Just to Clarify, Only Partially Succumbing to Forces of Darkness (aka Kindle Select)

As I posted yesterday, I'll be pulling Twin-Bred from Smashwords and the places to which Smashwords distributes, so as to give KDP Select another try as I publish the sequel. In fact, I've been advised to do so ASAP, given the sequel's May 23rd release date -- so today is the last day the .epub of Twin-Bred will be available for some time. (And to repeat, it's free while it's available at all.)

BUT: I am not currently planning to put Reach: a Twin-Bred novel into Select. Not now, and not any time in the foreseeable future. I'm reluctantly accepting the restrictions of Select in order to distribute the first book far and wide, in the hope that the book (and the teaser chapter of Reach at the back of the book) will lure people to the sequel. The sequel itself is going to stay available in as many formats as possible. And it probably won't be free very often. As I've said here and there, $2.99 is around (or less than) the price of a latte, and I hope the book will linger longer.

For one brief shining moment, Twin-Bred is free on Smashwords

I originally planned to make the ebook of Twin-Bred free, on as many sites as possible, once its sequel, Reach: a Twin-Bred novel, came out. Reach isn't officially "released," although it's actually available on Smashwords already (so Smashwords has time to distribute it to various other booksellers by the release date of May 23rd). However, as I mentioned yesterday, I've reluctantly decided (if I don't change my mind) to put Twin-Bred in the KDP Select program for at least one term, as a way to promote Reach.

So to make it up to you folks -- especially those who can only read .epub or PDF ebooks -- I've made Twin-Bred free on Smashwords for the few days before it disappears into the black hole of KDP Select. Whether Smashwords will manage to change the price on B&N, Kobobooks and/or iBookstore before I have to pull it, I don't know.

Here's the link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/94490

Meanwhile, on Facebook and Twitter: random lines from Reach

A couple of weeks ago, in one of the articles I've been reading about promoting one's book release, I found an intriguing suggestion: tweeting lines from the book. I liked that idea and started tweeting random lines from Reach: a Twin-Bred novel, with the (appropriate if unimaginative) hashtag #randomline. However, I soon realized the problem: many of my tweets are political, and potential readers shouldn't have to wade or weed through those. So I moved the posts to my Facebook author page -- which also posts to Twitter.

If you'd like to catch up, amble on over to http://www.facebook.com/KarenAWyle, and scroll down to the May 5th entry, which included the lines I'd previously tweeted.

I'm moving more or less chronologically. Today's line was from Chapter 5.

Happy bite-sized reading!

Window of Opportunity Before I Join the Dark Side (for Ninety Days)

I had an enlightening email exchange this morning with a blogger whose day job is book publicity. She told me that it's their Standard Operating Procedure to put a book into the KDP Select program before its sequel is released, and to do a giveaway just before that release.

I'd been planning to make the ebook of Twin-Bred free -- on my website and via various online vendors, and in multiple formats -- as soon as the sequel, Reach: a Twin-Bred novel, comes out on May 23rd. But I hadn't considered the advantages of having the Amazon machine pushing the freebie with all its mighty algorithms. I believe I need to pursue those advantages. So a few days before May 23rd, I'll be yanking Twin-Bred from Smashwords, through which it's distributed to the Nook Store, iBookstore, Kobobooks, etc., and putting it in KDP Select. (That's assuming Amazon will let me. I had Twin-Bred in Select once before and withdrew it. I believe one can do so once and be forgiven. Do it twice, rumor has it, and that book is barred thenceforth.)

Which means: if you don't have the ebook of Twin-Bred, and you want the ebook, and you need the .epub or you don't like buying from Amazon, then it's time to head to the non-Amazon ebook vendor of your choice -- before the ebook vanishes beyond the Select event horizon for at least ninety days.

Can I Tempt Your Book Group?...

If anyone reading this post belongs to a book group, allow me to dangle some temptation before you.

I'll happily provide a discussion guide for any of my books. I can customize such a guide, depending upon what sort of discussions you prefer. I can also Skype with your group, or -- if you happen to be within an hour or so of Bloomington, IN -- show up in person to chat.

Also, if any member(s) can't conveniently read ebooks, I can arrange for a substantial discount on one or more paperback copies.

Books currently available: Twin-Bred and Wander Home. As of May 23rd, Reach: a Twin-Bred novel (the sequel to Twin-Bred) will be available as well.

Nu? (That's Yiddish for: well? so? waiting on you. . . .)

Cover reveal: Reach, the Twin-Bred sequel

As promised, here's the cover for Reach, the sequel to Twin-Bred. (As I mentioned in my last post, the full official title is Reach: a Twin-Bred novel, not to be confused with the "Reach" associated with the Halo video game.)

