Craig Martelle

This is the eleventh iteration of the TEU short story collections. I do one a year. Target is 20-25 stories. The cover is a Tom Edwards pre-made and that should give you an idea of what we’re looking at for content. Stories that would suit being under that cover. This one is exclusive to members of the IASFA. I intend to have about 5 to 10 headliners in this set and will open up the final slots to newer authors or authors who have not yet established themselves in the Sci-Fi arena. I always write an exclusive story for the TEU volumes.

Here are the particulars:

• – A science fiction short story or novelette of alien contact, colonization, adventure, or military. NO HORROR and no Sci-Fi Romance. Don’t run afoul of the cover – if it makes sense in that view, then it’ll work. A near-Earth technothriller wouldn’t fit.
• – Never before published and it will be exclusive to Amazon for 3 months. Many people write a reader magnet for their own world in order to get dual use from their stories. That’s fine, but make sure it stands alone, too, since many readers won’t know your world. If you want to find readers for your universe, you can’t have a story that doesn’t stand alone with potential new readers.
• – 6k to 8k words
• – This short story is not the first three chapters of a novel. It needs to stand apart in that it has an ending. It can be in your world but must stand on its own.
• – Only one submission per author, original material, please
• – Equal royalty split (no buy in) paid on/about January 15, 2026
• – You will get exclusive digital rights to your story returned to you when we close out in mid-December when I unpublish the digital volume. We’ll keep the paperback in perpetuity for consistency’s sake and so the newer authors can show their name with established authors on the Amazon page. If for some reason the rules regarding exclusivity change to include paperbacks, then we’ll pull the paperback down. I won’t encroach on an author’s rights. – Yes, everyone will have a contract. I pay a premium for Docusign, so I’m sure as heck going to use it!
• – Initial 500 words due by May 15th. If you can’t grip a reader in the first 500 words with a short story, they’ll skip your story. This means when I open my email on the morning of the 16th, Alaska time, I will have any last submissions. However, earlier is better. I will close submissions once I have enough stories. Carpe diem.
• – Submit in Word, in calibri or arial 12 point, and single spaced paragraphs with an extra half line space between paragraphs (do not put an extra carriage return between paragraphs and don’t tab your indents by all that’s holy – that’s not what I mean). Also, there will be a template in the files section – just use that and save yourself a lot of grief. If you write using a Mac, you’ll have to go through some gyrations to get your story into the template. Please get it right. Please.

Send your first 500 words to me at craig@craigmartelle.com – subject line needs to be TEU11- [your name] – [story title]. File name needs to be that, too. Early bird gets the worm. Once I’m satisfied the anthology is full, I won’t accept any more stories for the first 500 words. I usually get you feedback on your first 500 within a day or two. For the final stories, my beta readers determine who makes it in. Point to note – none of my beta readers are authors – they despise horror and dark themes as much as I do – if you write with the purpose to crush the soul of the reader, then this anthology is not for you).

You’re responsible for having the final story edited to a professional standard. I’m not that kind of editor (think acquisitions). If there are more than three typos in your final story, it will be rejected and if you have three typos or fewer, they will be fixed before we publish.

You must be an https://iasfa.org/join-iasfa IASFA member to participate

Authors must have at least one other science fiction work published so interested readers can find (and buy) more of your work.

If you clear the first round with me, I will put you on the list for the second round which means you’ll get a contract with more specifics surrounding the final format – write the rest of the story. I will run that through beta readers for final viability. If they like it, it remains in. If they don’t, it doesn’t make the final cut and you get your full rights returned at the time of rejection because we won’t license your work. Also, final stories will need to include a one-liner blurb after the title, author’s name in the file, and a 100-word (or so) bio at the end with a single link where you want to send an interested reader. Look for the anthology template in the files here.

The final story is due by August 7th. Follow submission guidelines, please. If your first 500 pass muster, then I’ll be looking for the full story as soon as you can do it. I’ll stop taking submissions once I have a full anthology.

The IASFA will be running the following free and discounted title promotions in 2025. Books can be discounted to Free, $0.99, $1.99, and $2.99 for these promotions.

January 26-30 – All Urban Fantasy
February23-27 – All Fantasy
March 23-27 – All Science Fiction
April 20-24 – UF Short Stories
May 25-29 – Fantasy Short Stories
June 22-26 – Science Fiction Short Stories
July 27-31 – All Urban Fantasy
August 24-28 – Sci-Fi/Fantasy – anything goes
September 21-25 Urban Fantasy Short Stories
October 26-30 – Cross Genre
November 23-27 – All Fantasy
December 26-30 All Science Fiction

Please read the pinned posts regarding participation in one of these promotions.

