This blog post was published on and may be out of date. Visit starshipsmage.com for current information on the Starship’s Mage universe.
Firstly, Starship’s Mage Episode 1 is now up on Barnes & Noble Nook.
It’s up on Barnes & Noble without the backcover text, which isn’t an issue if you find it from here. According to my distributor, this will sort itself out… soon.
There’s been a few glitches along the way with the distribution process. Where I directly control the release dates and text content, there’s been no issues. Unfortunately, the middle of December was apparently a bad time to try and insert an ebook into the digital supply chain, as it seems to have slipped through the cracks at a few places.
Lessons learned? Episode 2 will be given to the distributor in advance. All of my ‘final draft’ targets for Starship’s Mage have been moved up a couple of weeks to allow time for it to trickle through. This does not chance the targeted release, and Episode 2 will still be out in March.
In the main, the whole e-book distribution process has been extremely user friendly and flowed smoothly. Most of the glitches seem to have arisen from my own timing.
Now, a fellow-traveller in the authorial space of mine (who has traveled a bit further than me, with two books being published soon that you should check out!), Marshall Maresca has been laying out his experiences in getting published, and commenting why if he had self-published at various points, he would have shot himself in the foot by not being ready.
Surprisingly, I agree with him completely! I have three or four novels (depending on the day) and a lot of novel starts that will never be seen and that, trust me, most people don’t want to see. It’s only in the last four years that I would really regard the work I’ve produced as publishable. My agent has two novels that he is shopping around, and I am working on a third.
Starship’s Mage is in many senses an experiment. It’s experimenting with a modified form, dividing the longer story into distinct shorter arcs, and experimenting with self-publishing and marketing. So far, the experiment is being moderately successful, but I have no intentions of not continuing to seek traditional publication.
So, for those of you considering self-publishing, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news: self-publishing really is straightforward and simple. The bad news: if your work isn’t truly ready for the wider world, you are only setting yourself up for disappointment. Even if it is ready, which I think Starship’s Mage is proving itself to be, going from ‘being self-published’ to ‘being a successful self-published author’ is a longer journey than you think it is.
Think it through. Look at your work with as hard and critical an eye as you can manage. And if you take the plunge, good luck!
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