Amazon. I have many problems with Amazon, but package delivery isn’t one of them. Like most online retailers, they use many delivery services—the USPS is just one of them. These delivery services generally do a good job (I just wish more of them would at least ring the doorbell). They also make money from retailers, whether you get free delivery or not (it’s rarely free for the retailer). That keeps the USPS in business so the few of us who still send letters, birthday and holiday cards, and yes, packages, can still do so.

Every online retailer has to pay state sales tax for direct deliveries now; I guess the law also applies to affiliated retailers (Amazon has many), but that’s not Amazon’s responsibility—how could it be? Is Amazon putting brick-and-mortar stores out of business? Maybe. Toys-R-Us couldn’t adapt; Walmart and others are adapting. Blaming Amazon for USPS budget woes seems like a stretch, but the times they are a-changin’….

My problems with Amazon? They’re mostly book author-related. Readers are only affected because they’re limited to what they can see on their laptops and smart phones. That’s why libraries and bookstores will never be replaced, thank goodness.

Facebook. Many of you know I have a Facebook author page. It complements my website and includes mini-reviews of books, mostly classics, and some chat about my own books, including sales. I pay nothing for that service. But everyone reading this who uses Facebook should revise their security preferences. And beware of surveys. Your online security is important to me. Every reader is. We all have to help each other.

Old radio shows. They were the precursors of audiobooks, complete with sound effects. They were the precursors of podcasts too. Most of all, they were like fiction books because they sent imaginations into overdrive. Even though families often sat around listening to them, each person’s imagination participated and created her or his own little world.

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Review of Leonardo Da Vinci. Last time I promised a review of Isaacson’s magnificent book. You’ll find it here:

http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher/articles/8630/1/Leonardo-Da-Vinci-Reviewed-By-Steve-Moore-of-Bookpleasurescom/Page1.html

Bottom line: I liked it more than the Einstein or Jobs bios.

Romance and erotica. I don’t write it. If you like it, fine, but I don’t write in these genres per se. A bit of romance is present in some of my novels, but I wouldn’t consider them racy. My characters are very human, though, so, if the story calls for it, there’s some romance.

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Isaacson’s Leonardo Da Vinci. Whether you’re like me trying to wash out memories of Brown’s The Da Vinci Code or you’re an art lover interested in the man, Isaacson’s book is a fascinating read. I’ll write a review of it sometime soon. Isaacson’s previous biographies should be enough for you to expect great things, but he far surpassed what I expected. You have here a great story about Da Vinci—the man, his art, and his science, a fellow far ahead of his time. We can forget about The Da Vinci Code now.

What catches your eye? Do you mostly take the advice of friends and family when you select a book to read? Many readers prefer to be a bit more independent. If that describes you, what catches your eye? An attractive book cover, a good summary, a peek inside, or reviews and endorsements? (You can peruse all of that online, of course, but maybe it’s more fun in the aisles of your local bookstore?)

Many readers react to at least some of the above. The writer or publisher must provide ALL of the above for ALL readers. (OK, maybe the “peek inside” is automatic.) We often don’t think that publishing a book is complex, but it is. These items represent one facet of a complex process.

Two confusing labels. Ask ten readers what they mean by “literary fiction” or “classic fiction,” and you’re liable to receive ten different answers—or maybe twenty?

I don’t like the tag “literary fiction.” It’s too often used in opposition to “genre fiction,” as if to imply the latter doesn’t have as much literary value.  Of course, that negative for genre fiction is balanced by the negative that literary fiction is often considered a miscellaneous genre where we put any title we can’t classify well.

“Classic fiction” is ambiguous too. It’s too often equated to “old fiction” or, more specifically, “pre-21^st century fiction.” I suppose if an old book is still being read (a while ago I purchased an ebook version of A Tale of Two Cities, the only Dickens novel I like), it qualifies as a classic. Yet in art or music, a newly discovered Da Vinci drawing or Bach fugue is automatically declared to be a classic.

What’s your opinion?

Speaking of classics…. I wanted to provide my readers with a link to a Rembrandt painting: https://ijr.com/2014/10/183699-famous-artwork-lost-world-war-ii/ “An Angel with Titus’ Features” is the painting featured in my mystery/thriller Rembrandt’s Angel (Penmore Press). It now only exists as a B&W photograph. The Nazis stole the painting during WWII for Hitler’s museum; it never has been recovered. Neither have the paintings from the Gardner Museum in Boston that are featured in The Collector (Carrick Publishing).