• you can include up to two titles
• This is for novellas and novel-length books (17,500 words or greater in the story)
• Make sure your price change is worldwide and is in effect by midnight BST for the first day of the promotion (May 19 – I change my price two days early).
• Use a universal book link because our subscribers are from all over the world and don’t necessarily buy from the US or UK store
• BookFunnel/StoryOrigin/other direct downloads cannot include email collection
• Check iasfa.org/draft-listing to see if your title uploaded (for a first-time upload and promotion inclusion)
• If you have already uploaded a title to the IASFA library, then don’t upload it again – won’t show right away and needs an admin to flip a digital switch. Give us a couple days to take care of it
• If you need to update a cover or blurb, then you have to contact an admin – send the information to julia@jfhuni.com or admin@iasfa.org with the title, author name, changes requested and cover attached (less than 1MB in size, preferably – just download the cover image from your Amazon product page).
• If you participate, you also should send out a newsletter with the promotion link during the promotion period as well as post on social media – please help us drive traffic to the page (https://iasfa.org/may24) – this link will be live during the promotion dates only (May 19-23, 2024).

All the graphics you may need are attached here.

Hop on over to the https://iasfa.org/apr24 page and take a look at the fantasy titles offered during this brief period in April. Act now to find your next favorite author at these free and ninety-nine cent titles.

This is the tenth iteration of the TEU short story collections. I do one a year. Target is 20-25 stories. The cover is a Tom Edwards pre-made and that should give you an idea of what we’re looking at for content. Stories that would suit being under that cover. This one is exclusive to members of the IASFA. I intend to have about 5 to 10 headliners in this set and will open up the final slots to newer authors or authors who have not yet established themselves in the Sci-Fi arena. I always have a story in the TEU volumes. Read to the end for all of the submission criteria.

Here are the particulars:

• A science fiction short story or novelette of alien contact, colonization, adventure, or military. NO HORROR and no Sci-Fi Romance. Don’t run afoul of the cover – if it makes sense in that view, then it’ll work. A near-Earth technothriller wouldn’t fit.
• Never before published and it will be exclusive to Amazon for 3 months. Many people write a reader magnet for their own world in order to get dual use from their stories. That’s fine, but make sure it stands alone, too, since many readers won’t know your world. If you want readers to come into your universe, you can’t have a story that doesn’t stand alone with potential new readers.
• 6k to 8k words
• This is not the first three chapters of a novel. It needs to stand apart in that it has an ending. It can be in your world, but must stand on its own.
• Only one submission per author, original material, please
• Equal royalty split (no buy-in) paid on/about January 15, 2025
• You will get digital rights to your story returned to you when we close out. We’ll keep the paperback in perpetuity for consistency’s sake and so the newer authors can show their name with established authors on the Amazon page. If for some reason the rules regarding exclusivity change to include paperbacks, then we’ll pull the paperback down. I won’t encroach on an author’s rights. – Yes, everyone will have a contract. I pay a premium for Docusign, so I’m sure as heck going to use it!
• Initial 500 words due by May 15th. If you can’t grip a reader in the first 500 words with a short story, they’ll skip your story. This means when I open my email on the morning of the 16th, Alaska time, I will have all of the submissions. Submit in Word, in calibri or arial 12 point, and single spaced paragraphs with an extra half line space between paragraphs (do not put an extra carriage return between paragraphs and don’t tab your indents by all that’s holy – that’s not what I mean). Also, there will be a template in the files section – just use that and save yourself a lot of grief. If you write using a Mac, you’ll have to go through some gyrations to get into the template. Please get it right. Please.

Send your first 500 words to me at craig@iasfa.org – subject line needs to be TEU10- [your name] – [story title]. File name needs to be that, too. Early bird gets the worm. Once I’m satisfied the anthology is full, I won’t accept any more stories (if you’ve been cleared to the second round). My beta readers determine who makes it into the final anthology. Point to note – none of my beta readers are authors – they despise horror and dark themes as much as I do – if you write with the purpose to crush the soul of the reader, then this anthology is not for you).

You’re responsible for having the final story edited to a professional standard. I’m not that kind of editor (think acquisitions). If there are more than three typos in your final story, it will be rejected and if you have three typos or fewer, they will be fixed before we publish.

You must be an https://iasfa.org/join-iasfa IASFA member to participate.

Authors must have at least one other science fiction work published so interested readers can find (and buy) more of your work.

If you clear the first round with me, I will put you on the list for the second round which means you’ll get a contract with more specifics surrounding the final format – write the rest of the story. I will run that through beta readers for final viability. If they like it, it remains in. If they don’t, it doesn’t make the final cut and you get your full rights returned at the time of rejection because we won’t license your work. Also, final stories will need to include a one-liner blurb after the title & author’s name in the file, and a 100-word (or so) bio at the end with a single link where you want to send an interested reader. Look for the anthology template in the files here.

