Cameron Cooper's Blog, page 12

An Urban Fantasy Kickstarter you might like

My publisher, Stories Rule Press, have just launched their first Kickstarter project, featuring the urban fantasy series Magorian & Jones, by Taylen Carver.  If you enjoy reading fantasy, check the project out at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/storiesrulepress/the-rivers-ran-red-extraordinary-urban-fantasy.

There are various levels of sponsorship available, so even if you’re not familiar with the series at all, you can pick up the previous books for far less than full retail, and also a bonus novelette.

Enjoy,

Cam.

Today is the start of our 4 day 20% off Everything sale

Today is the start of our 4 day 20% off Everything sale

For the next four days, when you buy books at Stories Rule Press, you get 20% off your entire shopping basket, with no strings or exceptions:

The discount applies to everything, including pre-orders, books already on sale and whole series boxed sets.It includes books by all authors at SRP, not just me.You can use the coupon as often as you like before it expires at midnight on December 2nd.You can give the coupon code to book-lover friends and family.

If you’ve never bought books from SRP before, there’s no need to worry.  All the books you buy from SRP are delivered by BookFunnel, so the process is very similar to how you download books from BookFunnel promos.

To start browsing the books available, click here.  On that page you can sort and filter titles to find exactly what you want.

When you check out, use this code:  3VVX4TXV  

It will apply the 20% discount to your whole order.

Enjoy!

Cam

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An Essential Tool if You Read eBooks

I’ve mentioned Calibre eBook Manager before, but I don’t think I’ve ever spent an entire post talking about its value.

Last week I had a conversation with a reader who had never heard of it before, which was a shock to me!  It cemented the idea of writing about Calibre even though it has been around for seventeen years.

What is Calibre?

Calibre is a free, open source ebook management program that is absolutely friggin’ marvellous.  Here’s some of the things it does, from the About Calibre page on the official website:

Save time on managing your e-book collectionUse it everywhere and with anythingComprehensive e-book viewerDownload news/magazines from the webShare and backup your library easilyEdit the books in your collectionSatisfy every e-book need and get support

Some of that is pretty vague, I admit.  I can do better than that.

Here’s what I’ve discovered it can do for me, from years and years of using it:

Centralizes my ebook collection, as I acquire ebooks from multiple sources, in multiple formats.Converts all ebooks (except those with DRM protection) to my preferred ebook format.Synchronizes my ebook collection on my preferred hard drive, so it’s always accessible.Downloads covers and book descriptions for books that are missing these details.Lets me sort and filter in endless ways, to make finding books easier.Helps me rediscover books that, on my ebook reader, have disappeared at the bottom of the list.Lets me rate my books and add notes reminding me about the contents.Will compile “newspapers” from RSS feeds of my favourite blogs, into ebooks I can read with my reader.Will let me read ebooks on my desktop computer (as ereaders like Nook and Kobo won’t).I can swap the display of the books from lists, to cover thumbnails, and “browse” my books.I can set the program up so it automatically scans certain directories and adds new books to Calibre when they land in the folder, all without me touching it.I can shop for books on public domain sites (eg Project Gutenberg) and others, from inside the program.I can rate, label, tag my books, so I have a perfect record of what I’ve read, what I thought of the read, and what the genre, sub-genre and other specifics are for that book (so, for example, if you’re into, say, captivity romances, you can make that a category or a tag for future reference)I can split my library into major sub-libraries — non-fiction, fiction and books about writing.I can search on any data in the database, not just author and title.  So if I remember a phrase from the description, but nothing else, Calibre will still find the book.I can split boxed sets up into individual books, and add a cover and blurb to those books.

There is a grand tour video showing you the major highlights here.

Despite using Calibre for over a decade, I still haven’t learned all the features and possibilities of the program.  It’s highly tailorable, and because it is open source code, there are a ton of free plug-ins to add functionality (such as splitting boxed sets, or making your own covers).

