Julia Huni's Blog, page 5

What am I writing now?

I just wanted to give you a little update on what’s coming down the pike. I finished Krimson Empire 2 a few days ago and sent it off to my co-author. Craig has a crew of beta readers who will review it, and send some suggestions back to me.

I’ve already had my own alpha readers go through it, so hopefully, there won’t be a lot to fix. The title is tentative at this point: Krimson Spark. Ryan Schwarz, our excellent cover designer, is hard at work on the art.

This week I started Krimson Empire 3. Quinn started this journey as a military wife who was desperate to find her kids. By book 3, she’s becoming a bad-ass. I can’t wait to see where she goes from here. The rest of the crew is also evolving and growing. It’s fun to watch.

Krimson Empire book 1 will launch on March 23. Book 2 will follow about a month later and book 3 will drop sometime in May.

My other unfinished series is Recycled World. Once I’ve got Krimson Empire well on the way, I want to come back to finish Recycled World 3 and 4. Then I’m thinking about a spin-off that will take the Recycled World crew off-planet–just like Peter’s always wanted. Stay tuned for that!

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New Series Release!

I have a new book coming out on March 23. I’ve mentioned it once or twice (or a million times) in my newsletter. And on Facebook. And to anyone I meet randomly on the street. The cover is finished, the book is with the formatter, and the pre-order is live!

I’m really excited to be working again with Indie Science Fiction powerhouse Craig Martelle. Craig has lived in the Amazon top 100 Science Fiction authors for most of the last four years, and has probably forgotten more about marketing than I know.

There will be at least four books in this series and the first draft of Book 2 is almost done.

If you’d like a taste of the first chapter of Book 1, keep reading!

Krimson Run

Tony Bergen hated the capital city of the United Federation of Planetary Societies, but the weather always raised his spirits. Bright sunshine, but not too hot. A light breeze with a whiff of sea salt, but no trace of dead fish. He wasn’t sure how the Federation managed it, but Romara weather was perfect.

The same could not be said for the company. Like all Federation cities, the metropolis was overrun with UFPS security. He’d counted forty-three uniformed agents and twelve undercover. None of them had taken a second look at him, so life was good.

He strode down the perfectly fabricated cobblestone street—every square meter included one stone set a half-centimeter higher or lower than the rest. The effect was meant to be charmingly random, but anyone with an eye for patterns could see the careful planning. He shook his head. It would have been cheaper—and easier—to hire humans to install the darn things. But the Federation automated everything.

Half-way down the street, he tripped over a slightly raised stone and stumbled into a wall. That gave him a chance to glance behind without being obvious. Twenty meters back, a well-dressed couple chatted as they strolled. In a nearby alley, two children played a game involving a ball and a stick. A small, furry creature sat on a doorstep—obviously someone’s pet. A pretty young blonde carried a bag of groceries toward him.

Tony’s eyes narrowed. If Federation Security was watching for him, this is where they’d strike. A narrow street, nowhere to run and few witnesses. He straightened up and strolled onward, whistling an old tune as he walked. The blonde girl smiled at him and slid her hand into her pocket.

Tony’s heart rate increased. Was she reaching for a weapon? The children had disappeared. He sidestepped and glanced back. The couple had stopped talking and increased their speed, closing in with a deceptively smooth gait. Tony picked up the pace.

The girl approaching him pulled her hand out of her pocket. Something metallic glinted in the sun.

Tony flung himself sideways into a shallow doorway. A male voice roared, “Halt! Federation Security!”

With a piercing scream, the young woman dropped her groceries and her silver communications tablet. Round green fruit bounced out of the bag, scattering across the narrow road. The pet hissed and scrambled up a drain pipe.

The well-dressed couple broke into a run and thundered past both Tony and the girl, shouting incomprehensible code as they ran. The woman’s left heel pierced one of the green fruits, but she ran on, oblivious to the new ornament on her bright red shoe.

Tony stepped out of the doorway, smiling sheepishly. “That was terrifying.”