The final story is due by August 15th. Follow submission guidelines, please. If your first 500 pass muster, then I’ll be looking for the full story as soon as you can do it. I’ll stop taking submissions once I have a full anthology. TEU10 is already up for pre-order for Sep 9.

I’ll provide the cover – a Tom Edwards cover because we only put the best covers on the TEU volumes. It is shown here.

I encourage you all to consider sharing the monthly sales promotions. Those are great opportunities to get involved and help each other. I don’t charge for this professional group. I pay for the website, newsletter, newsletter builder, and the pins that we’ve handed out at in-person events. These promotions are free and if you do a New Release, those are $5 and that money goes to our sysadmin as a bonus for his work on the website (above and beyond the monthly charges). I would hope that these promotions wildly exceed your expectations.

Here’s the promotion schedule for the rest of 2024. Put your short stories in promotions that are specifically for short stories. Please don’t put them in the “All” genre promotions. Those are intended for longer stories.

January 21-25 – All Urban Fantasy

February 25-29 – Cross Genre (like space fantasy – stories that don’t fit elsewhere, like Leap Day)

March 24-28 – Fantasy Short Stories

April 21-25 – All Fantasy

May 19-23 All Science Fiction

June 23-27 All Urban Fantasy

July 21-25 Fantasy Short Stories

August 25-29 Science Fiction Short Stories

September 22-26 All Fantasy

October 27-31 Urban Fantasy Short Stories

November 26-30 – Cross Genre

December 26-30 All Science Fiction

IASFA: The Expanding Universe 9 (TEU9) – Open Call.

This is the ninth iteration of the TEU short story collections. I do one a year. Target is 20-25 stories. The cover is a Tom Edwards pre-made and that should give you an idea of what we’re looking at for content. Stories that would suit being under that cover. This one is exclusive to members of the IASFA. I intend to have about 5 to 10 headliners in this set and will open up the final slots to newer authors or authors who have not yet established themselves. I always have a story in the TEU volumes.

Here are the particulars:

– A science fiction short story or novelette of alien contact, colonization, adventure, or military. NO HORROR and no Sci-Fi Romance.

– Never before published and it will be exclusive to Amazon for 3 months. Many people write a reader magnet for their own world in order to get dual use from their stories. That’s fine, but make sure it stands alone, too, since many readers won’t know your world. If you want readers to come into your universe, you can’t have a story that doesn’t stand alone with potential new readers.

– 6k to 8k words

– Only one submission per author, original material, please

– Equal royalty split (no buy in) paid on/about January 15, 2024

– You will get digital rights to your story returned to you when we close out. We’ll keep the paperback in perpetuity for consistency’s sake and so the newer authors can show their name with established authors on the Amazon page. If for some reason the rules regarding exclusivity change to include paperbacks, then we’ll pull the paperback down. I won’t encroach on an author’s rights. – Yes, everyone will have a contract. I pay a premium for Docusign, so I’m sure as heck going to use it!

– Initial 500 words due by May 15th. If you can’t grip a reader in the first 500 words with a short story, they’ll skip your story. This means when I open my email on the morning of the 16th, Alaska time, I will have all of the submissions. Submit in Word, in calibri or arial 12 point, and single spaced paragraphs with an extra half line space between paragraphs (do not put an extra carriage return between paragraphs and don’t tab your indents by all that’s holy – that’s not what I mean). Also, there will be a template in the files section – just use that and save yourself a lot of grief. If you write using a Mac, you’ll have to go through some gyrations to get into the template. Please get it right. Please.

Send your first 500 words to me at craig@iasfa.org – subject line needs to be TEU9- [your name] – [story title]. File name needs to be that, too. Early bird gets the worm. Once I’m satisfied the anthology is full, I won’t accept any more stories (if you’ve been cleared to the second round). My beta readers determine who makes it into the final anthology. Point to note – none of my beta readers are authors – they despise horror and dark themes as much as I do – if you write with the purpose to crush the soul of the reader, then this anthology is not for you).

You’re responsible for having the final story edited to a professional standard. I’m not that kind of editor (think acquisitions). If there are more than three typos in your final story, it will be rejected and those three typos will be fixed before we publish.

You must be an https://iasfa.org/join-iasfa IASFA member to participate

Authors must have at least one other science fiction work published so interested readers can find (and buy) more of your work.

If you clear the first round with me, I will put you on the list for the second round which means you’ll get a contract with more specifics surrounding the final format – write the rest of the story. I will run that through beta readers for final viability. If they like it, it remains in. If they don’t, it doesn’t make the final cut and you get your full rights returned at the time of rejection because we won’t license your work. Also, final stories will need to include a one-liner blurb after the title & author’s name in the file, and a 100-word (or so) bio at the end with a single link where you want to send an interested reader. Look for the anthology template in the files here.