If you see any of these paintings, please let the F.B.I. or Scotland Yard know. The art world will thank you. I’m no art critic, but I’ll thank you too. Recently a Degas was discovered when inspecting a suitcase on a train. Art thieves and illegal art dealers are still in business, following the lead of those old Nazis.

Is IBPA a reader’s or author’s friend? The Independent Book Publishers Association has just come out with nine points to define a “hybrid publisher.” I’m suspicious for two reasons: (1) The points actually define an indie publisher AKA small press. We don’t need more confusion in an industry where Big Five sycophants are out to confuse the public into thinking anyone without a traditional contract from a Big Five publisher is a ne’er-do-well who’s not worth reading. (2) The list of points is approved by the Authors Guild, an organization that works hand-in-hand against independent publishers in favor of the Big Five conglomerates that are out to eliminate all new authors who want to make their voices heard.

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A thank you… to the Montclair Women’s Club for inviting me to talk about writing, publishing, and my novel Rembrandt’s Angel. A good time was had by all. Montclair’s Channel 34 videotaped the talk; here’s the YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dLNmI9KdD88 Thanks to TV34 too.

Carrick Publishing. Donna Carrick, who runs this Canadian company, interviewed me in her podcast series. Her series of podcasts is called Dead to Writes; you can find them on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/dead-to-writes/id1323768397?mt=2 (choose S1, E3).  She begins by reading one of my short stories, “The Case of the Carriageless Horse,” the tale of Detective Castilblanco’s first homicide case (the story is found in the anthology World Enough and Crime).

Carrick will be publishing the second edition of The Secret Lab and the new book The Secret of the Urns in the first and third quarters of 2018, respectively; these are both young adult novels. The reclusive Donegal writer A. B. Carolan will be my collaborator on these two young adult sci-fi mysteries.  He completely rewrote and reedited the first book and wrote the second, which is based on one of my short stories, “Marcello and Me,” found in Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape, a collection of speculative fiction.

Black Opal Books… will be publishing my new post-apocalyptic thriller, The Last Humans. Readers should check them out.  They’re an indie publisher (AKA small press) with an extensive catalog of exciting books and authors. I’m honored to join them and their group of talented authors and look forward to working with their staff. In future newsletters, I’ll keep you posted about the estimated date of publication of this new book.

Here’s the blurb for the book: Foes of the U.S. have attacked the west coast of the U.S. with a bioengineered contagion that spreads around the world.  The apocalypse kills billions—numbers so large that most survivors’ minds snap shut. One of only a few survivors, Penny Castro, ex-USN diver and L.A. County Sheriff’s deputy, reacts differently. On a forensic dive, she is interrupted. When she surfaces, she finds all her colleagues dead, so she has to battle starvation, thirst, and gangs of feral humans until she ends up in a USAF refugee camp. Penny’s adventures will entertain and shock you into asking, “Could this really happen?”

You can find a pre-release excerpt here: https://stevenmmoore.com/pre-release-excerpt-from-oasis-redux/ (Note that Oasis Redux was just the working title while I wrote the novel.)

And check out my guest post “Novels of Doom” on David W. Spell’s website http://TheScaryReviews.com. This explains some of my reasons for writing this new book. (David’s website offers a lot of good information about scary fiction, and The Last Humans is very scary…and current too, I might add.)

Walmart… has added another feature to their continuing campaign to compete with Amazon: They’ve signed a deal with Kobo to sell ebooks. I sent an email query to Smashwords because Kobo is an affiliate retailer of theirs, but the response was a bit nebulous: the person answering didn’t know how it would affect Smashwords authors.

For those not familiar with Smashwords, this ebook retailer offers all ebook formats (including .mobi for Kindle) and also distributes to its affiliated retailers (Apple, B&N, Kobo, and so forth) and lenders (Overdrive, and so forth). For both readers and writers, it’s an alternative to Amazon, the giant retailer, who distributes to no one and only lends through Prime. Authors should NEVER be exclusive to Amazon!

It’s good to have alternatives. Readers should frequent their local bookstores for print versions. If they don’t have an author’s book, and you know it has a print version, ask them to order it. They might do 5 or 10 in the same order, and that will help both readers and writers.