There is a companion program out there, Calibre Companion (CC), which works in concert with Calibre to upload your books to your preferred reader and also export all the data in Calibre, including your personal notes, ratings, series information, the book description.  This is particularly useful if your ereader doesn’t import that data for itself.

I don’t us CC myself, but I have in past with different reading software, and found it useful.

Why Use Calibre?

Why would you want to use Calibre, if you have a perfectly good ereader like Kindle or Kobo or Nook, that keeps all your ebooks in order?  That is the question I got last week when I explained about Calibre to my reader friend.

Here’s the thing:  I’ve been searching for the perfect ereader for years.  All of them have a weakness or are missing a feature that would make them perfect — and I’m including the biggies in this, too.  Kindle, Kobo, Nook, MoonReader, FB Reader….there are dozens of ereaders out there and none of them do everything I want them to do.

They don’t sort well, or don’t sort at all.

Kindle won’t show ALL my available books, on all my devices and computers.  It picks and chooses what I can access, depending on what device I’m using.  And sorting sucks.

I currently use Google’s eBook Reader, which lets me upload my own books without fuss.  It renders nicely on the screen, but it has some severe limitations, too, including sorting functions.

I won’t go into specifics for all the readers, but they all have different issues.  I’ve yet to find ereader software that provids all the features I want, and doesn’t come with major drawbacks I have to work around.

If I use Calibre in conjunction with my most preferred (but still not perfect) ereading app, then I get all the features I need, including comprehensive and endless ways to sort and search my books.

Calibre is a management program — a card index on steroids.  It isn’t supposed to be an ereading app, although it has an inbuilt reader.    In more recent updates of the program, (after it was rebuilt using Python) the inbuilt reader has become even more powerful, allowing annotations and notes, which can be exported.

I use the inbuilt reader quite often, and have made it my default program in Windows to open any ePub or Mobi files.

Calibre is fabulous for pulling together all the books I have, everywhere.  I can even add “empty” records for print books I own, with a notation telling me where the print book is stored on my shelves.

If you acquire ebooks from different sources, or would like to (which you then sideload to your reading app), then Calibre will help you keep all your books organized and help you rediscover favourites and books that you’ve forgotten you have.

Plus, if you keep your Calibre library folder on a shared drive, you can use Calibre on whatever computer or device that can access that folder.  I currently use Calibre on both my laptop and my desktop computer.

Where to get it.

The download page for Calibre is here.  As you will see, it has versions for every computer and device, including a portable version you can keep on a thumb drive.

It’s completely free — no ads, no inducements to upgrade.  (Although, I have found the program so useful, I have donated several times over the years.)

This really is one of those programs that, if you don’t have it yet, you really should scramble to get.

Already use Calibre?  What are some of the ways you use it?  Have a unique setup you’d like to share?  Comment below.

Cam.

20% off EVERYTHING, 4 days only end of month SRP Sale now on

20% off EVERYTHING, 4 days only end of month SRP Sale now on

Along with all your Halloween candy, you can snag fiction from Stories Rule Press at 20% off for the next four days.  This is the usual SRP month end/start sale.

Use the coupon code AWWEWYRA when you check out, to apply a 20% discount to your entire basket.

Which means that any already discounted books in your basket are discounted a further 20%.You can buy as many books as you want.  There is no limit.You can re-use the coupon code as many times as you want until it expires at midnight on November 2nd. (MDT)You can give the coupon code to friends and fellow readers, too.The coupon code will discount everything, including boxed sets, series sets, etc.

The coupon is only valid for the Stories Rule Press site.  You can start browsing here.

And enjoy!

Cam

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Where has all the science fiction gone?

Where has all the science fiction gone?

I do read in genres outside SF, especially when I’m in the midst of writing SF.  But I’d prefer a good space opera on my screen—book, TV series or movie—any day of the week.

Except, lately, they’re getting hard to come by.

Amazing Stories has been reporting for several weeks on the growing penetration of genre stories on streaming services, but when you study their reports, you find that the big two categories are horror and fantasy.

