gravity conditions at her new high school. Anya soon uncovers a plot to take over the central computer’s core processor. While this might not bother your typical geek, Anya is anything but your typical geek. She has discovered that the central computer is self-aware, and that computer is Anya’s first friend on the Convergence. Anya will do anything to protect her computer friend, Isis, even if it means breaking into Central Computing and telling her other new (human) friends about Isis.
Convergence is now available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and on Smashwords (though extended distribution is delayed while I wait for Smashwords to get more ISBNs.)
I've written a bit about the process and posted some tips and techniques for ebook formatting on my author blog, if you're interested. www.karentsmith.com
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Good for you, Karen! I am a big believer in self-publishing. I plan to put up a collection of short stories at the end of this year - I'll check out your post (in fact, you're already in my Reader feed).
May your numbers be Hocking! Or at least Lieske. :-)
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I remember your MC, Anya...one of my teen characters, Billy Mecklenburg, 'interviewed' her a couple of years ago. Glad to see you got her into print. Congrats!
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Thanks everyone! I'm super excited. @Crank - good memory! I've forgotten many of the details, is that wrong? My girlfriend just had to point out that I have a character with her name, I had completely blanked it (a very minor character early on, in my defense. Furthering my defense is the part where I'm actively editing a different book, writing a new novel, and just finished a 16k novella...)
I'll be doing a CreateSpace version eventually, so it can be a paperback for those who prefer paper books, but it's lower on the priority list than the new writing projects at the moment.
@Robert - let me know if you still have trouble. It's not the first hit on either site searching for "convergence" but "convergence by karen" usually pulls it right up.
@LD - my friend who does covers did this one (and one of my short stories, too.) Thecovercounts.com
Current sales are at 12, across all platforms. Relatively sure I can account for each of those buyers, but there was one sold in the UK...though that might be my friend who's living there. Not in it for the sprint, for me this is a marathon. Getting the one title up, though, has done wonders for getting me motivated to get other titles up (I have two short stories up already, more planned.)
Again, thanks, and again good luck to everyone else considering the same.
quote: @LD - my friend who does covers did this one (and one of my short stories, too.) Thecovercounts.com
Of course ---Duh.
But if you haven't done it yet you will soon have 13 sells. Actually, I'm trying to figure out a YA ager I could buy a copy for. I think there's a way to gift e-books. So it could be 14 .
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Oh, I found it on B & N all right...just when I try to purchase it, I get a message saying "unable to purchase...problem with purchase of this item...please try again later." Tried twice just now. The problem is probably with my end...I tried buying something else and it also came up.
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It was my problem---my credit card expired! Once I updated my information, I was able to download it without trouble. Should get to it shortly.
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Since my wife was on the desk computer I thought it would be a good time to try to buy your book from smashwords with my nook. I couldn't find it. Spent ten fifteen minutes searching the site but nothing. Of course I couldn't recall what name it was under or the title but I thought I had seen it there recently.
Smashwords has so many ppl publishing so many titles that any one title doesn't stay on their "recent" page for very long. Mine would have rolled off that page more than a week ago. Sorry you had trouble! Hope you find it and hope you enjoy it!
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Okay, bought it. Not sure when I will read it but it does sound interesting.
Good, looks like you did it like a regular book. I haven't looked over that many e-books but that is a complaint around here.
Nice reviews too... Where those beta readers? Or did you add them after you sold a few copies?
One more thing, I placed a very short review about it on my blog with links to Amazon and B&N Hope, I you don't mind that I borrowed your synopses. Not too many people read my blog but a few do.
[This message has been edited by LDWriter2 (edited July 10, 2011).]
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Thanks @LD! I appreciate the purchase. Can you post a link to your blog? Would love to see the review. Haven't checked smashwords lately, not sure who reviewed it, but possibly that same friend who does my covers, who is a fantastic first reader (and has kids the same ages as mine and they read the same things...)
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Oh, duh, just catching on - I include excerpts from reviews from previously published works as the first page, that is probably what you're referring to. Sorry, lol, easily confused. They are people I know but I didn't ask/tell them what to write. Liked the range of feedback I got from them!
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I'll check on smashwords and see if you need any more reviews if so I'll put something longer then my one sentence review on my blog.
But one thing I kept forgetting... you going to do POD also? My niece in laws aren't into e-books even though you would think they are at the right age. Actually, I can see why one would not be but I kinda expected the other one to be sort of.
Of course I still need to figure out how to send one as a gift. Have you thought about doing the gift cards smashwords offers?