The final story is due by August 15th. Don’t give me the final story on May 15th, only the first 500 words, even if you have the entire story written. Following submission guidelines is critical if you ever want to submit to a traditional publication for anything. I intend to publish the book on Sep 11.

I’ll provide the cover – a Tom Edwards cover because we only put the best covers on the TEU volumes. It is shown here.

In some of my best Space Opera reads of 2022, I’ve noticed a recurring theme of searching for humanity above all, and I love it! I pick up Space Opera for a glimpse at future civilizations, and when I do, I long for the humanity our heroes find that encourages them to push past whatever obstacles are in their way.

In Demon in White by Christopher Ruocchio, that search discovers a library on a planet at the end of civilization.  What secrets of our distant past might explain how his generation arrived at such a feat? Ruocchio catalogs the journey of the most interesting man in the universe, who’ll wage war with empires boasting spaceships 500 miles long. The scope is beyond my imagination, yet I am obsessed with trying.

With ships and decades passing by while we enjoy the view, the greater focus in that series is on the secrets of humanity. At war with his royal parents and heritage, our hero is compelled to move through humanity’s dark present while researching civilization-ending secrets from humanity’s dark past.

I love that trope of searching for Earth. Isn’t it ironic that I live on Earth, yet  I’m fascinated with reading books about people star systems away, dreaming of finding an inhabited Earth? Do you like those kinds of books too?

No doubt, we long to unravel the mystery of how our people left the Milky Way and survived! 

But it wouldn’t be interesting without seeing how they survived, and how the current generation works together to rediscover the home of their dreams.

Their home is our dream, and perhaps vice versa. We’re a funny lot, humans. Maybe that’s why Bobiverse is so funny. Not to mention my theory Dennis is an AI writing about humanity-loving AI, and I’m waiting for him to laugh at us all some day.

I digress. Another epic Space Opera I’ve binged this year is the Backyard Starship series by Chaney and Maggert. In case you were wondering, the hero discovers a starship in his backyard. Yeah! Guess who it’s from. See: excitement in the search for humanity trumps scientific exploration every time. The ship and its components are fascinating, but the crew and what they long for is why we stick around, turning pages to see how they’ll survive the next bad guy.

I just picked up a $.99 gem from Partlow and Holden called Pirate Bounty. The story centers around a war hero who comes home to familial betrayals of the highest order, yet what’s he to do? He’s going to take a rusty ol’ ship that’ll probably break down in the middle of nowhere and you and I both know we’ll love it. First, he must amass a new crew of misfits—like us all—and explore! Survive, humanity! 

That’s what I’m loving about Space Opera these days. I can’t wait to uncover some gems for my reading list for 2023.

If you’d like to stick around for the deals and fun times we’ll have reading, drop a line on the subscriber page and hold onto your butts! We have a starter bundle of 5 free books to ignite those boosters and send you off in style.

In 2023, we will have both free and 99-cent books in the same promotion. All free is limiting for many authors where 99 cents opens the door to far greater worlds. For those who aren’t aware, setting a book’s price to free can be challenging because not all book distributors will match that price. But setting a book to 99 cents is easy across all platforms. In any case, here is the 2023 calendar of promotions.

2023 Free & 99-cent Promotions

  Jan 22-26 – Epic/High Fantasy

  Feb 19-23 – Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian

  Mar 26-30 – Military SF

  Apr 23-27 – LitRPG/Cyberpunk/GameLit

  May 21-25 – Space Adventure/Swords & Sorcery

  Jun 25-29 – Urban Fantasy

  Jul 23-27 – Science Fiction Short Stories (published separately with covers)

  Aug 20-24 – Fantasy Short Stories (published separately with covers)

  Sep 24-28 – All Science Fiction

  Oct 22-26 – All Fantasy

  Nov 13-17 – LitRPG/Cyberpunk/GameLit

  Dec 17-21 – Space Opera

Since a huge swath of our members are already attending 20Books Vegas 2022 at Bally’s, from November 14-18, it’s during the show.

Although it may seem like we’re not very active on here, we are active and moving the organization forward. We want to have more paid promotions and instead of the five-day Free promotions each month, we’re looking at 99 cent promotions. Group bundles are difficult to market and anthologies are a challenge to put together. How do we accomplish it all? Lots of hours burning the midnight oil and back up to see the sun rise.

What are you doing to move your career forward? This is the greatest task for most new writers. They don’t know what to do next. And they count on others to promote their stuff. The best marketing is a broad approach. And where better can you learn that in an intense five-day conference with 180 sessions and 140 guest speakers including some of the top names in the business.

