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August 2021

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Newsletter August 2021: ARC of Forced to be Free, behind the scenes, book and music tips
by Koen Martens 10 Aug '21

10 Aug '21

Hi there, It's time for another monthly update! And there's a lot to talk about. I'm quite excited for (and a bit scared about) the upcoming release of the first novelette in the Isolated Futures series: Forced to be Free. First off, you can get an advanced review copy <https://storyoriginapp.com/reviewcopies/a8412d26-f84b-11eb-bcfc-ef989d96ebad> by signing up to my ARC team. Reviews are a big part of book marketing these days. Algorithms on the book vendor's sites use the amount of reviews as an indicator of its marketability, and this metric determines how hard they will push the book to their customers. So you can really help me out by leaving a review. You can already leave a review <https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58693884-forced-to-be-free> on goodreads, but the vendors will only accept reviews once the book is officially published. Cover of advance review copy of Forced to be Free, showing two people descensing stairs in an architectural environment <https://storyoriginapp.com/reviewcopies/a8412d26-f84b-11eb-bcfc-ef989d96ebad> Getting the ARC ready required setting up everything to publish the raw manuscript to an epub file. That includes formatting and making sure the book looks good on both the Kobo e-reader and the Amazon Kindle. For those interested, I write my manuscripts in LibreOffice <https://www.libreoffice.org/>. When a manuscript is done and has undergone copyediting and proofreading, I export to epub (which is basically a bunch of xhtml files with a style sheet and some metadata). The export from LibreOffice needs some tweaking to make it suitable for publishing though. I hate manual processes — every manual step is a chance to screw up — so naturally I've automated as much as possible. The past weekend I wrote a Python script <https://cvs.sonologic.net/gmc/postprocess_epub> that takes the raw export and patches up some of the css, embeds fonts where needed (many e-readers come without a mono spaced font for example) and adds the cover. It's not perfect yet, and I'm still struggling with getting it to convert to Amazon correctly (although that's likely due to the converter I used, further experimentation is required). The public release of Forced to be Free follows on 18 September 2021, and in the background I'm ramping up the promotional efforts. For example, I've set up my goodreads author profile <https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/596199.Koen_Martens> (and already received one review for Forced to be Free, would you believe it?) There's a bunch of books on there that are not mine though, which I've requested to be removed. So ignore those. Meanwhile, I'm also writing the fifth story in the Isolated Futures project, where I extrapolate the disturbing developments around deep fakes. More on that later. At the same time, the third story is currently out to my beta readers (you can still sign up to become a beta reader <https://koenmartens.nl/20200311-will-you-be-my-beta-reader.html>). I'm eager to get back to work on that, and polish it based on the feedback I've received. And all the while, I'm working with Macsimski on the cover designs (a preview of which you can see above) for the entire series. So yes, there's a lot going on. Excited and scary! Book Tips Book cover of Dropnauts by J. Scott Coatsworth <https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/e6eb3e34-f852-11eb-a297-ff3ce0302e8b> Book cover of The Road to the Stars by Adam Gaffen <https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/2b08ec66-f870-11eb-9468-03f32410d042> Over a century after the end of the Earth, life goes on in Redemption, the sole remaining lunar colony, and possibly the last outpost of humankind in the Solar System. But with an existential threat burrowing its way to the Moon’s core, humanity must recolonize the homeworld. Twenty brave dropnauts set off on a mission to explore the empty planet. After training for two and a half years, four of them—Rai, Hera, Ghost and Tien—are bound for Martinez Base, just outside the Old Earth city of San Francisco. But what awaits them there will turn their assumptions upside down—and in the process, either save or destroy what’s left of humanity. Get it here! <https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/e6eb3e34-f852-11eb-a297-ff3ce0302e8b> Cass and Ken are back! Five years after the events in Volume One, life is good for the Cassidys. Aiyana is perfecting her teleporters while running the Heavy Lift Corporation. Kendra is overseeing her ambitious starship project in her own, inimitable way. They want nothing more than to live their lives and raise their girls. It seems, though, that the universe has other plans for them. First there's a mysterious request to meet with a pair of leaders from the world government; they have a problem and it seems the Cassidy's are the only ones who can solve it. But they've never met a challenge they could walk away from, and this one's no different. Meanwhile, Kendra has to find a captain and a crew to make her starship come to life. Then there's the little matter of the science officer... Juggling demands from every direction, will Cass and Ken be able to rise to the occasion again? Get it here! <https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/2b08ec66-f870-11eb-9468-03f32410d042> Music Tips Mayan temple amidst flowery jungle with the phrases 'William Parker' and 'Mayan Space Station' <https://williamparker.bandcamp.com/album/mayan-space-station> (bandcamp <https://williamparker.bandcamp.com/album/mayan-space-station>, spotify <https://open.spotify.com/album/07HfHVDOF8HTlv0TdmWQQQ>) With a title like 'Mayan Space Station', what's not to love? This is an intense free-jazz album in the tradition of Sun Ra's best work that will take you to space instantly. Brilliant from start to end. -- https://www.koenmartens.nl/

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