Craig Martelle

Looking good on the submissions. We’ll have a media kit pretty soon. If you have a title that fits and can make it free, then upload it here https://iasfa.org/draft-listing/.

If you can’t get Amazon to price match to free, just put your title on BookFunnel and make sure that email collection is off and give us that link. And also put your contact info, second book in the series, and all that other good stuff in your book’s front and back matter. Give the fans a way to find your next title.

The Dark Fantasy will be announced to our list of 6300 subscribers on July 13th once we’ve verified that all titles are showing as “free.”

And this newsletter that we send to the IASFA list will be the first one to announce new releases. I think we’re currently at 25 books listed as we’ll accept anything published in 2021. Next month, it’ll only be for books published since July 13th.

https://iasfa.org/book-launch/ – this service is $5/title and these funds will pay for the website. I’ve been filling the shortcoming between the costs and donations as well as paying for the list builder ads we are currently running on Facebook. There are no dues to join IASFA, so these costs can be paid by the optional resources we provide.

IASFA New Book Announcement – in each newsletter announcing the next round of free books as part of the monthly promotion. We will try running this announcement and see if we can get any traction.

It’s for books published in the month since the last newsletter. There can be no overlap. The first newsletter with the new book announcement will be sent on July 13. Anything published this year, but only one per author. After that, it’ll be from July 14 to Aug 10 only.

Here’s what the fill-in form looks like. Please follow the directions as I’m listing them here and in the form.

Universal links only for the new release because IASFA has an international audience.

Taglines and one-liners. Your cover (even small, it can be high impact), and that engaging hook, that will get people to click over. Then it’s up to your blurb on your listing wherever the readers land.

Your cover file must be 100kb or smaller. The attached image is of the first ones uploaded for the first NL. This is the resolution I look at all my covers because when people browse on their phones, they need to be able to see your stuff. Ignore the message that says you can upload to 10Mb in size – that’s the form’s default and I can’t change that – follow the instructions. And please name your file your book title. If you want to be sure, use your last name and book title. Both are perfectly fine. martelle-EndDays1.jpg is a good file. I have to download these separately from the excel spreadsheet. If I can’t match your cover to the entry in about two seconds, it’s headed for the trash bin.

At this point, these rules seem strict, but this is just me doing this. I can’t farm this out to anyone else until I’m sure that it works like it’s supposed to. I’m trying to make this work for all of us – please help me to help you. You must be an IASFA member to participate.

And I am going to start charging for these to offset my monthly costs for the website – probably $5 but no more.
https://craigmartelle.wufoo.com/forms/iasfa-new-book-announcement/

Next up in the monthly free book promotions is Dark Fantasy from July 13-17. This isn’t Dark Romance but anything else that falls into the Dark Fantasy realm. If your book is in Kindle Unlimited, just use your five Free Promotion days in order to participate. If your book is permafree, then sign up.

https://iasfa.org/book-entry-form/ You must be an IASFA member to participate.

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.

In the depths of space we’ll find the greatest mysteries, the most fantastic treasures, and things which shouldn’t be discovered. But discover them we will – all new Space Adventure bundle available for a limited time. Get all 17 books for only $7.99.

https://20bookpacks.com/SpaceAdventure

Initial submissions for consideration are now closed. The deadline was yesterday and I do not accept late submissions. First 500 words have all been reviewed. I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten back with everyone. If I haven’t gotten back with you, then there’s a glitch in the matrix.

If you were approved, then you would have received a contract. If not, then it didn’t give me what I was looking for in this volume. The beta readers are hitting this hard with an extremely critical eye. Out of the first nine final stories submitted, two were rejected for not being publication ready (technical errors abounded like spacing and typos), three were rejected for story issues, and two were accepted. The others are still being reviewed.

The beta readers are the final arbiters because these stories are for readers, not other authors. No other authors will read these until after they are included in the volume. To some, this is backwards, but to me, this is the only way – readers buy our books. Books written for critics generally don’t do well at all with the general population. IASFA is all about helping you to sell more books. Period.

In any case, we should have around 20 final stories for TEU7. I look forward to announcing who they are as soon as we have the stories locked in. If you’ve made it to the next round and have a contract, reminder that your final, publication-ready story is due no later than August 15th.

Can you make your Post-Apoc first in series free to buy from June 8th through the 12th? Both Permafree and Kindle Unlimited (use your free days as part of the KU program)? Then you’ll want to join this massive promotion as a benefit of being a member of the International Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Authors.

We’re looking for novels only (at least 40k words) and we’ll promote this bundle to our readership and you’ll join us in promoting, all at no cost to you. We’ll provide the media kit for you to share with your readers. You’ll get more eyeballs on your book and if the readers find your stuff worthy, then they’ll continue reading, which means buying or borrowing in KU. Keep earning your keep as an author by telling stories that readers are willing to pay for.

• Must be a member of IASFA
• Post-Apoc Full-Length Novel
• Free to buy from June 8-12, 2021

Join us by uploading your book at https://iasfa.org/book-entry-form/

Media Kit for Participating Authors in the IASFA Free Book Promotion that runs from May 11 through 15. All participating authors need to hit their list during this promotion and push the info below – you are more than welcome to copy/paste as it is or customize it for your readership. The purpose of these promotions is twofold – 1) build the IASFA list (which is at 3k 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 helps 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)

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From May 11^th through the 15^th, pick up enough free LitRPG/GameLit/Cyberpunk novels to fill your summer reading needs.

Play the game, win the prize, or die.

Dakota Krout had this to say about the genre: “LitRPG is progression fantasy or science fiction bound by the rules of a video game. It uses a hard-magic system that allows the readers an in-depth look at those rules, which ensures consistency and allows for the mitigation of power creep.”