Projects in the works. I’d like to list coming attractions AKA book projects in the works. There’s no guarantee I’ll finish or publish any particular one, of course, but they are:

Mary Jo Melendez #3. There were some loose ends in #2, so I decided to make the series a trilogy. It will soon be sent to beta-readers. Tentative title: Goin’ the Extra Mile.

Sequel to Rembrandt’s Angel. Penmore Press should be interested; if not, I’ll try some other small press…or Carrick Publishing. It will be a bit different from Rembrandt’s Angel: a lost Botticelli plays a role, but so does some religious artifacts. Tentative title: Son of Thunder.

Chen and Castilblanco #8. Again, this will be a bit different from the other books in my detective series because it will feature Castilblanco’s adopted children. Tentative title: The Phantom Harvester.

The A.B. Carolan books were already mentioned.

I’ll post pre-release excerpts for all these books as they near publication. You already have one for The Last Humans. I think these new novels will be good additions to my oeuvre, allowing me to entertain even more readers, assuming I don’t abandon them. Stay tuned.

Gaia and the Goliaths. On sale now at Smashwords until March 31–50% discount. #7 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” has the detectives on a homicide case where the victim is an environmental activist. As often happens, the case becomes much more important and takes on international proportions. Available in all ebook formats, including .mobi for Kindle.  Use the coupon code shown on the Smashwords’ book page on checkout. Enjoy the read!

Free for the asking. I can’t publish everything I write, even the good stuff (the bad stuff never sees the light of day, of course). On my website you will find a list of PDFs free for the asking. For readers, most of them are short fiction. For authors, there is also a course on writing fiction. Peruse that list and send me an email requesting those that interest you. I’ll reply with the PDFs as attachments. Some of the projects noted above might become free PDFs, for example.

In libris libertas!

Books as gifts. I’m probably preaching to the choir here because you all know books make excellent gifts, whether print versions, ebooks, or audiobooks. I made out very well over the holidays. I received Isaacson’s Leonardo Da Vinci (even if there’s an ebook version, I’d recommend print because of the excellent art reproductions that accompany the text describing Leonardo’s development), Mark Weir’s Artemis (see my review on my blog), and Orwell’s Why I Write. There are no better gifts for a reader or writer!

Voices. On Saturday, January 13, I had the honor of being interviewed by Donna Carrick of Toronto’s Carrick Publishing. Donna handles most everything for my indie books beyond the writing, and she’s an excellent writer in her own right—see The First Excellence, her mystery/thriller set in China.

She now also creates the podcast series “Dead to Writes”; the link for my interview is: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/dead-to-writes/id1323768397?mt=2. She precedes the interview with a reading of my short story, “The Case of the Carriageless Horse,” which appears in the anthology World Enough and Crime along with many other excellent crime stories. She has the voice for this; I don’t.

I found this to be a new, interesting, and educational experience. Isn’t technology wonderful? Kudos, Donna!

Talk. I’m looking forward to my talk at the Montclair Women’s Club on January 26; it begins at 1:30 p.m. I’ll be discussing writing and publishing and my recent book, Rembrandt’s Angel (published by Penmore Press last year).

If you’re in the Montclair, NJ area and have the time and interest, please drop by. The address for the Women’s Club is: 82 Union Street, Montclair, NJ.

Amazon. Don’t expect my books to be on sale at this online retailer. I’m no longer exclusive to Amazon—I haven’t been for some time—so Amazon doesn’t allow me to offer special sales at their site. Amazon is anti-indie in many ways; this is one of many. See my recent blog posts for more.

Sci-Fi Sale on Smashwords. If I offer special sales of my books online, this is where you’ll find them. Right now, More than Human: The Mensa Contagion and Rogue Planet are on sale at Smashwords—use the indicated coupon code during checkout. I only offer ebook sales online. For those readers who prefer print, I often offer a special event price for print books at events in the Montclair area—for example, at the talk at the Montclair Women’s Club.

