Today I took off my editor and author hats and put on my greasy production hat. Specifically, I got down into the nitty-gritty of churning out the various eBook formats, the PayPal "buy now" code, the various HTML on all of the pages that link to the new book, and the review itself. When I started BooksForABuck.com, I handled exactly three formats--HTML, Adobe Acrobat, and Microsoft Reader. I still do these (nothing ever goes away), but I've added eReader (formerly Palm Reader), Mobipocket, Sony Reader, and ePub. Each step takes time, checking, and involves creating more links, doing more uploads, the whole ball of wax. To top things off, my computer has gone funky on me. Although the various virus scans tell me I'm virus-free, I definitely have a problem. One problem is that Mobipocket no longer works on my production machine, which means I had to switch files to the laptop to handle the Mobipocket portion. Then FTP quit--so I had to use alternate methods of uploading. If anyone has any suggestions on how to solve my computer problems, don't be shy (I've been using MS Live Scan as my virus software, AVG-Free no longer uploads).

I got a few pages written on the train on my way to/from Tae Kwon Do, and I sent out PayPal payments to my authors, but pretty much it was a heads-down day.

However (drumroll, please), I'm happy to announce that FIRST CONTACT by Kenneth E. Ingle is now published and available. For its first month of availability, it'll be on sale for only $1.00 (regular price is $3.99), so definitely grab yourself a copy quickly. Here's the link: www.booksforabuck.com/sfpages/sf_09/first_contact.html. There's a more detailed review there, but in a nutshell--thanks to a botched experiment, a group of scientists discover they're aging very slowly. Cool, yes. But also a problem because we all know what the government would do if they learned. The scientists decide the only way to avoid being locked up as experimental subjects is to flee Earth itself. But successfully achieving the stars has its own problems when they learn that aliens think they already own the stars (and the planets surrounding them). Lots of good action, interesting characters, and some nice twists.

I'm going to make FIRST CONTACT the www.BooksForABuck.com book of the day. Hey, it's a buck for some pretty darned good SF. Back when I was in grad school, and a buck was worth something, I remember scouring the shelves of my local bookstore (the Little Professor) for SF I could buy for a buck. When I'd bought and read it all, I raised my minimum to $1.25, then $1.50, then $1.95 (there was a lot of inflation back then). Being able to read a full novel for a buck again has got to be the biggest deal on the net.

Here's the beautiful cover created by my beautiful artist, Karen Leabo (using art from iStock Photo as the basis):

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