Alpha Centauri 2

Community => Recreation Commons => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on June 14, 2017, 04:46:38 PM

Title: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on June 14, 2017, 04:46:38 PM
(https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18953059_475488999462370_824158080705671462_n.jpg?oh=8557002879b794ee28c02b3339d9291e&oe=59E84E1B)

https://www.createspace.com/6500471 (https://www.createspace.com/6500471)
(https://zme-caps.amazon.com/asset/SSE/content/6500471/THUMBNAIL_IMAGE?versionId=3&awsClient=416214191754%3Auser%2FMainsite&urlMethod=GET&expires=31536000000000&requestId=690aa714-5118-11e7-aa4d-4d3565e84656&sig=c9b4ce4da1945fb02a86662e67fc1dee3595e73eb551e2f25572754317f0848e&serial=1)

-Also, help him out, if you're on Facebook, by 'liking' his author page to help spread the word.  https://www.facebook.com/author.brayton.cole/ (https://www.facebook.com/author.brayton.cole/)

Do it.  DO IT.  DO IT!
obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey obey
-BUY THE BOOK!-
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on June 14, 2017, 04:57:32 PM
Okay, I think you might be overselling it.  ;)

If any of you happen to like heavily intellectual science fiction . . . well, that explains why you're on this site!  Any and all purchases are appreciated, folks. Or likes, or shares.  I will try not to be too shill-o-tastic.  Anybody else have a book?
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Spacy on June 14, 2017, 08:05:35 PM
amazon kindle?
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on June 14, 2017, 08:33:42 PM
Working on it.  The trouble is that I don't have a Kindle, nor experience with same, nor access to the source files it says it needs (PC broke down at an inopportune moment).  I only have a PDF, which CreateSpace says might not convert cleanly to Kindle format.  I don't know how much quality I'd be sacrificing.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on June 14, 2017, 08:35:54 PM
Mylochka did that cover art, by the way.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on June 14, 2017, 08:58:49 PM
-And I read the penultimate draft; it was good.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Lorizael on June 15, 2017, 03:14:34 AM
Okay.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Rusty Edge on June 15, 2017, 06:01:51 AM
So ordered.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on June 15, 2017, 03:38:14 PM
Thanks, guys!  I'm not sure how to spread this beyond FB friends (and a few friends-of-friends) without a budget.  But royalties from my first three sales have hit CreateSpace, which now owes me $8.22.  Wheeee!
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Lorizael on June 15, 2017, 04:16:23 PM
I have 15 Twitter followers and the only person who consistently reads my blog is the brother I don't like, but my understanding is that some engagement with social media is what you have to do these days.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on June 15, 2017, 04:32:02 PM
Oh geez.  I'm too verbose to tweet.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on June 15, 2017, 08:04:09 PM
Go around the bookstores in your area.  Talk to managers about publicity stunt sponsorships...
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Lorizael on June 16, 2017, 01:57:03 AM
Oh geez.  I'm too verbose to tweet.

That just means you would be a practitioner of the "tweetstorm."
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: ColdWizard on June 16, 2017, 02:18:33 AM
... heavily intellectual...
Rules me out, then.

Quote
...well, that explains why you're on this site!
BUncle tricked me*.

If my research is correct, I can pay more, get the book later, and Elok gets more money. Or I can pay less and get the book sooner, but Elok gets less money.





*of my own free will (if applicable).
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on June 16, 2017, 04:48:59 AM
Honestly, I need sales more at this point than I need cash.  I'm not hurting for money, I just need my name out there.  Buy where it suits you, mon frere.  You should get it at the same time either way, since Amazon does the printing in-house and all (it's already available there).
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on June 16, 2017, 06:07:15 AM
Now working on Kindle conversion.  It's taking a bit of time to convert, possibly because the book is 500 pages.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Unorthodox on June 16, 2017, 02:37:39 PM
Okay, I think you might be overselling it.  ;)

If any of you happen to like heavily intellectual science fiction

Not really. 

Looking at book...Hm, good title, CURSE...promising. 

Quote
Seven centuries ago, disaster struck the terraformed colony world of Corban, killing almost everyone and leaving the survivors with no technology but the fruits of their ancestors' genetic engineering experiments.

Ooo, planet of Dr Moreau sounds good...

Quote
Global civilization recovered, after a fashion, under the rule of a highly conservative and domineering priesthood.
Danger! Danger!  Politics warning.