Free books. Generally speaking, I only offer free copies of my books to reviewers in exchange for an honest review. Ebooks are the easiest, but print versions are doable within the U.S.—both ebook and print versions have a cap for each title. Beyond that, I mentioned on Donna’s podcast another alternative: I can’t publish everything I write—even the good stuff (the bad never sees the light of day, of course)—so I offer PDFs free for the asking. See the list on my “Free Stuff & Contests” webpage, and query me using my website’s contact page (or by responding to this email). You also can find free short fiction in my blog categories “ABC Shorts” and “Steve’s Shorts.”

What’s a bundle? This is a new publishing term for a collection of several novels. For example, I have several old print books on my shelf that are collections of Agatha Christie novels. The term “bundle” is generally reserved for the ebook collections, but I’m a bit old-fashioned so I still called my bundle of sci-fi novels The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection, available on Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliated retailers and lenders.

What’s coming? In the first quarter you’ll see the second edition of The Secret Lab, and in the third quarter The Secret of the Urns. These are two YA sci-fi mysteries. Other novels in the works: The Last Humans, a post-apocalyptic thriller; #3 in the “Mary Jo Melendez Mysteries” (title TBD); and #8 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” (title TBD).

Do you want to see these published ASAP? Purchase some of my already published books. I reinvest my royalties to publish the next books.

A. B. Carolan. I’m honored that A.B. has decided to collaborate with me. I always wanted a collaborator a la Preston and Child (Pendergast thrillers) and Niven and Pournelle (sci-fi). A. B. lives in Donegal. I met him on a trip to Ireland, and we’ve had some lively email exchanges since then. He’s a bit of a recluse, so he’ll be sharing this website—you might have already read some of his short stories.

Rumor has it that he’s a descendant of the great Irish bard Turlough O’Carolan. He definitely has a way with words. He’ll be collaborating on my young adult novels.

He’s finished the rewriting and reediting of the second edition of The Secret Lab (to be published this first quarter of 2018) and is finishing a new novel, The Secret of the Urns, which is inspired by my short story “Marcello and Me,” found in the speculative fiction collection Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape, mentioned by Donna Carrick in her podcast.

In libris libertas!

Don’t miss out. Books make excellent holiday gifts, so don’t miss the chance to give the avid readers on your list many hours of reading pleasure.

First, all ebooks in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” (seven novels) are on sale right now at Smashwords.  The two NYPD homicide detectives’ cases often start out local and blow up into national and international crises (at least the ones I report on).

Second, The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy Collection bundles together the sci-fi novels that take you from a dystopian Earth dominated by multinationals and policed by their mercenaries to three colonies among the stars…and beyond.  All these books are offered to you at great savings for the holidays.

And, if you’re worried about package delivery schedules, ebooks are immediate downloads, and almost every online site allows you to send them as gifts.  Happy holidays!

Talk. I’m looking forward to my talk at the Montclair Women’s Club on January 26 (82 Union St, Montclair, NJ, 1:30 pm). Female readers outnumber male readers, and I’ll be talking about Scotland Inspector Esther Brookstone, the main character in Rembrandt’s Angel and one of my most interesting female characters. Many of my books feature strong, smart women, so the book isn’t exceptional in this sense, but Esther is one of my favorites.  Hopefully my audience will be happy to meet her too.

Star Wars. “My main reason for making it was to give young people an honest, wholesome fantasy life, the kind my generation had.”—George Lucas.  Note that he said FANTASY.  Star Wars is sci-fi only to the extent that it plagiarized OLD sci-fi masters like Edgar Rice Burroughs (for example, Jedi warriors) and Isaac Asimov (the evil Empire). It also heavily borrowed from Japanese ninja stories. The most original thing about the whole franchise is the music!

The Gabo archive. When the University of Texas bought many documents pertinent to the life of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel winner and author of 100 Years of Solitude, among many other fine books, I cringed. The thought that this treasure trove would be in the U.S. was appalling.  I’ve changed my mind somewhat. They’ve digitized over 27,000 documents. I haven’t had the occasion to try it, but I understand anyone can access them online, in either English or Spanish. The Ransom Center probably can provide details. The few documents I’ve seen are fascinating and show the workings of the mind that created magical realism.

The genre myth.  Is The Midas Bomb a mystery or a thriller?  Is Survivors of the Chaos dystopian sci-fi or conspiracy thriller?  Is The Secret Lab young adult, sci-fi, or a mystery?  Aside from its use in bookstores, genre is about as relevant to today’s publishing scene as a mastodon stuck in a bog.  Moreover, it creates immense confusion among both readers and writers.