Yes, Star Wars is adding to the pile – I’m waiting somewhat impatiently for the last episode of Andor to drop so I can dive into it.  But, to be frankly honest, the big franchises like Star Wars and Star Trek are rare and most non-franchise SF offerings aren’t SF at all.

When I browse through the backlists of SF on the streaming services in search of something to watch, I always check out any series or movie that looks remotely interesting…and of those I end up starting to watch, most are disappointing.  Frequently that is because it’s a non-SF genre story with a SF setting.  I’ve lost count of the number of small-crew-trapped-on-ship stories that are horror in disguise.  There’s no science that wins the day.  It’s brute force and violence that prevails.

Ditto stories that are set “in the future” and therefore classified as SF…but could be easily set in our current times and not miss a beat.  Chris Pratt’s Tomorrow War is a good example of a story that could have been easily set 100% in contemporary times, and still include all the violence (which I frankly got very sick of by the end), and the main character could have emerged with the same insights and determination to change his life.  The time travel and aliens had zero unique impact on his character.

Then there’s books.

My public library has over 93,000 ebook titles.  A mere 2,900 of them are science fiction.  The big winner is romance, at 18,000 titles, but even Fantasy, which tends to be joined at the hip to SF by non-SFF consumers, has 7,300 titles.

Of the SF available, most of it is superficial franchise titles – Star Wars, Star Trek, WarHammer…  I do read in series, but I have never been able to sustain my reading of the TV & Movie franchise novels.  The quality of story-telling from book to book is too uneven, or the story itself requires that you know not just the primary story world, but all the arcane backstories and histories built up from non-primary sources.

Plus, my biggest objection to most franchise SF is that it is traditionally published, which means the book must reach a preset word count, usually at the high end – 100,000 words is pretty standard for trad publishing.  Stories that would have been entertaining if they’d got right down to just telling themselves are slowed down by unnecessary backstory and side stories and all the padding and other techniques that authors use to hit a required word count.

I occasionally and hopefully browse through the SF categories on the retail sites, but browsing on any site now is an exercise in frustration.  I could go straight for the space opera category, for example, but the category has become so corrupted with non-space opera and non-SF titles, that browsing more than a page or two is discouraging.  Besides, I already own most of the books in the top 100.  To find books ranked lower than that, I have to spend several minutes setting up search parameters or figuring out how to display anything but the best sellers.

Even the really big newsletters like BookBub have lately offered up dubious SF, if they have a single SF title in their newsletter at all.

All in all, I’m finding myself going back to classics and favourites more and more often, because they’re safe.

And I wait for favourite authors to announce new releases before falling on them with cries of relief.

What do you do to find good books/stories?  Tell me in comments.

——————

In the last couple of weeks, my Iron Hammer series has been enjoying a huge surge of popularity.  Galactic Thunder, the first book in the series, reached #1 in Space Opera on Amazon and held there for over a week.

One of the things I wanted to point out was that the first series, The Imperial Hammer, was also discounted…and still is.  This series was discounted for the pandemic and we haven’t yet got around to returning the prices to full retail, even though the pandemic itself is nearly in our rear view.

Galactic Thunder has been discounted to FREE for a limited time!

Galactic Thunder has been discounted to FREE for a limited time!

If you’ve been holding off on trying my sequel-ish series to Imperial Hammer, Good News!

The first book in the Iron Hammer series, Galactic Thunder, is now FREE for a limited time!

Stellar Storm & Planetary Parley (Books 2 & 3) are on for $2.99!

Waxing War, Ruled Out, & Stranger Stars (Books 4, 5, & 6) are on for $3.99!

And finally Federal Force & Redline Rebels (Books 7 & 8) are on for $4.99!

If you were to buy them all, you’d save almost 60% compared to buying them full price.

I really hope you all enjoy the series, I really enjoyed writing it and I’m deep into plotting and planning the next series… no spoilers here.

Enjoy!

Cam

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It’s the Monthly SRP 20% Off Everything Sale

It’s the Monthly SRP 20% Off Everything Sale

And it’s that time again for the Monthly SRP 20% Off Everything Sale.  Have you been stashing stuff in your shopping basket all month, waiting for this?  You’re not alone. 

