Pluto was never not a planet
Behold: the product page for Terms of Enlistment is already back on Amazon.
You’ll notice a few minor changes: the publisher, some details in the book description, and the digital list price. It’s listed as “pre-order for May 14, 2013”, but I have it on good authority that it will be available for purchase again shortly.
I released my short story “Lucky Thirteen” on Amazon Kindle. It’s a very slightly edited version of the one some of you may have read already when I released it on the blog a year or two ago, so if you’ve already read that version, those $0.99 won’t get you anything new except a cover and a convenient Kindle download. If you haven’t read the story yet, then THIS IS TOTALLY FOR YOU. It’s a short story in the “Terms of Enlistment” universe–the tale of rookie Lt. Halley’s first drop ship command.
I’ve also uploaded a revised version of “Terms of Enlistment” that should make its way to all the purchasers automatically within the next 48 hours. I fixed the typos found by readers (and thank you for the ones you’ve emailed me), improved the formatting a bit, and added a Table of Contents.
The short story is only available on the Kindle right now because I’m running an experiment with KDP Select, which requires that the content stays exclusive to Amazon for a while. If you don’t have a Kindle, you can read it on the desktop, or download the MOBI file to convert it to a format of your choice in Calibre. (None of my ebooks are DRM-enabled, so there’s no copy protection to fight.)
As of today, I have a literary agent. I’ve signed with Evan Gregory of Ethan Ellenberg, who will represent my works from now on. Together, we will make ALL THE MONEY.
I’ve been looking for a literary agent for a few years now (ever since Viable Paradise XII in 2008, in fact), and Ethan Ellenberg has always been at the top of my list based on their client roster and reputation. To say that this is a pretty big deal is a monumental understatement.
Anyway, please excuse me now while I Kermit Flail around the house and mix a celebratory cocktail the size of one of those kiddie pools.
Terms of Enlistment is finally live at Barnes and Noble’s NOOK store:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/terms-of-enlistment-marko-kloos/1114972237?ean=2940044383906
Still on iBooks:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/terms-of-enlistment/id623287864?mt=11
Kobo:
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Terms-of-Enlistment/book-i9WbLhEqIEK-epHc8gKQmw/page1.html
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/296336
And of course Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Terms-of-Enlistment-ebook/dp/B00BUQWVDC/ref=zg_bsnr_6157856011_1
You can also get it from me directly by clicking the PayPal link on my sidebar. I will mention that I send those direct PayPal copies out via email as soon as possible after you purchase them, but if you buy a copy at 1am Pacific time, chances are I won’t see your email on account of being sound asleep. Smashwords offers all the common formats for download, and their download system is instant, so if you want a .PDF or .TXT or other off-the-wall format and don’t want to wait for me to email you your copy, I suggest you buy through Smashwords.
Thus endeth the self-promotion. I’ll try to keep these to a minimum, I promise.
Chuck Wendig, Jedi Master of Writing Advice, gave me and Terms of Enlistment a shout-out in his latest blog post about self-publishing. Chuck has gone the self-publishing route, but he’s also traditionally published, so he knows both sides of the coin pretty well.
Steven Gould, author of the Jumper series of SF novels and one of my instructors at Viable Paradise XII, had some nice things to say about me as well, particularly concerning the way I use social media like Twitter. (Hint: I don’t use it for marketing.)
I am a little behind on the blog and email stuff because the last few days (hell, weeks) have been a bit wacky around here.
Terms of Enlistment is still climbing the lists, it seems. As of this morning, it’s #1 in Kindle > Science Fiction > Military and Kindle > Science Fiction > Adventure, #2 in all of Amazon’s Science Fiction >Adventure category, and the #3 Science Fiction novel on Amazon. It’s also the #109 paid novel in the Kindle store. (It cracked the Top 100 for a day on the weekend.)
That’s pretty good for any novel, especially a self-published first-time novel by an unknown author. To say that I am pleased would be a massive understatement. I wrote the thing, which took a year or so, and then spent the next three and a half years trying to get a publisher or agent to bite, with no luck at all. It’s really nice to know that I wasn’t just doing finger exercises.
This month, I’ll re-release Lucky Thirteen, a short story in the Terms of Enlistment universe, on the Kindle for free. It’ll be a little bonus for those who have read the novel, and maybe get some people interested who haven’t read it yet. And next month, I’ll release Lines of Departure, the follow-up novel. If it does only half as well as Terms of Enlistment, I’ll still be very pleased. I think it’s a better novel than its predecessor, mainly because I didn’t have to spend half the novel with Basic and Tech School before things start blowing up. It also delves a little more into the situation on Earth and the social issues back home, something I’ll explore in much greater detail in a future novel.
Some reviewers on Amazon have said that the novel feels like two different stories, and that’s true. I did, in fact, have an alternative second half in which Andrew stays on Earth and explores the backstory behind the Detroit riots. It would have been really gritty, but it would have been a narrative dead end for Andrew because in order to get him where he needed to be to go sniffing around in a PRC, he would have had to leave the service and do things that I didn’t want him to do just yet. He’s a cog in a really large and really faulty machine, and his story needed to get him into space before it can get him back to Earth.
Anyway, back to the salt mines for me. More later. And if you’ve bought Terms of Enlistment, reviewed it, recommended it, mentioned it on your blog, or passed it on to a friend or three: thank you, thank you, thank you.
Somewhere out there is a literary agent (who shall remain unnamed here) who asked for science fiction submissions on Twitter the Friday before last. I was in bed at the time, reading my Twitter feed on the iPad (as one does), so I got out of bed again to send that agent a query letter that followed the requirements of the agency in question.
I woke up the next morning to find a form rejection in my inbox. That agent had rejected the query without having asked for sample pages–without even having read a single word of the novel. And it was a nice, short, courteous, and professional query letter, not two lines of HAY U WANT TO B MY AGENTZ? CHK YES OR NO LULZ.
I said a very naughty word at the computer screen and felt something in my head go SNAP. Then I had Scrivener compile the ebook files for the novel, bought some cover art, made a book cover, uploaded everything to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing service, and told people on my blog that the novel is available for sale.
Right now that novel is #245 on the Kindle Store, #2 in Military SF on the Kindle, and #13 in the entire Science Fiction category (all print, Kindle, and audiobooks) on Amazon. Right now that novel has sold an ungodly amount of ebook copies for a self-published first-time novel by an unknown author.
Right now I’d like to kiss that agent square on the mouth for being the catalyst that finally made me decide to take the novel’s fate into my own hands.
It appears that Joe Haldeman’s excellent Military SF novel “The Forever War” is on sale for the Kindle for a measly $4.95. If you haven’t read it yet, you definitely should, and if you have, you should get a Kindle copy anyway just because.
I’d have to lie if I said that “The Forever War” wasn’t at least somewhat in the back of my brain when I wrote my own MilSF novels. (The first one is still in Slushpile Hell, and the second one, being a sequel to the first, will probably not get any traction until #1 is sold.)