Readers are used to talking about it, but fans of some of the new and strange subgenres seem to be speaking a foreign language!  We have quantum fiction, for example, which is characterized by use of an element in quantum mechanics, but it’s just everyday life that hinges on some aspect of the quantum nature of reality and doesn’t have much to do with real physics.  We have the various “punk” genres—splatterpunk (horror) and cyberpunk and steampunk (sci-fi).

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C&W v. books. Don’t get me wrong. I like some Country and Western music—Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and Dylan’s C&W period, for example. But I also like to read a book on a long flight, either a PB from one of those airport stands or on my Kindle. And during those in-flight movies, when everyone glares at you if you put that little overhead light on, I snooze. I can’t read or snooze with some wannabe C&W stars singing with a Nashville twang, though. Pox on Southwest Airlines for their new policy that allows this intrusion.

Sales and contests. I offer few sales of my books, and they are for ebooks I have on Smashwords. Two major things motivate this: (1) For ebook sales on Amazon, I need to be exclusive to that internet giant, but they don’t have the distribution network Smashwords has, so I’m not. (2) My ebook prices are already low prices—sales prices, if you will, so, in a sense, they’re permanently on sale. (See the last item for the most recent Smashwords sale.)

Many authors have contests where they give away books. I don’t have many, but two are continuously running. Graduates from Mt. Whitney HS in 1964 and UMass Amherst in 1985 can drop me a line via my contact page, answering the questions on my webpage “Free Stuff & Contests,” and receive a free ebook of their choice. The limit is ten books for each group of alums.

Authors and journalists. Non-fiction writers (of textbookss, how-to, and self-help books, for example) often possess skills and expertise, so they can help a reporter out when a reporter is looking for information or an expert’s opinion. Even if you’re not an expert, you can maybe help point the reporter to one.

Even fiction writers develop some expertise about subjects by searching out background material for a story (as I did for Rembrandt’s Angel)—again, at the very least, they might help a reporter on her way to preparing a good article on a subject). A good fiction book will contain some serious themes that weave in and around a plot, and that’s where the author’s “research” usually lies.

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Indie Author Day, October 14. If you attended one of these events near you, or any other local book fair, for that matter (‘tis the season), thank you. Whether reader or writer, these events carry on an important tradition—books are part of being human.

At the event in Montclair, I enjoyed chatting with readers, many of them Montclair Public Library supporters, who wandered through talking to the participating authors. I enjoyed chatting with other authors too. Such experiences file off some of my rough edges of introverted author, probably not unusual when everyone is interested in the same things—books, in this case.

“Indie” is a very ambiguous term when applied to authors. Very few indies in the room were 100% DIY (not recommended—if you’re a writer, you probably aren’t a cover artist, for example). Traditional publishing was represented by authors who write for small presses, sometimes called “indie publishers,” i.e. those traditional publishers that aren’t part of a huge Big Five publishing conglomerate. Readers are the ones who benefit—so many good books and good authors now.

Internet readers. Not all readers read books. Maybe you read shorter and pithier articles on internet websites more than books, if you read the latter at all? I do both (not tweets, though), but I get it. You have a busy life and don’t have time for books? That’s OK. That’s why I provide lots of content JUST FOR YOU at this website. I haven’t perused the websites of authors I met at Indie Author Day yet, but just from talking to people it seemed my website is unusual (it is what it is, whether good or bad).

Here are the usually weekly offerings: a quote of note, one relating to current event or reading and writing (Mon); an op-ed article commenting on recent news items or general societal and cultural concerns (Tues); short fiction pieces and/or this newsletter (Weds); an article about reading, writing, and/or the writing business (Thurs); and a book or movie review (Fri).

In total, this amounts to a weekly online newspaper, written just for you. You can peruse the daily offering on the bus or train (please don’t do it while driving). Some days there’s nothing, though, because I either had nothing to say that day or my caffeine just hadn’t kicked in enough to write it down. Good reading!

Oxford comma. In jest on my Facebook author page, I defined this as “a sleepy docent in England who hits one too many m’s on his laptop.” What it really means is adding that last comma in a series: X, Y, and Z, and NOT X, Y and Z. There’s an ongoing battle (because Oxford somehow got involved, shall we call it a “storm in a teacup”?) with fanatical writers choosing sides on whether that comma is needed.