Quote
Now that priesthood is itself beginning to fray at the seams, undone by indolence and corruption.

Evil priests have promise, but politics sounds more likely...

Quote
The face of the world is changing, but its final shape is as yet unknown.

I'm sensing this is political, not literal face of the world. 

Quote
Into this volatile situation is born Yunise Columabbi, a high-born young woman with fantastic powers of healing.

Well, at least it doesn't sound like accidental heroine trope...

Quote
As a living sign of divine grace, she presents both a threat and a promise to the priesthood. Now she struggles to find her place in a world that is tearing itself apart.

Horror sounding less and less likely...

Quote
An epistolary novel

Had to look that one up in the dictionary...meh.

Quote
interweaving three distinct perspectives

I do like those, but that is DIFFICULT to pull off. 

Quote
on a marvelous adventure through a strange and wonderful world.
 

I'm really sensing this is not my cup of tea.  I can't get through the DUNE novels, for instance. 

Totally congrats on getting it published and best of luck. 
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on June 16, 2017, 02:40:20 PM
Epistolary novel means it's told in the form of letters, diaries, and other documents.  And no, it's not horror, sorry.  I'd like to think it's a bit less obscure than Dune, though Dune was an inspiration.  Thanks for considering it, anyway.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: ColdWizard on June 16, 2017, 04:26:45 PM
Honestly, I need sales more at this point than I need cash.  I'm not hurting for money, I just need my name out there.  Buy where it suits you, mon frere.  You should get it at the same time either way, since Amazon does the printing in-house and all (it's already available there).
I have Prime, so unless Amazon is lying to me (possible), it's saying I'd get it in two days. The eStore was saying two weeks. I assume that's media mail.


I also had to look up epistolary; I liked the one epistolary novel I remember reading but that was Mary Shelley's Frankenstein...
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on June 16, 2017, 05:13:17 PM
Huh.  It seems they're sabotaging the higher-royalty option.  The blaggards.  Oh well, I didn't really expect a lot of people to leave Amazon anyway.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: ColdWizard on June 16, 2017, 05:51:56 PM
There were a number of people reaching that same conclusion, though CreateSpace's U.S. shipping charge appears to have come down significantly. International shipping for CS is allegedly still quite heinous.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on June 16, 2017, 06:01:51 PM
The Kindle version may have to wait until I recover files from my busted PC.  Amazon doesn't give me the option to recover my submitted PDF from CS, and attempts to convert it between sites don't work.  It says "wait a few moments" for half an hour or more, and if the file appears at all in the end it's just a cover image and a single blank page.  Useless.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: ColdWizard on June 18, 2017, 03:20:34 AM
I have a paid pdf software that purports to allow me to convert files to .docx format. On the rare occasions that I convert files, I go the other way so I don't know how well it might work. I'm also not sure how my ancient potato laptop would hold up to converting 500+ pages but I could try it if you want.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Lorizael on June 18, 2017, 04:41:19 AM
Dude, I'm in the book. Thanks, Elok, for giving me the opportunity to read the thing and help. It's pretty awesome to be able to hold the finished product in my hands.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on June 18, 2017, 05:02:32 AM
No problem!  CW, I might take you up on that, if I can cajole Amazon into giving me my PDF.  CS doesn't give me an option to re-download an uploaded file, and my "hey, your conversion doesn't do crap" e-mail got me a "yeah, it does suck" reply, more or less.  IE, they won't do anything to help with it.  Until I get the PDF back--or get my PC back--or take my last thumb drive backup and painstakingly check and fix five hundred pages against the final hard proof--I'm dead in the water on the eBook front.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on June 18, 2017, 01:39:26 PM
Okay, they gave me access to it.  First order of business was to save a backup on three separate thumb drives, even though I've got it permanently available on my CS page.  PM me your e-mail; it's only a single MB, since it has no images embedded, so I don't think your laptop will snuff it.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on June 18, 2017, 09:26:23 PM
Dude, I'm in the book. Thanks, Elok, for giving me the opportunity to read the thing and help. It's pretty awesome to be able to hold the finished product in my hands.


I've thanked you a bunch of times, not least in the book itself, but you do realize you (and Buncle) were indispensable, right?  If you want to show your name off to any friends of yours who are into sci-fi, and maybe lend them the book, I would not mind that at all.   ;)

Okay, I've got a Word version of the PDF.  I've got a fighting chance at this Kindle thing.  Thanks, ColdWizard!

Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Spacy on June 18, 2017, 11:10:33 PM
If the kindle works, please let me know. 
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: ColdWizard on June 19, 2017, 10:36:31 PM

Okay, I've got a Word version of the PDF.  I've got a fighting chance at this Kindle thing.  Thanks, ColdWizard!


Glad to help :)
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on July 03, 2017, 03:06:19 PM
Submitted to Kindle Direct Publishing.  Should be out in a day or two, once they've reviewed it for child pornography (or whatever they do) and done the minimal formatting necessary to fit my blurbs on the page.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Spacy on July 03, 2017, 10:58:28 PM
cool
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on July 04, 2017, 04:56:28 AM
Actually, it took them maybe three hours to get it up, I just forgot to post here when I notified my FB page.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073PCRQFK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1499107076&sr=1-1&keywords=The+curse+of+life (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073PCRQFK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1499107076&sr=1-1&keywords=The+curse+of+life)

Do let me know about the conversion quality!  I did my best for somebody who's never read an ebook, going off how it looked on Amazon's previewer.  By the way, I highly recommend the Calibre ebook management tool for anybody else slogging through this.  The controls look complex, but there are lots of simple guides scattered around the internet, and it's quite powerful.  Free, too.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Spacy on July 05, 2017, 04:10:57 PM
picked it up on Kindle. 

Will hopefully get a chance to read it in the next week or so.  Daughters 2nd bday on Saturday, and between now and then life will just get crazier and crazier...... but the good kind of crazy, ya know.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on July 06, 2017, 05:08:53 AM
Well, that brings it up to 19 copies, only 8 of which were my mother.  Thanks!  I really should work out how to promote on no budget; I've already ordered a copy for the local library, but I don't expect that to do much . . .

EDIT: Here's an extremely crude map I made of the book's world in MS Paint.  Each pixel is 10,000 square kilometers, more or less.  The grey is high-elevation land with an extremely thin atmosphere--basically lifeless.  The cracks and squiggles are the viable lowlands; color coding should be fairly obvious.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Bearu on July 16, 2017, 05:04:37 AM
The forum rules forbid the advertisement of specific products for sale. Who would want to advance the goals of a transactional perspective when the warmth of the collective and individualistic embrace enhances a positive perspective of the activities in the world? A potential goal of the product remains to enhance a specific agenda without the potential benefits for the people, and the book could produce a number of subversive ideas without the appropriate revisions.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on July 16, 2017, 01:57:40 PM
MY interpretation of the forum rules is that YOU, as an established member of this community may shamelessly flack your own projects - a stranger may not.

-Other than that, read the book.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on July 16, 2017, 07:32:31 PM
I'd like to think I'll one day be important enough for my book to be considered "subversive."  But I suspect not.  Alas.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Bearu on July 21, 2017, 02:35:41 AM
I apologize for the angry tirade from earlier in the week, and the book represents a potential stepping stone towards the correct orientation of the writer because the people need every citizen to feel invigorated at the potential notion of a new writer to support the peoples' strength. The adaptability of the writer represents the potential need for the strength of the topic in the creation of a new creed in the population.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on July 25, 2017, 05:10:24 AM
Hey, don't worry about it.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Spacy on July 25, 2017, 01:53:15 PM
I am about 1/3 of the way into it now. 

Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Geo on July 25, 2017, 07:07:02 PM
Mylochka did that cover art, by the way.

Yes, I recognized the style. :)
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on July 26, 2017, 05:58:04 AM
I am about 1/3 of the way into it now.

Awesome!  I hope you like it.  And if you don't, I'm glad you got the ebook, as it means you spent considerably less cash.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Rusty Edge on August 16, 2017, 05:14:49 PM
I hate to see your book bumped from the first page.

I haven't achieved immersion. While I'm impressed with it, I find myself wishing for a narrative. I think science fiction needs that to illustrate the world. Either that or more art.

I could be wrong, it's only my first impression.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 16, 2017, 05:58:08 PM
I found I was about a quarter of the way in, on the draft I read, before I began keeping track of the people and having a sense of things happening as they were described - a 'movie' playing in my head...
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on August 17, 2017, 02:57:32 PM
For whatever reason, everybody had difficulties getting into it.  But I've received opposite reasons why; somebody at Poly told me that it would have been easier if I'd eased into it rather than start with story.  I dunno, man.  I wish I knew just what made it hard to get into.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 17, 2017, 03:03:38 PM
Well, the epistolary format is tricky - it tends to be distancing, somehow.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Rusty Edge on August 17, 2017, 09:42:03 PM
Well, the epistolary format is tricky - it tends to be distancing, somehow.