Back to 20Books Vegas – you should come if you are serious about a career as an author. Even if you can’t make the in-person show, you should sign up for the virtual option which is only $25.

http://20booksvegas.com

Drop your first in series post-apoc titles into this promotion. If you’re in Kindle Unlimited, use your five free days. If you’re not and Amazon has price-matched to free, then use your books2read or other universal link. If not, then use a BookFunnel/Story Origin direct download (with email collection turned off).

At the bottom of this post, I’ll copy in all the particulars about IASFA free book promotions.

Post Apoc isn’t necessarily my genre even though I have 24 books in it. But I do enjoy a good PA story based on a view of a destroyed Earth.

You must be an IASFA member to participate. Load up your book using the book entry form. Please take care filling this out. There are various dropdown boxes that default to places that will send your title into the ozone. https://iasfa.org/book-entry-form/

If you aren’t sure whether you’ve already uploaded your book or not, then check out your library at this link. https://iasfa.org/author-index

And once you’ve uploaded your book, check to see if it populates into the draft listing (if your book was already in the Author Index, there is one extra manual step so it won’t appear for a day or three). https://iasfa.org/draft-listing/

You can find the details for a free book promotion here – https://www.facebook.com/groups/IASFA.ORG/posts/3260438374235547/

IASFA – Military Science Fiction Free Book Promotion, March 27-31Books that are free during that timeframe (could be KDP Select free days, could be permafree, could be direct download free) on the military science fiction theme.

For IASFA members only – upload your book here and make sure you get the drop down menus correct, they are self-explanatory. https://iasfa.org/book-entry-form/

Once your book is uploaded (it it’s already in the library – check the author index first (https://iasfa.org/author-index), then there will be a few days delay as it has to be manually moved to the listing), then check the Draft Listing to make sure it’s there. https://iasfa.org/draft-listing/

This may seem like a few too many moving parts, but this is how we do it. For the cost of these promotions, you can’t complain.

Captain’s Log: The Expanding Universe 8 (TEU8) – Open Call. This is the eighth iteration of the TEU short story collections. I do one a year. Target is 20-25 stories. The cover is a Tom Edwards pre-made and that should give you an idea of what we’re looking at for content. Stories that would suit being under that cover. This one is exclusive to members of the IASFA. I intend to have about 5 to 10 headliners in this set and will open up the final slots to newer authors or authors who have not yet established themselves. I always have a story in the TEU volumes.

Here are the particulars:

– A science fiction short story or novelette of alien contact, colonization, adventure, or military. NO HORROR and no Sci-Fi Romance.

– Never before published and it will be exclusive to Amazon for 3 months. Many people write a reader magnet for their own world in order to get dual use from their stories. That’s fine, but make sure it stands alone, too, since many readers won’t know your world. If you want readers to come into your universe, you can’t have a story that doesn’t stand alone with potential new readers.

– 6k to 8k words- Only one submission per author, original material, please- Equal royalty split (no buy in) and I will not be paying an advance this year like I have in past years.

– You will get digital rights to your story returned to you when we close out. We’ll keep the paperback in perpetuity for consistency’s sake and so the newer authors can show their name with established authors on the Amazon page. If for some reason the rules regarding exclusivity change to include paperbacks, then we’ll pull the paperback down. I won’t encroach on an author’s rights.

– Yes, everyone will have a contract. I pay a premium for Docusign, so I’m sure as heck going to use it!

– Initial 500 words due by May 15th. If you can’t grip a reader in the first 500 words with a short story, they’ll skip your story. This means when I open my email on the morning of the 16th, Alaska time, I will have all of the submissions. Submit in Word, in calibri or arial 12 point, and single spaced paragraphs with an extra half line space between paragraphs (do not put an extra carriage return between paragraphs and don’t tab your indents by all that’s holy – that’s not what I mean). Also, there will be a template in the files section – just use that and save yourself a lot of grief. If you write using a Mac, you’ll have to go through some gyrations to get into the template. Please get it right. Please.

Send your first 500 words to me at craig@iasfa.org – subject line needs to be TEU8- [your name] – [story title]. File name needs to be that, too. Early bird gets the worm. Once I’m satisfied the anthology is full, I won’t accept any more stories (if you’ve been cleared to the second round). My beta readers determine who makes it into the final anthology. Point to note – none of my beta readers are authors – they despise horror and dark themes as much as I do – if you write with the purpose to crush the soul of the reader, then this anthology is not for you).You’re responsible for having the final story edited to a professional standard. I’m not that kind of editor (think acquisitions). If there are more than three typos in your final story, it will be rejected and those three typos will be fixed before we publish.

You must be an https://iasfa.org/join-iasfa IASFA member to participate

Authors must have at least one other science fiction work published so interested readers can find (and buy) more of your work.