“You’re telling me,” the girl said. “I wonder who they were after?”

Tony shrugged, then crouched to help her gather the spilled fruit. “These don’t look too bad,” he said. He picked up the silver device. “Here’s your comtab. Good thing you have a high-density case.”

“It’s weathered a few drops,” she replied with a slight smile, taking the comtab. “And the fruit are for a sauce, so it won’t matter if they’re bruised. Thanks for your help.”

She rose and continued up the street. Tony slid the thin silver chip that had been attached to the comtab into his pocket and strolled in the other direction.

If you want to read more, you can pre-order Krimson Run now, and it will automatically be delivered to your Kindle on March 23.

The post New Series Release! appeared first on Julia Huni, Author.

New Release!

I have a new book coming out on March 23. I’ve mentioned it once or twice (or a million times) in my newsletter. And on Facebook. And to anyone I meet randomly on the street. The cover is finished, the book is with the formatter, and the pre-order is live!

I’m really excited to be working again with Indie Science Fiction powerhouse Craig Martelle. Craig has lived in the Amazon top 100 Science Fiction authors for most of the last four years, and has probably forgotten more about marketing than I know.

There will be at least four books in this series and the first draft of Book 2 is almost done. If you’d like a taste of the first chapter of Book 1, keep reading!

Krimson Run

Tony Bergen hated the capital city of the United Federation of Planetary Societies, but the weather always raised his spirits. Bright sunshine, but not too hot. A light breeze with a whiff of sea salt, but no trace of dead fish. He wasn’t sure how the Federation managed it, but Romara weather was perfect.

The same could not be said for the company. Like all Federation cities, the metropolis was overrun with UFPS security. He’d counted forty-three uniformed agents and twelve undercover. None of them had taken a second look at him, so life was good.

He strode down the perfectly fabricated cobblestone street—every square meter included one stone set a half-centimeter higher or lower than the rest. The effect was meant to be charmingly random, but anyone with an eye for patterns could see the careful planning. He shook his head. It would have been cheaper—and easier—to hire humans to install the darn things. But the Federation automated everything.

Half-way down the street, he tripped over a slightly raised stone and stumbled into a wall. That gave him a chance to glance behind without being obvious. Twenty meters back, a well-dressed couple chatted as they strolled. In a nearby alley, two children played a game involving a ball and a stick. A small, furry creature sat on a doorstep—obviously someone’s pet. A pretty young blonde carried a bag of groceries toward him.

Tony’s eyes narrowed. If Federation Security was watching for him, this is where they’d strike. A narrow street, nowhere to run and few witnesses. He straightened up and strolled onward, whistling an old tune as he walked. The blonde girl smiled at him and slid her hand into her pocket.

Tony’s heart rate increased. Was she reaching for a weapon? The children had disappeared. He sidestepped and glanced back. The couple had stopped talking and increased their speed, closing in with a deceptively smooth gait. Tony picked up the pace.

The girl approaching him pulled her hand out of her pocket. Something metallic glinted in the sun.

Tony flung himself sideways into a shallow doorway. A male voice roared, “Halt! Federation Security!”

With a piercing scream, the young woman dropped her groceries and her silver communications tablet. Round green fruit bounced out of the bag, scattering across the narrow road. The pet hissed and scrambled up a drain pipe.

The well-dressed couple broke into a run and thundered past both Tony and the girl, shouting incomprehensible code as they ran. The woman’s left heel pierced one of the green fruits, but she ran on, oblivious to the new ornament on her bright red shoe.

Tony stepped out of the doorway, smiling sheepishly. “That was terrifying.”

“You’re telling me,” the girl said. “I wonder who they were after?”

Tony shrugged, then crouched to help her gather the spilled fruit. “These don’t look too bad,” he said. He picked up the silver device. “Here’s your comtab. Good thing you have a high-density case.”

“It’s weathered a few drops,” she replied with a slight smile, taking the comtab. “And the fruit are for a sauce, so it won’t matter if they’re bruised. Thanks for your help.”

