An Interview With Tammy Salyer

Please welcome my friend, speculative fiction author Tammy Salyer, whose third SPECTRAS ARISE novel, CONTRACT OF WAR, releases today! Unification or tyranny. The only difference is the body count. In the aftermath of a system-wide war between the Admin and Corp Loyalists and the non-citizen population of the Algols, everything once resembling order has been leveled. Scattered enclaves of survivors dot the worlds, living, however they can, in snarled lawlessness. Aly Erikson and her crew have carved out a niche of relative peace, doing their best to go on with their lives through salvaging, scavenging, and stealing. But with no force

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A Post-Memorial Day Book Recommendation: Spectras Arise

On Memorial Day, we remember and appreciate the military men and women who gave their lives in the service of our country. However, we also have living vets, some of whom have now gone on to careers in the publishing world (and one of whom is a very good friend of mine), and I’m a big believer in remembering people’s service even after the official holidays have come and gone. One way to thank a veteran is to buy her books – but to buy them, you have to know that they exist, and that they’re an awesome read. That’s where this

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Week 4: Ebook Creation: Learn How, or Find an Expert

A guest post by author and editor Tammy Salyer: Treat your writing like a passion, but treat your novel like a business.   Learn how to create an ebook or hire someone to do it (including pros and cons of each option). For someone unfamiliar with HTML or CSS, creating an ebook may seem like black magic. But that doesn’t have to stop you from making ebooks your main self-published medium. Hundreds and hundreds of ebook creators have their shingle up, and a quick web search will find them for you. Better yet, if you’re part of a group of

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Know Your Business: Publishing and Distribution

A guest post by Speculative Fiction author and editor Tammy Salyer: Treat your writing like a passion, but treat your novel like a business. Research the distribution sites, their requirements, and how long they take to set up and use. There are two kinds of people in the world (outside of those who write and those who don’t), and they are those who obsess about the details and those who think of details as esoteric thought experiments that have little bearing on the obviously more important process of writing the next novel. But here’s the thing, and it bears repeating

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Creating Your Business Plan and Publishing Calendar

A guest post by Speculative Fiction author and editor Tammy Salyer: Treat your writing like a passion, but treat your novel like a business. Being an independently published author is extremely time intensive. Knowing that going in is the first consideration you need to include when evaluating your trajectory and goals. Much as you may outline your novel—with plot arcs, story goals, and finale outcomes—think of your business plan as the outline to your writing career. The following are the three universal steps (as I see them) to accomplish this. 1. Set realistic goals. The fact is, brand new unknown

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Introducing: The Self-Publishing Guest Series, by Tammy Salyer

Today, I’m delighted to introduce a new guest series on self-publishing and independent authors, written by my friend and fellow author Tammy Salyer. Tammy is an independent editor and author of the speculative fiction series SPECTRAS ARISE (which is one of my favorite recent Sci-Fi releases, and I encourage you to check it out) as well as two books of short stories. She’s a consummate professional and knows the self-publishing side of the business well, which is why I’m delighted she agreed to write this series over the next few weeks. And, with no further ado, here’s Tammy: Treat your writing

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Engineering an Alternate Reality…With Ninjas!

Please join me at Tammy Salyer–Alternative Reality Engineer, where I’m explaining why it took me half a million words to learn how to make a “one-shot kill,” and why I believe any author can succeed, provided he or she has the fortitude to keep on putting one word after the other. For those who don’t already know her, Tammy is the author of the SPECTRAS ARISE trilogy, a fantastic military science fiction series featuring former space marine turned smuggler Aly Erickson. I’ve read, and loved, both CONTRACT OF DEFIANCE and the sequel, CONTRACT OF BETRAYAL, and am eagerly awaiting the

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