If you clear the first round with me, I will put you on the list for the second round which means you’ll get a contract with more specifics surrounding the final format – write the rest of the story. I will run that through beta readers for final viability. If they like it, it remains in. If they don’t, it doesn’t make the final cut and you get your full rights returned at the time of rejection because we won’t license your work. Also, final stories will need to include a one-liner blurb after the title & author’s name in the file, and a 100-word (or so) bio at the end with a single link where you want to send an interested reader. Look for the anthology template in the files here.

The final story is due by August 15th. Don’t give me the final story on May 15th, only the first 500 words, even if you have the entire story written. Following submission guidelines is critical if you ever want to submit to a traditional publication for anything. I intend to publish the book on Sep 12. I’ll provide the cover – a Tom Edwards cover because we only put the best covers on the TEU volumes.

IASFA – Many are called but few chosen. The IASFA Space Adventure Book Bundle from March 1-21, 2022By paid, I mean that we push this set for direct sale via BookFunnel and an equal share (minus 15% for BF and any PayPal fees) of the revenue is paid out to all participants.

Open call for submissions.

The limits are the book must not be in KDP Select (KU) during the bundle promo period. The book cannot have been free for the previous year (from April 2021 to March 2022). And that if your book gets selected to participate, you will support our promotional efforts with your own. This isn’t a passive project.

We’re looking for 12-15 SF Space Adventure (includes Mil SF, Space Opera, Galactic, Alien Contact, and those genres that touch on SF adventure, but NOT SF Romance) to include in this bundle. If you put a book in the bundle last year, you can still apply, but based on what we get, we may or may not select your title. It all depends how the whole shapes up in order to draw the most readers to the package which will be priced at $9.99 for 15 books or $7.99 if we only have 12.

https://craigmartelle.wufoo.com/forms/scifi-book-bundle-2022/

This is not first come, first served. I will choose the best representative titles, even if they are fewer than 12. I’m looking for the very best stuff.

10Derek Shupert, Cat Banks and 8 others3 CommentsLikeComment

IASFA – Promotions in 2022We’re going to go with both FREE and 99 cents in the monthly promotions without the additional listbuilding element (which we will do separately through paid advertising to get us over that 10k list hump – we will ask you to include language in your newsletters to ask folks to join the IASFA list, but it’s not the primary effort in 2022).

Here it is and I don’t want people to bitch about their genre not being included. That’s why I have the “All SF/All Fantasy/UF” categories. You can pimp your stuff in there. I did not include SFR this year as a separate promo because the SFR promotion in 2021 cost us subscribers. It was not just ineffective, but set us back. We have not built a list that is accepting of the SFR genre.

How to do a 99 cent promotion? More info on that later. It’ll probably be $5 for each 99 cent submission, just like the new release announcements. We’ll verify/clarify/informify after 20Books Vegas. IASFA 2022 Free & 99 cent Promotions

• Jan 23-27 – YA Science Fiction
• Feb 20-24 – High Fantasy
• Mar 27-31 – Military SF
• Apr 24-28 – Urban Fantasy
• May 22-26 – Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian
• Jun 26-30 – LitRPG/Cyberpunk
• Jul 24-28 – Science Fiction Short Stories (published separately with covers)
• Aug 21-25 – Fantasy Short Stories (published separately with covers)
• Sep 25-29 – All Science Fiction
• Oct 23-27 – All Fantasy
• Nov 19-23 – YA Urban Fantasy
• Dec 18-22 – Space Opera

Paid Promotions – IASFA Paid Book Bundles: Generally, this will be a first in series of complete novels or even standalones. These cannot have been FREE during the previous year as that dilutes their saleability. We do a direct sale via BookFunnel so readers can access this sale from anywhere in the world. We run this for three weeks and all participating authors are required to promote to their lists and on social media during the promotion period. Not everyone who applies will be included as an optimal number of participants is about 15. We only want to include the best of the best. We’ll post in here when we’re ready to screen titles and build the bundle. Participating authors will get a media kit in advance with links, graphics, and promotional language.

March 1-21, 2022 – Science Fiction Space Adventure (includes Mil SF, Space Opera, Galactic, Alien Contact, and those genres that touch on SF adventure, but NOT SF Romance). This is for complete novels only (at least 40,000 words) and the book must be not exclusive to Amazon for this period as we’ll be selling it wide in a bundle with other titles.

September 1-21, 2022 – Urban Fantasy (all genres except for steamy – no on screen sex). This is for complete novels only (at least 40,000 words) and the book must be not exclusive to Amazon for this period as we’ll be selling it wide in a bundle with other titles.

Media Kit for Participating Authors in the IASFA Free Book Promotion that runs from October 12-16. We strongly encourage participating authors to hit their list during this promotion and push the info below – you are more than welcome to copy/paste what we have or customize the promo language for your readership. The purpose of these promotions is twofold – 1) build the IASFA list (which is at 6k+ and growing) and 2) give your books exposure to an SFF-specific readership.