She rose and continued up the street. Tony slid the thin silver chip that had been attached to the comtab into his pocket and strolled in the other direction.

If you want to read more, you can pre-order Krimson Run now, and it will automatically be delivered to your Kindle on March 23.

The post New Release! appeared first on Julia Huni, Author.

New Release

I have a new book releasing today. This was my “super secret” co-writing effort that I finished last month. The title is Superdreadnought 6 and the author is listed as CH Gideon. But yours truly wrote the story with direction, tweaking, and editing by my co-author, Craig Martelle.

Finishing a series

Superdreadnought is a six-book spin-off series from the very popular Kurtherian Gambit Universe. The KGU is the brainchild of Michael Anderle, one of the big names in the Indie author world, and a perennial member of Amazon’s top 100 authors list. The KGU now includes over 150 books by I don’t know how many authors. Seriously, I have no idea how many there are.

Last spring, I submitted a story to the anthology The Expanding Universe 5. I’ve mentioned that book before–23 awesome science fiction stories. If you haven’t taken a look at it, I highly recommend you do!

Well, it seems the beta readers for that anthology read my story and recommended to the editor, Craig Martelle, that he hire me to write Superdreadnought 6. They needed the series wrapped up, and the original co-author was not available. My TEU5 story had the right voice.

Craig is big stuff in the world of Science Fiction, and in the Indie author world. He’s the man behind the 20Books50K Facebook group and the largest independent authors’ conference in the world: 20BooksVegas. So I was very flattered when he emailed me this summer and asked if I’d write the sixth book in the series. I wasn’t sure I was the right choice, so I dithered a bit, but eventually, I said yes.

Now, I need to warn you–this book has swearing. I don’t normally have any foul language in my stories, as you’ve no doubt noticed, and I hope, appreciated. But to stay true to the SD series and the KGU style, I had to add some bad words. I tried to keep it to a minimum, but if you don’t like swearing, please don’t read the book!

Superdreadnought 6

The superdreadnought is run by an artificial intelligence who goes by the name Reynolds. There’s some backstory there, but I’m not sure which of the 150 books you’d have to read to learn it! Anyway, the Reynolds was mothballed, and while in solitary, the AI developed split personalities to deal with his loneliness. The first five books take up the story after the Reynolds is brought out of retirement and sent to another galaxy to hunt down Kurtherians.

Once the bad guys have been brought to justice, it was time to head home and have his alternate personalities fixed. But nothing is ever that easy in fiction. At the beginning of SD 6, the Reynolds accidentally gets hurled 10 billion light-years away. My book is all about getting the ship home, and Reynolds coming to terms with his other identities.

It’s a fun book, and I think you could read it as a stand-alone. You’d miss out on some of the jokes and references, but the story makes sense. You can definitely read it without having sampled the KGU–I still haven’t read anywhere near all 150 books!

If you want to read Superdreadnought 6, here’s a link. It’s free in Kindle Unlimited.

If you want to read the rest of the series, check it out here. Or wait until December, and you can get all 6 ebooks in a single low-priced set.

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How to help your favorite author, part 2

Last time I told you about a couple ways to support your favorite author. Buying books or reading them in Kindle Unlimited are great ways to get more visibility for a book. The increased sales and page reads give a book more visibility in Amazon’s system.

Reviews

Another way to help your favorite author is to review books. Reviews provide “social proof” — they tell potential readers that other people liked this book. (Or didn’t, but we’re going to pretend all the books you read are good.)

Amazon has a five star system. One thing a lot of readers don’t know is three stars is not considered a good rating by Amazon. So if you like a book—even a little, giving four or five stars will help the author. Giving one, two or three stars can really damage a book’s chances.

A lot of folks don’t want to do reviews because they don’t know what to write. I’ll give you some ideas here, but you don’t have to write anything. Just the stars are super helpful.

No Spoilers, please!

If you want to write a review, here are some things to write about:

Your favorite character–and why you loved themThe best settingWhat spoke to you emotionally about the storyWhat makes you want to read another book by this authorThe tone of the book: light-hearted, suspenseful, fast-paced…

Try not to include any spoilers—potential readers might not buy if you give away the secret twist, or tell the ending.