There have been some pre-publication snafus, mostly due to my absent-mindedness, but I'm still hoping to make the May 23rd release date.

New cover for Twin-Bred, with original cover art incorporated

It's cover reveal time! :-)

Later this month, I'll be publishing the sequel to my SF novel Twin-Bred. One of the sequel's beta readers, David Leek, used to do graphic design professionally, and offered to design the cover for the sequel, since the cover artist for Twin-Bred (my busy college student daughter) wouldn't be available. David's beautiful design, which I'll feature in my next post, didn't have much in common with the Twin-Bred cover. I asked him if he could incorporate the cover art from Twin-Bred into a revised Twin-Bred cover that would match the look of the sequel -- and this is the glorious (IMHO) result.

I tweaked and fiddled and came up with this ebook version:

(I'm not sure why the color is different. I'll have to see what I can do about that.)

The new cover is already on Smashwords, and will be on B&N once Smashwords distributes to them. (I pulled the book from PubIt so as to more easily make it free, as I'll be doing for at least a while when the sequel comes out.)

(OK, I'll stop being coy. The sequel's title is Reach: a Twin-Bred novel. I added the subtitle because there's a video game called Reach, and I don't want any confusion.)

Tune in next time to see the Reach cover!

Confronting the Story -- but First, Reporting It

Let me start with what I consider, at this point, beyond debate where Dr. Kermit Gosnell's abortion clinic is concerned:

(1) What apparently went on in that clinic was appalling, abhorrent, and utterly reprehensible;
(2) This is in every conceivable sense a newsworthy story.

Guilt, for criminal law purposes, has not been established, but the available evidence is quite enough to trigger -- to compel -- discussion.

The unsanitary conditions, racially discriminatory treatment, and general disregard of medical standards form a secondary backdrop to the criminally negligent treatment of expectant mothers, which again is less shocking than the repeated killing (by scissors severing spinal cords) of viable fetuses inconveniently born alive.

There is no nonpolitical explanation for the failure of major news outlets (other than Fox) to cover this story that comes close to passing the laugh test. The only plausible explanation is the pro-choice stance of those who decide what stories to feature. But avoiding this story on such a basis is terribly short-sighted. The void is filled by those who oppose all abortion, and seize this opportunity to suggest moral equivalency between an alleged serial murderer of viable infants and any doctor who performs abortions at any stage and under any circumstances.

It is probably time to show my own hand. I believe the slogan "My body, my choice" applies much more neatly to the issues of drug use and lifestyle choice (e.g. Big Gulp sodas and riding a motorcycle without a helmet) than it does to the presence of what is from its inception a separate, though dependent, biological entity. While I am, at present, somewhat reluctantly in favor of a woman's right to choose abortion in the early stages of a pregnancy, I cannot condone abortion -- as opposed to delivery -- of a possibly viable fetus. Moreover, as medical technology advances, I believe the time will come when any fetus and perhaps any embryo can be sustained and nurtured in an artificial environment -- and when that time does come, we as a society may have to find alternatives to abortion. In any case where there are parents waiting to adopt the infant-to-be, and can afford to pay for its interim care, they should perhaps have the right to do so. Where no adoptive parent exists, this may become a collective societal responsibility. While this option would be emotionally painful to many of the biological mothers, I do not believe we can ethically protect them from that pain at the cost of discarding new life that no longer depends on them for survival.

Enough of my own views. It behooves any of us who are not ready to ban all abortion to consider how we may continue to allow it, with what safeguards and limitations, without cheapening human life to the point where we slide down the proverbial slippery slope into the bloody shambles of Dr. Gosnell's workshop.

How the Postal Service Can Reinvent Itself

Last night, I figured out how to save the Postal Service. Or rather, how it can save itself, by a fairly major transformation.

People send far fewer items by post. The only answers we've seen from the Postal Service so far are (a) raising prices and (b) reducing service. Saying that these responses violate basic economic principles rather understates the case. This isn't Econ 101 -- it's far more basic and (one would think) obvious.

So what do I suggest?

The Postal Service should identify the products that people still mail, and sell those products, with postage included. (Greeting cards may be one such product; I suspect there are others.) What's more, it should sell desirable enough versions of those products that people will buy them even if they don't intend to send them by mail. The postage-included feature would be important to some consumers, a pleasant extra to others, and irrelevant to many.

Of course, they can still offer postage stamps, for the dwindling number of customers who make use of them -- so they can put my picture on a stamp, in gratitude.