If you’re new to the SRP monthly sale, here’s the gist:

Anything and everything available for sale on SRP and can be added to the basket, is eligible.  This includes boxed sets, whole series, books that are already on sale, and pre-orders.  It’s all good.The coupon will only work on the SRP site.The coupon is active right now, and expires at midnight on October 2nd, MDT.You can use the coupon as many times as you wish before it expires.You can pass the coupon on to friends and other book lovers, who can also use it as often as they like before the expiry date.

The coupon code is Y67GAEQR.

Paste the code into the Coupon box when you checkout.

To start your browsing, click here: https://storiesrulepress.com/shop/

And enjoy!

Cam

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As promised, new dystopian SF

As promised, new dystopian SF

This is the post I promised you a few weeks ago, announcing the release of And We Danced All Night, the short dystopian SF story.

I’ve had some interesting feedback from street team members, who get to read the story in advance of release date.

I hope you like it, too.

On a future Earth, what is left of humanity lives life to the hilt while denying a harsh truth…

One man, Kaloyan, has lived through that truth and knows what his friends are about to face, including one friend in particular….

And We Danced All Night is a science fiction short story by award-winning SF author Cameron Cooper.

Dystopian Science Fiction Short Story
__

Praise for Cameron Cooper’s SF:

Epic science fiction at its finest. Realistic far future worlds. Incredible characters and scenarios.

The concepts are staggering and intensely interesting.

This story is terrific! It’s intriguing and futuristic and human in its telling.

Buy from Stories Rule PressBuy from your preferred retail store

Enjoy!

It’s sale time again — 20% off everything, including boxed sets, pre-orders and books already on sale

Time for 20% Off Everything

It’s the second last day of August, which means it’s time for the SRP 20% off Sale, which runs for the last two days of the month and the first two days of the next month.

This month’s coupon code is:  3VXFCNQZ

You can use the coupon when you checkout, to get 20% off your entire order.  Nothing is excluded.  You can throw entire series boxed sets into your basket, also books already on sale, books still on pre-order.  You can add as many books as you want.  You can also use the coupon as many times as you want, until the expiry date (Midnight, September 2nd, MDT).

You can also pass the coupon on to friends and other readers.

The coupon is only valid for Stories Rule Press, and only until the end of September 2nd.

Start your browsing here — this month I arranged the order of the books to show the latest releases.

Enjoy!

Cam

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Get Organized – Transitioning to Paperless Reading

Get Organized – Transitioning to Paperless Reading

Photo by Frank Holleman on Unsplash

Once you’ve made the leap and you’re reading e-books, it doesn’t take long to reach a point where you simply don’t like reading paper anymore. It’s at this point in time you can start systematically moving yourself to 100% paperless.

There are lots of advantages to making the transition:

1.  You’ll have all your books, including your keepers and favourites, at your fingertips, instead of scattered across different formats, locations, and bookshelves, making you have to remember where they’re located.

2.  You’ll never again lose any of your books because of aging paperbacks, friends failing to return borrowed books, or simply loosing the physical copy of the book.  And your dog will never be able to chew your favourite book to pieces.

3.  In the long run, you’ll save money.  Once you’ve replaced your paperback copies, you’ll never have to do it again.

4.  You’ll save space in your home.

5.  Your library of books will be super-portable from now on.

There’s three simple steps to moving to paperless:

Replace your paper books

This will be a gradual process, dictated by your bank account, how many paper books you’re hanging on to, and also, how many of those books are available in e-book format now.

Not all books are available in e-book — yet.  This is a self-correcting condition, though.  Publishers are working to bring old titles out in e-book format, and if they’re not, authors are fighting to get their rights back and self-publish those titles.  Sooner or later, the keepers you have on your shelf will re-emerge as e-books, allowing you to replace them.

I’m down to perhaps thirty books that sit on my shelf, that I’m waiting for ebook versions to be issued.

