Its finally happening. After a few years of talking about it and blogging about it, I finally have a date for the re-release of my first book, re-titled STAR BRIGADE: Resurgent. May 27th, 2014, the week of Memorial Day. Its been a long time coming. But why a re-release of my first book? Yes I had put out an earlier edition in late 2005 and then with another Print-on-Demand publisher in early 2006. So why not just put out another book?
Because I wanted to give the first chapter in the Star Brigade series another chance. When I first released the book under the title Star Brigade: First Renaissance, there was no market for eBooks as a self-published author and extremely high print costs (which required higher retail prices in order to make any profit). After that, for a time I wasn’t sure how I’d get my stories out there since my experiences with self-publishing had been such a bust. I had a second Star Brigade book in draft format but no idea how to release it given the nonexistent sales of its predecessor.
But thanks to a good friend’s advice, I saw eBooks as an avenue to get my stories to potential readers looking for the type of sci-fi that I would want to read. That’s when I decided to make sure potential readers got another chance to read the first novel in the Star Brigade series.
This re-release meant making sure to correct a lot of the mistakes I had made before; trimming down the 200k+ word count, ironing out previous story and character issues, getting professionally done cover art and formatting the manuscript like a real book. And thanks to eBook retailers like Amazon and iBooks allowing indie authors to self-publish without paying a dime, I can make sure I market my book the right way this time.
But the main reason I re-released this book is because I believe in it. The story takes you to distant worlds, the aliens are more than just window dressing to remind you its a space opera, and the characters are layered and grounded despite the faraway places they hail from. And did I mention the action? If sci-fi’s not your jam, I get it. But if you know someone who is an unabashed fan of sci-fi, let them know that STAR BRIGADE: Resurgent is the type of book they’ve been waiting for. I look forward to hearing your feedback when you read it.
– C.C.E.
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