Who can review

Amazon won’t let you review unless you’ve purchased at least $50 of product from them. This includes anything you buy on Amazon, so you can rate books you haven’t bought. However, if you have bought the book, your review will be listed as a “verified purchaser.” Readers often give more weight to verified buyers.

Strangely enough, Kindle Unlimited readers are not tagged as “verified purchasers.” That’s something a lot of authors are lobbying Amazon to change. They know what books you’ve checked out–why wouldn’t they credit you with having read it?

ARCs

No, not Noah’s Ark. If you enjoy reviewing books, you can become an ARC reader. ARC (Advanced Reader Copies) are copies of the book an author gives you for free in hopes you’ll review it. If you get an ARC copy, you should include the words “I received an ARC of this book” but don’t say “in exchange for.” That sounds like the author traded the book for a good review, which is against Amazon’s rules.

Another thing that’s against the rules is reviewing a book when you have a personal relationship with the author. So you can’t write reviews for friends or family. Sometimes they’ll even delete reviews if you are Facebook friends with an author!

If you’re interested in being an ARC reader for me, shoot me an email at info@juliahuni.com. I should have a book ready by the end of November!

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How not to make a first impression

I went to the Sisters Festival of Books last night. I was honored to be one of the local authors. They gave each author a few minutes to talk about our work, and I sold a dozen paperbacks! And I really enjoyed meeting readers and other authors.

Me, talking to Festival mastermind, Mac Hay



What not to do

At the event, I met author Valarie Anderson. Val writes narrative non-fiction. That means her history book reads like a novel, instead of a textbook. Her book, The Money Eater, is about Bernard Otto Kuehn, who spied for the Japanese in Oahu. During her presentation, she spoke of the research involved in writing a historically accurate book. Months of research, involving declassified CIA and FBI files, family records, local government documents, and radio broadcast transcripts.

The story sounded fascinating, so I picked up a copy of her book. And when I asked her to sign it, I started off with my usual charm: “Your work sounds horrible!”

That’s not a nice thing to say to anyone, but especially not an author. We’re a sensitive bunch.

Time to back peddle

Of course, I quickly explained that I meant the hours of research sounded like way too much work–especially for someone who makes up everything she writes. She said understood, and that she felt the same way about fiction. But I will never forget the look on her face when I first blurted that out!

I’m hoping this will become a funny story she tells whenever the subject of “worst fan ever” comes up.

The moral of the story

Of course, the moral of the story is to think before you speak. My mother told me that my whole life–you’d think I would have learned it by now! But this is why I’m a writer. I can edit everything. Many, many times.

If you live in Sisters, there are lots of amazing authors in town this weekend for the Festival, and events continue through Sunday. Check it out. Swing by our local indie bookstore, Paulina Springs. And pick up a copy of Valarie’s book!

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How to help your favorite author

There are a LOT of books on Amazon. Millions. Literally. So getting your book in front of the people who want to read it is hard. Indie (independently published, aka self-published) authors like myself have to work to get the right eyes on our work. It’s hard to throw your book out into the world—it’s a piece of the author’s soul. (In a good way, not a Voldemort way.)

Plus, while publishing, itself, is free, there are a lot of
costs associated with publishing a book. I’m a writer, not a graphic artist, so
covers cost money. Editors catch all those pesky errors—and they want to be
paid! Advertising, so people learn about your book costs money. Hosting a
website. Even sending out a newsletter costs a few dollars.

If you have a favorite author, someone you’d like to see
write more books (me, pick me!) Here are some ways you can help them get more
visibility. Visibility -> sales -> positive reinforcement -> a desire
to write more books.

Buy the book:

Obviously, the first way to help your favorite author is to purchase their novels. If a book is selling well, Amazon is more likely to recommend it to other readers. The same goes for other platforms, like Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Scribd, Apple…the list goes on and on.