You can figure out for yourself the best way to work through your paper collection.  Start with your favourites, or start at the A’s and work through to the Z’s.  Or start with a sub-category or series, or an author.  Your choice.

Once you have replaced the paper book with an e-book, you get to decide what you are going to do with the paper copy.

The obvious solution is to sell the paper copy to a second-hand bookstore, and recoup some of your original investment.

Here’s something to keep in mind, however:  You’re not the only reader who is replacing their paper book collection with e-books, and the rate that this is happening is only going to speed up in the next few years.  Second-hand bookstores will become inundated with paper books soon, and the chances that you will be able to get any money for your paper collection will diminish the longer you wait to replace it.

If you find you want to hang on to a paper copy of a particularly beloved favourite because of fond memories, or the fabulous cover, here’s some more thoughts:

The paper copy will not last forever.  It is going to fall apart as the glue dries and the paper disintegrates.  Then you’ll have lost it, anyway.If you love the cover, why not find a high resolution copy of it on-line, or get it professionally scanned, then have it printed and framed for your wall?  Then you’ll have the best of both worlds:  A well-preserved reminder of the book, and the permanent e-book of the contents.Use a content management program to manage your e-books

If you use a Kindle to read your books, then your Kindle device already “manages” your content for you.  There will be a directory on your hard drive called “My Kindle Content” that contains all your e-books, along with all the meta-data for those books (you tags, dictionaries, bookmarks, comments, etc).

However, the organizational possibilities of the Kindle are limited.  If you want more powerful ebook management, or if you’re using any other reading device, including iPhones, iPads, Smartphone, your desktop or laptop computer, or a dedicated e-reader that has sucky software, then you should consider downloading and using an e-book library manager like Calibre, that keeps your e-books catalogued and organized on your hard drive, plus talks to and synchronizes and formats your e-books with your reading device(s).  You can also use Calibre to shop for new books, too.

If you’re using Apple devices (iPad, iPod Touch, or an iPhone), then you can use the native ebook app to manage your e-books, keep them synchronized on your reading devices, plus shop for new books, too.  The only limitation with iTunes is that it will only let you shop at the Apple store.

Calibre works on Apple devices, too.

Back-up your e-books to another off-site drive

If you’re not already backing up your computer data to some sort of off-site storage facility — a data hard drive on your home network, or an Internet data back-up services, or a back-up media drive, etc.–then at the very least, back-up your e-book directory once a week or once a month, and store that back-up somewhere safe.

How soul-destroying would it be to lose your entire library of books?  Think about that, then put some sort of back-up plan into action.

Even if you’re using a Kindle, do not depend on Amazon to keep your library safe and sound for you, forever.  Back up your “My Kindle Content” directory.  Even if you’re dumping a copy onto a thumb-drive once a week and tossing it into a drawer, you’ll be glad you did if Amazon ever again pulls a stunt like they did some years ago when they removed books from readers’ Kindle overnight, when they had an argument with a publisher that wanted to withdraw copies from publication.  Readers woke up to find books they had bought had simply disappeared from their Kindles.

There’s no reason why Amazon might not make a mistake and delete titles from your personal library.  Play it safe.  Back up your library for yourself.

Also, do not depend on on-line booksellers to keep copies of your purchased books on “your” bookshelf in their store forever, either.  I made this mistake with one on-line bookseller, and found that after a certain amount of time passed, they simply deleted the books from my shelf, with no warning.

Another retailers closed their store without notice, leaving me high and dry.

Always download purchased e-books to your own hard drive and consider that to be your master copy.

How often you back up your e-books depends on how frequently you’re buying new titles.  If you’re a rabid reader and buying dozens of titles a week, then weekly back-ups might be wise.

You don’t have to use the provided software from any retailer.  You don’t have to remain loyal to one retailer, either.   If you assume control of your ebook collection, manage it yourself, and back up your master library, then you can shop anywhere you like, sideload to your heart’s content, and never lose another book again.

Are you 100% paperless?  What hacks and organizing tips have you learned from controlling your own ebook collection?