An Update & the Cover for The Great Healion Race

The Great Healion Race, book two of The Steam and Steel Chronicles should be out sometime during the first week in April. The proofreading is done, the cover is done, and half of the formatting is done (the HTML half). Once I finish the formatting, I plan to write a post detailing how I do it for those of you interested in formatting your own ebooks. I'm still perfecting my workflow, but hopefully this book will go much smoother than the last one (which was nothing but headaches).

First, here's a look at the cover:

I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I'll mention that there's an Easter Egg hidden in the imagery here, and that it gives insight into something that's never fully explained in the book. If anyone can figure it out, I will give them the entire series in the ebook format of their choice for free (as the books come out, obviously). It's really obscure, so I doubt anyone is going to figure it out, but there's a challenge for you!

In preparation for the release, I've also lowered the price of the first book, Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris, to $.99. This was something I'd pretty much planned on doing from the beginning. The rest of the books in the series will be $2.99, but I wanted a "loss-leader" of sorts to see what kind of effect that will have on sales, and to entice new readers to give it a chance. So if you've been delaying buying the first book, now's the time to do it. Barnes & Noble and Smashwords have already updated their pricing, but Amazon is lagging behind. It should be updated within 24 hours, so check back if the price hasn't lowered yet.

We'll see what happens with this month's sales now that the price is lower. I'm not sure if it will have an effect or not, but it does open up some potential new marketing opportunities with sites that specifically look for books that are $1 or less. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I may have more news soon for you guys, so stay tuned. I also have some other writing-focused posts in the works, so I should be back to posting on a regular basis soon.