IASFA is a professional organization supporting you while you support us, not with money, but with sharing promotions like this which then help the next promotion be even more impactful. A rising tide lifts all boats – help us to help you.

Copy/paste the info from below this line (not the stuff above – that’s just for you, our participating author) or use your own text, but for this promotion, direct your readers to the sign-up link for the group and not directly to your book. That is the foundation on when we’ve built the IASFA – authors helping authors.

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This month we’re headed into the fantastic. Click the super-secret link below to see a hidden portal’s load of Fantasy books.

If science fiction is about the possibilities, then fantasy is about impossibilities. Dragons wheeling overhead as wizards exchange fiery salvos. Swords bequeathed to unexpecting ordinary folk to set them on their road to greatness. Fantastic creatures, familiars and more.

An escape from the real world into something glittering and larger than life.

From Robert E. Howard to JRR Tolkien, the fantasy masters took divergent paths to deliver us where we are today.

Sword and sorcery didn’t resonate in the 1930s when Conan wore the crown of Aquilonia on a troubled brow. By the 1960s, hobbits, elves, orcs, the undead, wizards, and a dragon fought an epic war beyond the understanding of common folk.

Epic is the right word as small decisions led to brave actions that changed the course of fantastic histories.

What do we have today? Smaller scale, grander visions, still epic and all free. Sink your teeth into this collection and find your next favorite fantasy author, right here.

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There’s Fantasy in there! Come on board today and see what there is to see, find new worlds to explore and new people to befriend. October is Fantasy month, at least for the IASFA.

Find your new favorite author with this massively huge selection of Fantasy books (all sub-genres) that you can try at no risk as they are all free, but only for a limited time. October 12-16. Join our newsletter and you, too, will see what there is to see.

Available only from the IASFA (International Association of Science-Fiction & Fantasy Authors). You can’t get there with one click because we’re fighting the scum of the wasteland. Here is what it takes to get you to your free books.

1) click this link https://iasfa.org/get-free-books/

2) Become an Insider by filling out your name (or online persona) and email address

3) Answer the math problem because we know ravagers suck at math

4) Check your email – you should have received a confirmation email thanking you for subscribing, but you have to click on this to confirm your confirmation because we know that is the kiss of death for scum-sucking bottom feeders

5) Your subscription is confirmed! Go back to your email for the final confirmation which, during the free promotion period, will include the super-secret link that takes you into the back-end of the site where you can find incredible titles from some of the top names in the genre as well as established newcomers. If you join before the promotion timeframe, then you’ll get an email on the first day of the promotion with the super-secret link.

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The International Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors (IASFA) is a professional organization focused on aligning readers with authors. We are building the organization that currently numbers over 700 authors published within the SFF genres. Stay tuned as each month we’ll offer full book samplers for free along with less frequent paid book bundle promotions. Help yourself find your next favorite author.

Right now, we’re running the Science Fiction Romance Free Book Promotion – that is through August 14. We’ve hit our list and have asked participating authors to hit their lists with the promotion and everyone wins.

That’s what the free book promotions are all about – build IASFA’s list and get extra focused eyeballs on your work. 2021 is focused on building our list for member promotions. In 2022, we’ll start including 99 cent promotions for fans of Sci-Fi and Fantasy. We send our newsletter once or twice a month depending if we have something else going on besides the free book promotion.

We’ve already started including new release announcements at the bottom of the free book promotions. If you’ve published a book since the last newsletter went out, then you can include it at a cost of $5 (which goes to defray the costs of maintaining our website).

Newsletter dates in 2021 are:
Sep 14
Oct 12
Nov 16
Dec 14

If you publish a book on Sep 14, you can run it as a new book announcement in the Oct 12 newsletter. If you publish it on Sep 10, you can get it into the Sep 14 newsletter. If you are in the gray area of Sep 11 to Sep 13, then you can put it into the Oct 12 NL unless you have it on pre-order and can upload the details on or before Sep 10. Clear as mud? The limiting factor is there are a number of steps we have to do manually and they take time to get right and get double checked. So we don’t jam ourselves up against a deadline.

Anthologies – The Expanding Universe 7 is in the final stages of story review. Submissions for consideration were due two months ago, so this is closed for new stuff. It will go live on Sep 13 and the pre-order is already available. This anthology is exclusively for IASFA members.

All Science Fiction Free Book Promotion – Sep 14-18. You will be able to sign up for this starting on Aug 15. Full books only, permafree or with your five free days if you’re in Kindle Unlimited.

All Fantasy Free Book Promotion – Oct 12-16. You can sign up for this come Aug 15, too. Make sure you sign up for the right promotion – there’s a dropdown box on the form. We had people sign up for the new book announcement when they meant to sign up for the SFR free book promotion in this last one.