Kindle Unlimited:



A lot of folks are reading on Kindle Unlimited these days. If you’re not familiar with it, KU is a subscription service through Amazon. You pay in the neighborhood of $10 per month for unlimited access to a huge array of books. (This is just information, not a plug for KU—I don’t get any kickbacks unless you read my book!) You can check out up to 10 books at a time, and read them whenever you want.



If a book is in KU, it can’t be sold in e-book form anywhere else. Many authors choose to publish through KU because the benefits outweigh this major negative. All my books are currently in KU. I’ve had them “wide” for a few months, and sales were pretty low, so I came back to KU.



How does an author get paid through KU? Since you aren’t buying the book, we don’t get a royalty. We get credited with a “borrow” when you check it out, but that doesn’t earn us any money. It does help with our overall author rank, which makes us more visible. But the dollars start to flow when you start turning the pages. Every KU author gets a little less than half a cent for every page you read. It fluctuates a bit month to month—all those KU subscriptions are put into a pot (after Amazon takes their cut) and that pot is divided up between authors based on total pages read. So more pages = more money. And more page reads = increase author rank, which means Amazon promotes it more.



Authors can see how many pages are read every day, and those numbers provide a little warm-fuzzy feedback. “Look, people are reading my book!” And naturally, that leads to: “People like my books! I’ll write more!” We’re a sensitive group. We thrive on readers’ love.

I hope that gave you little insight into how you can help your favorites author (pick me!). Next time, I’ll talk about reviews.

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Relaunch Complete!

I didn’t need to publish new versions of Sweeping S’Ride and The Trouble with Tinsel, since those titles didn’t change, so I updated the covers this week when I published Glitter in the Stars. Now the whole series is live in its new format!

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The big relaunch

If you’ve read my newsletter, you know I decided to relaunch my Space Janitor series. This means I’ll be putting new covers and new titles on the books. The stories will stay the same–except for that typo one of my observant readers pointed out.

Because three of them will have new titles, I’ll have to “republish” them on Amazon. There are some perks to that–Amazon treats your book like it’s brand new, so you get a little more visibility. And they’ve said they’d be happy to move my reviews over from my original books, so I won’t lose those.

I’m also going to take the opportunity to put them into Kindle Unlimited. This means they won’t be available on Kobo or Barnes and Noble or Apple after July 27. But KU subscribers can download and try them out for free. Which means more visibility, which can lead to more sales. I’d love to say I do this all for the love of writing, but the fact is, I’d like to make some money. Or at least break even on the covers and editing! And in a few months, I may take them wide again.

So, without further ado, here are the new covers and details on the relaunch:

Murder is Messy will be rechristened The Vacuum of Space and republish on August 1st.Dirtside Decluttering will become The Dust of Kaku and appear on Amazon on August 8.Stars, Stiffs and Stains will be reborn as Glitter in the Stars, and debut on August 15.Sweeping S’Ride will become, well, Sweeping S’Ride because it was an awesome name.
It will return to Amazon on August 22. Also, the Christmas novella will stay The Trouble with Tinsel, but it will get its new cover on August 29th.

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Announcing Space Janitor Four

Sweeping S’Ride

Sweeping S’Ride: Space Janitor Four, is finished! at least, everything but the last of the editing. I will publish it in June 2019. The cover is almost finished. Check back here on Tuesday for the cover reveal!

For now, here’s the blurb:

It’s a big galaxy, and somebody has to clean it.

When maintenance technician Triana Moore arrives on the planet Sally Ride, she just wants to get through the top-lev meeting and get her relationship with Agent Ty O’Neill back to normal. But everywhere she turns, she’s reminded of the serial killer who got away. When a short escape from the boredom leads her to an eerily familiar crime scene, she starts to wonder if she’s losing it.

With the help of Ty, her frenemy Vanti, and a cupcake truck, will Triana survive the most boring meeting in the galaxy? And will she finally sweep her nemesis out of her life? 

Or will she run away again–this time for good?

Scoop up the then next book in the Space Janitor Series!

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