Best Sci-Fi Book of 2020? Plus a Surprise Fractals Audiobook
First, a quick reminder: ECHO RIFT, Book Three in the Riven Worlds series, will be released on JANUARY 15, 2021. Pre-order it today and have it auto-delivered to your ereader on release day: PRE-ORDER ECHO RIFT
Back in July, you voted INVERSION the Best Sci-Fi Book in 2020 (So Far) by a huge margin. It was incredible. Now, Discover Sci-Fi is voting on the Best Sci-Fi Book of 2020 (period, no qualifiers or interim status) and INVERSION is again a Top 10 Finalist. As the train wreck of a year that was 2020 comes to a merciful close, if you still feel like INVERSION was the best book you read last year, go vote for it!
Note: If you’re on Facebook, you can also vote here.
Audiobook listeners, I've got a treat for you today: Pyper has recorded the audio for the FRACTALS short story, and you can listen to it for FREE right now.
I'll be honest with you - while I'm thrilled that you finally get to hear this fun, trippy, 'what if?' story, this is also a trial run for a new way of bringing you audiobooks, so I can work out the kinks before the ECHO RIFT audiobook arrives. Note: the Fractals audiobook will be available on Audible *eventually*, but when it gets there, it likely won't be free (the price isn't up to me). So take this opportunity of a short, free audiobook to explore new ways to listen.
To that end, try out the various options and let me know what you think. Tell me what works for you and what doesn't. Do you like the Authors Direct app, or is one of the other retailers working best for you? How about listening directly on the website? I want your feedback! (Just hit 'reply' or email me at gs@gsjennsen.com.)
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Finally, I've got an awesome post-holiday gift for you: 30+ FREE sci-fi books by such indie superstars as Joe Vasicek, Patty Jansen, George Saoulidis, C. Gockel, Eric Michael Craig, Andy Peloquin and many more: Mind-Bending Sci-Fi.
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Oh, forgot to mention: You probably have plenty of Beta Readers, but I'm wondering if you have Beta Listeners...? I recently became a Beta Listener for another favorite author (Craig Falconer), and might be interested in Beta reading/listening for you if the need arises (still actually purchasing the book/audiobook and not getting paid to do it ;-) ). I know the turnaround can be quick, and I typically blow through these books in a few days when they come out.[Hah! Had to delete and re-add this comment due to a mis-spelling. Why don't they have an Edit function here? Well duh! Now I see that they *do* have an edit function, but it wasn't showing up before. Weird.]
David wrote: "G.S., Thank you for the free audiobook. I was not familiar with Authors Direct but signed up and got the audiobook there, and I also grabbed it on Apple Books in case I don't like the Authors Direc..."Thank you for the heads-up on Chirp. It WAS available at that link, but I get the same error you do. I've contacted Findaway support to get to the bottom of it. As I said in the blog post, one reason for releasing Fractals was to help work out the kinds with the new retailers for Echo Rift, and this is a great example.
My older audiobooks are, for now, exclusive with Audible, because when I started Audible was really the only game in town. I'll be removing them from exclusivity and listing them everywhere when their contract terms allow it.
I've never thought of having a beta listener! I listen to the audio as Pyper records it to catch errors, and once she's done I'm always in such a hurry to get it out to everyone. :) But I'll think about how that might fit into the process!
Thanks again for your support.
Just finished the audiobook "Fractals" - most excellent! Oddly, I realized that I had read the actual book already, but didn't know it till I got into the story (I have 16 of your books, all "Read", in my Kindle content...). But it was a different and in some ways a more immersive experience, listening to the audiobook. Pyper is a great narrator. The only issue I had was that I had to slow down the playback speed to 0.9 because I was missing some details and had to rewind a few times before slowing it down. Maybe it's just the aging brain... but I do have to say that I often listen to audiobooks or podcasts at 1.1 or 1.2 speed because they are "dragging" a bit. In this case, Pyper's enthusiasm and the amount of things going on were just a bit too much for me at normal speed.
Will Pyper be doing Echo Rift? I've already pre-purchased the Kindle book but may opt to wait for the audio book if so... :-)
I think I didn't go for any of your previous Audible books because money was tight and I didn't have an Audible account, but with the pandemic I decided it was a worthwhile expense. Thanks!
David wrote: "Just finished the audiobook "Fractals" - most excellent! Oddly, I realized that I had read the actual book already, but didn't know it till I got into the story (I have 16 of your books, all "Read"..."She will absolutely be doing Echo Rift. She's done all my audiobooks. I was tremendously lucky to find her for Starshine, and now I'm lucky in that she enjoys the books enough to keep doing them. ;)
The Echo Rift audiobook will be available on Author's Direct, Chirp, Apple, Nook, Google Play and all those other places. It will also be on Audible, but given their recent track record of delays, likely not for a month or so after it's available elsewhere (one of many reasons why I'm moving away from Audible).
The audiobook is usually ready about 1 to 2 months after the ebook/paperback version, so it's up to you whether you want to wait on the audio or not.
(https://www.chirpbooks.com/audiobooks... --> "404 Page not found")
But I will say that I've had some trouble with the Chirp App so I'm glad that's not the only choice.
I am glad you didn't go "Audible Only" - I think we all need to do what we can to stop enriching Jeff Bezos, since he does not appear to be very socially conscious with his $$ billions. (Don't get me started...) Yes, I have an Audible account and Amazon Prime and Kindle Unlimited but I'd like to move away from those, so I will fully support any self-publishing efforts even if there are growing pains.
Thanks again for the rich worlds and characters you have built and shared. I'll give you feedback on the audiobook after I listen. :-)
Cheers! -Dave