My take: once one of my old English teachers, from back in the days when they actually taught students how to write, told me, “Put a comma in when you’d pause while reading the phrase aloud.” (Yeah, I mentally corrected her—sometimes a semicolon has to be used.) If you can say “Jack went to the levee in his shiny new Chevy, Jill stayed home to play solitaire while drying her hair, and Thomas drove to Toledo to play basketball in his speedo” and not pause before “and Thomas,” you should be free-diving for pearls in the South Seas, not writing. ‘Nough said.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? This is the great title from a 1968 novel by Philip K. Dick. I agonize over my titles as much as I do for “the hook” (found sometimes in a first chapter, other times in a prologue) that begins a story and the climax that ends it (usually followed by a denouement or rehash that ties things together and answers questions the reader might still have—sometimes in an epilogue). I usually don’t settle on a title until I’m ready to copy-edit a final manuscript before sending it to beta-readers. The Last Humans, my new project, had the working title Oasis Redux, for example.

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[Another milestone for this online newsletter: edition # 150…and it doesn’t even come out every week. OK, I’ve been doing this for 10+ years now, but it’s still fun! Hopefully for you too.]

Would you rather be reading? Of course, this question probably doesn’t apply to you—that is, all the avid readers out there—but I can now add two more modern activities that have less worth than reading. In other posts I’ve mentioned streaming video (especially “binge viewing”) and video gaming. The two new additions are fantasy football and online gambling. As the smartphone becomes more like a miniature laptop, people sit around (or worse, driving!) and become addicted to them like they were the modern version of Brave New World’s soma (don’t know the book? shame on you).

You, noble reader, probably don’t do any of this, but if you know people who do, help them out of their mental passivity by giving them books and encouraging them to read them. Books make us human; those other activities make us vegetables. In libris libertas!

Twenty years of wonder. On September 15^th we bid farewell to the NASA space probe Cassini. Some of its discoveries from its twenty-year mission were already incorporated in Survivors of the Chaos and More than Human: The Mensa Contagion, and maybe some of my short fiction for all I know. Read the “Ode to Cassini” now featured on my “Home” webpage. The data obtained from the probe will keep scientists busy for years…and might appear in more of my sci-fi stories.

Just in from Midwest Book Review (on the mystery/suspense shelf): “A deftly crafted and consistently riveting read from beginning to end. ‘Rembrandt’s Angel’ showcases author Steven Moore’s genuine flair for originality and his impressive mastery of the Mystery/Suspense genre. While unreservedly recommended for community library collections, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of dedicated mystery buffs that ‘Rembrandt’s Angel’ is also available in digital book format.”

(Thanks to James Cox, Editor-in-Chief, and his excellent staff at Midwest Book Review.)

And to continue… this thread, let me state I’ve loved public libraries since I was a kid, so I’m honored that Midwest Book Review recommends Rembrandt’s Angel to them. Recently I also made ALL my other ebooks available to these libraries at a reduced price on Smashwords. If your library lends ebooks as well as print versions, let your librarian know. (Smashwords performs a great service in allowing authors to offer special prices for libraries.)

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Reading “older books”. In a Goodreads thread, I championed reading “older books.” (You can follow me on GR and even become a “friend.”) I think too many readers overlook too many less recent books that they’d find just as entertaining and intriguing. (Some of my special favorites are listed on the “Steve’s Bookshelf” webpage at this site. I periodically talk about them on my Facebook author page.)

Many older books also contain current themes too. One of my gripes about Amazon and Smashwords is that they overly emphasize newer books. My novel Full Medical (now on sale at Smashwords along with the other books in the trilogy) has themes that are probably more current today than when I wrote it, for example. The problem is that search options on retail websites usually come up with the most recent books first.

So, please readers, look for those older books. They aren’t “classics” per se (although they could be), but they might just be a better read than many new releases.

Types of editing. Readers often complain about editing. I do so myself, for both indies and traditionally published books, and everything in between (older Big Five paper versions re-released as ebooks are often badly edited). Many times readers are referring to copy editing or proof reading errors. What’s the difference?

First, there’s content editing, which I never trust to an editor. The logic and flow of my story are parts of my personal style—changing that to suit an editor’s whim makes it that person’s style or voice, not mine. Readers might be uncomfortable with my dialogue, where I put flashbacks, when I feel the need for back story, and so forth, but those are my own choices.

