Shortly after I published the eBook version of Anzu on Kindle, about five weeks ago, I decided to ease off on promoting the series until after I launch Quantum Soul.

The inspiration for this approach started with a post by Valerie Douglas at the Indie Author group on FB, when she wrote something to the effect of, “Nothing sells your first book like your second book”.

I recognize that Valerie may not have meant one should not bother trying to sell the first book, but that’s how I finally took it. At any rate, the Anye Legacy series is going to be eight books, so what’s the hurry?

There’s more to the decision, of course. Others have observed that a multi-book campaign promises that an investment in Book One will be rewarded by successive volumes. The reader can count on it, because here they are.

It makes sense to me, and that is now my direction. Quantum Soul stands at 118,000 words, and the next book — as yet untitled — is at 48,000, so a three-book campaign in 2017 is not out of the question.

But, eventually, I’m going to have to deal with the marketing part of authorship. In preparation for that, I’ve been collecting materials on the topic: notes from presentations, blog entries, excerpts from newsletters and the occasional email.

This week, I transcribed my notes, and was reminded that somebody — I forgot to write down whom — recommended I explain to readers why they will want to read my book.

This is why we procrastinate.

Sure, after having written 250,000 + words on Anye Legacy’s long arc, I have a sense of what I’m up to. If forced to confess, I will say the work is different from what you’re used to: not post-apocalyptic, or populated with teenagers who are “coming into their powers”, or about aliens arriving to destroy the Earth.

Which is saying what I didn’t do, and not part of the assignment. In my defense, can you imagine how hard it is for me to stand far enough away from my own work to talk about things like this?

So, I’d like to know what you think. Anzu can be previewed and/or purchased here, or you can check out a copy at the Sarasota, Florida county library system. Also, if you follow my WordPress site — see the navigation panel on the left — you will be queued up for free book notices, both for Anzu and its follow-on volumes.

After you read, please leave a comment and let me know if Anzu is special to you in some way, and how. It would be a big help, and much appreciated.

Amazon has a spot on Author Central where I can post a review of my own book. Here is what I wrote:

Anzu was not written by a fifteen year old. It is not YA, although I will be disappointed if young readers don’t take to it. All the same, Anzu is not “Johnny had a gleam in his eye as he strode confidently to his rocket ship”.

This is a book for a reader who enjoys discovery, who likes to think, who wants to be surprised, who relishes ‘aha’ moments and turns back a few chapters to see when he or she should already have figured out the thing just discovered.

An agent asked me what the book is about, and then groused because I couldn’t answer in one sentence. Again, Anzu isn’t that kind of book. For some readers, it will be about a race that believes it is dying. Others might ruminate about the intractable differences that keep cultures apart, or the futility of war, or the efficacy of war. I hesitate to say the book has something for everyone, but there is a lot of material to think about.

More than one person has complained that they couldn’t relate to people with funny sounding names. May I observe that Anzu takes place on another planet? Nobody named Tim or Bob here, ma’am. The names are Sanskrit, so perhaps South Asians will like the book better than Westerners. I can live with that, but I hope it doesn’t turn out that way.

I’ve been struggling the past few days with the promo capsule for Anzu.

I’m not the first person to say this: The blurb is harder to write than the book.

I’ve tried flowery, street-level, sophisticated, wordy, brief, academic … The next day, author’s remorse sets in and I start over.

Ya, ya … start a thread on an author’s site … did that … wrote more junk.

Until today … Two gentlemen on a Facebook public group – Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors – pitched in for an impromptu workshop, and I think we hammered it out.

Ken Britz played the decisive card when he told me to write ad copy. Here’s what I did.

The Anye race is dying: A fading sun, a declining population and an estranged confederacy are collectively signaling the end of an advanced civilization.

 Rivan Saraf is tapped-out as a military first responder, too much the enlisted man to be an officer, and already trained as a physicist. When a discovery at a high-energy research lab puts him on the run from agents of a foreign power, Rivan must lead a technological revolution that could save his race from extinction.

The Anye Legacy series honors the visionary traditions of hard science fiction. Inspired by screenwriter Joss Whedons’ skill at wrapping the fantastic in the mundane (Firefly, The Avengers) and cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson’s holographic realism (Spook Country, Snow Crash), Anzu is a provocative story about a society confronting the apparent winter of its existence.

The last paragraph came out of advice I read elsewhere, directly turned out of long storage by Ken’s words: Give the prospective reader something to compare your book to. I can see how that might help.

Thanks, Jim Aikin and Ken Britz.

The paperback edition of Anzu is available now!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1520798962?ref_=pe_870760_150889320