All Urban Fantasy Free Book Promotion – Nov 16-20.

All Space Opera – Dec 14-18.

The upload page is https://iasfa.org/book-entry-form/ – but we deactivate the page during the free promos because it wreaks havoc on the current promotion and site. The upload will be live on August 15th. If you upload a book for a promotion, it automatically adds it to the library if it’s not there already. If you find yourself paying $5, you are uploading your book to the new book announcement and not a free book promotion.

Media Kit for Participating Authors in the IASFA Free Book Promotion that runs from August 10-14. We strongly encourage participating authors to hit their list during this promotion and push the info below – you are more than welcome to copy/paste what we have or customize the promo language for your readership. The purpose of these promotions is twofold – 1) build the IASFA list (which is at 6k+ and growing) and 2) give your books exposure to an SFF-specific readership.

IASFA is a professional organization supporting you while you support us, not with money, but with sharing promotions like this which then help the next promotion be even more impactful. A rising tide lifts all boats – help us to help you.

Copy/paste the info from below this line (not the stuff above – that’s just for you, our participating author) or use your own text, but for this promotion, direct your readers to the sign-up link for the group and not directly to your book. That is the foundation on when we’ve built the IASFA – authors helping authors.

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All great science fiction has romance, but some have more than other. Romance is a critical element of any store. Few exist beyond the draw of love and then passion. Passion gives us zest for life. People like to see selfless acts for love’s sake. I bet if you give these books a look, you’ll find you might like them, even if you’ve never read a romance before. Because you’ve read science fiction before.

Kirk and the Orion slave girl who went on to become Batwoman… But I digress.

Are you in the mood for a Happily Ever After? Do you love the electricity in the air when two are meant to be one? Maybe Science Fiction Romance is for you.

This month we have a small but mighty selection of free SFR books. SFR has all the world-building you love, but the main plot focuses on the relationship between the main characters. Mighty, blue-skinned warriors rescuing human damsels in distress. Powers of the mind connecting characters in a romantic partnership to last the ages. Aliens and humans falling in love. With plenty of action and lots of steam.

Find your new guilty pleasure with this selection of Science Fiction Romance books. Free August 10-14 only from the cupid-robots at IASFA.

Available only from the eminently mysterious IASFA (International Association of Science-Fiction & Fantasy Authors). You can’t get there with one click because we’re fighting the scum of the wasteland. Here is what it takes to get you to your free books.

1) click this link https://iasfa.org/get-free-books/

2) Become an Insider by filling out your name (or online persona) and email address

3) Answer the math problem because we know ravagers suck at math

4) Check your email – you should have received a confirmation email thanking you for subscribing, but you have to click on this to confirm your confirmation because we know that is the kiss of death for scum-sucking bottom feeders

5) Your subscription is confirmed! Go back to your email for the final confirmation which, during the free promotion period, will include the super-secret link that takes you into the back-end of the site where you can find incredible titles from some of the top names in the genre as well as established newcomers. If you join before the promotion timeframe, then you’ll get an email on the first day of the promotion with the super-secret link.

________________________________________

The International Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors (IASFA) is a professional organization focused on aligning readers with authors. We are building the organization that currently numbers over 600 authors published within the SFF genres. Stay tuned as each month we’ll offer full book samplers for free along with less frequent paid book bundle promotions. Help yourself to find your next favorite author.

For the New Release listing in last week’s newsletter, we had over 800 total clicks. That’s on all titles combined. I still call it a huge win because people are looking and these people are readers of your genre. Your cover and blurb must stand on their own to draw readers to your books. That’s just how things work in the world of today.

For the Dark Fantasy Free Promotion – in the end, we gained 48 new subscribers and had a total of 8000 clicks into the free promotion. That doesn’t work for me. We’ll have to rethink if/how we do a dark anything promotion. If someone is successful at promoting this stuff we’ll need a hand next time, because the current listings didn’t bring many new subscribers. Part of the deal in running these is the authors who participate are to push the group. You get free exposure to our growing list of focused SFF readers at the cost of you saying nice things about the IASFA and encouraging your fans to sign up for the list.

August is Sci-Fi Romance a huge and growing genre. And September is all Science Fiction, even stuff that had been promoted in one of our newsletters before. I expect this promotion to be absolutely immense. And we’ve revised our book entry form. Rob McClellan has done a masterful job of setting us up for success. When you check out the new https://iasfa.org/book-entry-form, you’ll find that you can sign up for monthly free promotions for the rest of the year along with the new release announcements. I’ll have books in the new release announcements for most of the rest of the year. I’ve been stockpiling for over a year now and will drop a deluge from October through December.

Join in today and start realizing more value from your words by finding the right readers for your books.