Copy editing finds spelling and grammatical errors like “it’s” in place of “its” or vice versa (MS Word always gets that wrong, by the way) or not closing quotes or parentheses. After formatting, proofreading makes sure the final product adheres to industry standards and the original intentions of the author in her or his manuscript, all this so the reader has a quality product to read.

Who is Steven M. Moore? Maybe you’ve read my bio on the “About the Author” webpage at this site, either the short or long form (kudos to you if you got through the latter). But, if you google “Steven M. Moore,” you’ll discover there are many of us out there, and even more Steve Moores. The biggest mistake I’ve made in my writing career is not choosing an uncommon pen name (somewhere in the “Writing” blog archive, there’s a post about that). So, if you see some Steve Moore wanted for a bank heist or creating a Ponzi scheme, it isn’t me. I’m not an ex-Patriots football player either, nor am I deceased. I do have a few cameos in my books, but I’m also not a bookstore owner.

Why so few books this year? My readers might know that two is a bit less than my usual output. I’ve only published (so far) Gaia and the Goliaths (Carrick Publishing) and Rembrandt’s Angel (Penmore Press). I’m not really slowing down. I have The Last Humans, a post-apocalyptic thriller, with beta-readers, for example (see the following summary). I spent a wee bit more time (so did Penmore Press) getting Rembrandt’s Angel ready and then its PR and marketing campaign ready (probably spending what I saved in production costs on that), so at the half-year point I’m a bit behind my pace. Of course, there’s no race nor pace. And you can find plenty of excitement and action in my “older books” (see above).

Summary of The Last Humans. The apocalypse kills billions—numbers so large that most survivors’ minds snap shut. Foes of the U.S. have attacked with a bioengineered contagion that spreads around the world.  One of only a few survivors, Penny Castro, ex-USN diver and L.A. County Sheriff’s deputy, reacts differently. She fights back and creates a life for herself where death is the common denominator. On a forensic dive, she is interrupted. When she surfaces, she finds all her colleagues dead, so she has to battle starvation, thirst, and gangs of feral humans until she ends up in a USAF refugee camp. A post-apocalyptic thriller for our times, Penny’s adventures will entertain and shock you into asking, “Could this really happen?”

Why don’t I sell books on my website? There are so many book retailers on the internet that I don’t need to do that. You’ll find my ebooks just about anywhere that’s legit (and unfortunately in some places that aren’t). I’m limited to one link per book cover on the “Books & Short Stories” webpage, though, and they take you to Amazon, which also lists the print books as well as ebooks, if the former are available. Smashwords and its associated retailers like Amazon, Apple, B&N, and Kobo only deal with ebooks (B&N is the exception), but you’ll find me there too. And all my books save one (see below) are reasonably priced already, so I couldn’t offer you much savings for buying here, and my costs would go up (someone has to pay for this website’s programming—oh, yeah, that’s me!).

Reviewers v. beta-readers. Reviewers get free books in exchange for an honest review. Beta-readers get to read a manuscript (MS) before it becomes a book. I value both sets of people. They work hard if the job’s done right, but the latter group probably works harder—they have to read an MS Word document, looking for logical errors (the getaway car changes from red to blue in the middle of a chase), and they often catch a few remaining copy-editing errors too. Reviewers get to read a finished book and should say what they like or dislike about it and why. (Sometimes beta-readers do that too, but it isn’t a requirement.) I have to put my trust in both, but I screen beta-readers more. Most of my books need reviews, though; you can sign up to do one using my contact page. (Any reader can become a reviewer, of course, by simply reviewing the books s/he reads.)

Bundle or not to bundle? One of my more expensive ebooks is Survivors of the Chaos, published by Infinity Publishing, an old print-on-demand (POD) outfit (production costs for indie author’s print books are now less with Amazon’s Create Space, and even zero with small presses). I have a second edition ready. I’m planning to bundle the entire “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy,” meaning that readers can buy one ebook and get all three novels for a price less than the Infinity ebook first edition.

This is an experiment, so we’ll see how it works. The other two ebooks in the trilogy haven’t done well, and I’m suspecting that Infinity’s price for the first is a major cause. (All the books in the trilogy will be rewritten and reedited.)

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