That. The skill it takes to create is impressive, but instead of putting me in the shoes of one or more characters, I am a person removed. Also, if I'm reading somebody's correspondence, there's a loss of immediacy. It's after the fact.

I'll clear some time and try it again from the beginning this weekend, and attempt to binge read it.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on August 17, 2017, 10:03:31 PM
That's what I did - it really held together, w/ likeable people touring a strange, fascinating, world.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Spacy on August 18, 2017, 01:06:19 PM
A big part of what made it hard for me was keeping the names strait.  You had names of people, names of places, names of events, etc.  The fact that the names were all strange made it much harder.

Also, there wasn't headings to indicate when the perspective was changing at all the points.  I would get half a page in and go... what?!?! then have to skim back and realize that there was a gap between paragraphs and that was a complete perspective change and re-put what I just read back into context. 
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Elok on August 18, 2017, 02:51:47 PM
Where did perspective change without a heading?  The ebook version looked fine, but I didn't read it line-by-line to check.  If there's an unheaded letter please let me know.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Spacy on August 22, 2017, 01:58:49 AM
I can do.  I got about 45% into it then had RL happen and haven't picked it up again yet. 
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 07, 2017, 03:32:57 AM
I just wanted to point out a way everybody who's on Facebook can support Elok w/o spending money on his excellent book or going to any trouble worth mentioning.

 'Like' his author page. https://www.facebook.com/author.brayton.cole/ (https://www.facebook.com/author.brayton.cole/) -it's an SEO thing I suspect he doesn't really understand, but it directly and indirectly helps him get the word out and sell his -I loved it- book. Y'all do One Of Us a solid, hear?



I think I'll torment him by also posting that verbatim at WooPCie...
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 23, 2018, 12:21:40 PM
(http://alphacentauri2.info/MGalleryItem.php?id=2839)
 :unworthy: :danc: :bot: ;rockon ;hippy ;king ;buttdance ;morganercise ;hero ;worship
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Syn on March 23, 2018, 02:28:12 PM
I'll look into buying this next month when I get paid. I like supporting others in their goals. Feel free to remind me near the end of April if I forget.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 23, 2018, 02:41:13 PM
Dunno if it's good, but Kyriakos has something out that he was pushing last year...

Elok's, I read the penultimate draft, as you know, and 100% confidence that unless he blew the final draft horribly -and he didn't- it's no freshman debut he'll someday be jokingly trying to buy back from fans. 

It's a first-rate, professional-quality, lovingly crafted and excellent, novel of Touring the Thing amid a time of chaotic political change for a princess on the planet Corban.  It scratches the SF and fantasy itches at the same time, with echoes of Dune, and excelling Sword of Shannara at combining SF and fantasy, and I cannot say enough good things about it.  A real honest-to-God page-turner about people you come to care deeply for, the adventures of a princess with 'magic' powers and her faithful retainers/surrogate parents, set well into the future on a far planet intriguingly terraformed.

-Elok, if I was anyone, that's a good pull-quote (or maybe three) -at least, if one, with some trimming for length and unifying the SF/fant and princess/planet points- and deserving to be shamelessly ripped-off in promotion and publisher pitches...
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Syn on March 23, 2018, 02:54:12 PM
Hah, well, I would buy Kyriakos' stuff, if he didn't send me insulting PMs and if his stuff were in English. :P

I'm doing an order from Amazon on April 25th. I'll include the paperback in that.
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 23, 2018, 03:08:37 PM
I've read the PM in question in the appeals forum, so I get that.  It is in English, though, and he's nothing like terrible in the language.

Note w/ hat on: He is a member here, though I haven't seen him in a long time and he'd never see anything in RC...
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Syn on March 23, 2018, 03:16:53 PM
I made it less than a week before getting mod-hatted. Good start. :P
Title: Re: Buy Elok's Book!
Post by: Buster's Uncle on March 23, 2018, 03:36:26 PM
Phooey.  That was just my job to bring it up in time as prophylaxis, no actual admonition.  You're fine.
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