Available only from the mysterious IASFA. This link takes you to the sign-up, where there are a few more steps because the evil internet trolls have attacked and we must hold them at bay.

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 trolls 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 trolldom

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 well-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.

Find your next favorite author right here, right now.

And next month, get ready for the end of the world as we know it – Post-Apocalyptic titles will tease your reading fancy from June 9-13.

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.

IASFA – Space Adventure Paid Book Bundle Judging by the most unscientific poll, we’ll run a Space Adventure Paid Book Bundle from June 14-July 4. I know those dates aren’t fully optimal as July 4th isn’t necessarily a reading holiday, but we can load up reading devices before people in the US head to the beach. We can get those Aussies who are shivering in the frigid +10C temps:)

We sell these bundles of 20+ books for $9.99 each. They sell pretty well like that. Plus, you control your front and back matter to bring readers into your other stuff.

The details are (you must be an IASFA member to participate)

• June 14-July 4
• Book cannot have been Free for three months prior.
• Book also needs to be higher priced than 99 cents (gotta keep that value proposition in a good place)
• Space Adventure, galactic colonization, alien contact, some space opera (if they are adventuring)
• Full books only – at least 40k words Book cannot be in Kindle Unlimited during the time of the promotion as we’ll do direct sales from BookFunnel. If you’re accepted, you’ll upload your book yourself, along with the cover and the blurb. It’s easy to pull a book from KU early. We’ll provide instructions if you need them.
• There will be a contract and you’ll have some obligations to share with your list and promote the bundle along with all the participants.
• Every participating book gets an equal cut of the proceeds, minus the 15% for BookFunnel along with any PayPal fees. If you submit a trilogy, that’s one cut.
• Cannot be a book that has already been in one of our bundles

https://craigmartelle.wufoo.com/forms/space-adventure-book-bundle-2021/

IASFA – LitRPG/GameLit/Cyberpunk Free Promo May 11-15 For authors writing in that genre/those genres, you can upload the book you’ll include for free here.

https://iasfa.org/book-entry-form/

Understand that this is five days, so if you have a permafree, you’re good. If your book is in Kindle Unlimited, set your free days for May 11-15. We accept all appropriate genre titles whether wide or exclusive. That’s why these promotions are only five days long.

Media Kit for Participating Authors in the IASFA Free Book Promotion that runs from April 13 through 17. All participating authors need to hit their list during this promotion and push the info below – you are more than welcome to copy/paste as it is or customize it for your readership. The purpose of these promotions is twofold – 1) build the IASFA list (which is at 3k 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 helps 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)

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Step into spring with Urban Fantasy. From shifters to mages, vampires to Fae, and modern-day sword wielders, we have it all. Do you prefer heroes who protect mankind from demons and mayhem, or powerful dragons obsessed with treasure? Perhaps tales of magical creatures like basilisks and kraken are your thing.  Danger and chaos come calling in these Urban Fantasies.

From April 13^th through the 17^th, pick up enough free Urban Fantasy novels to satisfy the hungriest of witches and wizards. Grab the stories that will keep you up all night and leave the world behind.

Available only from the mysterious IASFA. We’ll strengthen the wards to keep evil at bay while you devour stories to titillate and entertain.

Find your next favorite author right here.

And next month, get ready to play with LitRPG, GameLit, and Cyberpunk.

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.

This is the seventh 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 15 headliners in this set and will open up the final five to ten slots to newer authors or authors who have not yet established themselves.

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 pre-pay $75 to $100 in royalties (contract says $75, but I’ll probably pay $100 based on horsepower within the set)

• 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 June 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 15th, 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)

Send your first 500 words to me at craig@iasfa.org – subject line needs to be TEU7- [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, this doesn’t apply because you’re in the final running. You still may not make the final cut as my beta readers determine who makes it into the final anthology. Point to note – none of my beta readers are authors).

You’re responsible for having the final story edited to a professional standard. I’m not that kind of editor (think acquisitions).

You must be an 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.

The final story is due by August 15th. Don’t give me the final story on June 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 13.

IASFA – although it may look like we’re just another promo site, that couldn’t be furthest from the truth.

The International Association of Science-Fiction and Fantasy Authors is a group of professional authors. We’re doing the promos right now in order to build a substantive list from which to interact with SFF readers. This group is about helping each other understand better ways to write, publish, and promote your books, whether you contract with traditional publishing houses, publish through independent publishers, or publish your own books. I do all three making me the epitome of a hybrid author.

I sell a lot of books, but don’t have one single big winner. But with each new book that brings people into my substantive backlist, I get bumps across a broad range of books, selling whole series, one click at a time. It makes for a nice income, far and above anything I would get as a royalty advance.

Being the master of my own destiny has worked out very well for me and I try to share as much of that as possible, because I am content with my life and want others to be content with theirs.

Helping others to help themselves, as fellow SFF professionals. The rising tide lifts all boats.

That’s what IASFA is all about.

Talented authors. Remarkable stories. One incredible science fiction collection. IASFA brings you a massive science fiction book bundle!

Bestselling and debut authors have created worlds where invasions are apocalyptic and space empires are in peril. The universe is beyond our understanding…and sometimes, what we don’t know can kill us. Aliens, warships, royalty, intrigue, and battle, sometimes fought only within one’s mind, other times with railguns, plasma beams, and blasters. Never a dull a moment as you choose from more than twenty full-length books.

When we discover we’re not alone in the universe, will you be prepared? IASFA’s Science Fiction Book Bundle, available now. https://20bookpacks.com/IASFA-Sci-Fi-Book-Bundle

For lovers of Science Fiction & Fantasy – a monthly delivery of FREE Sci-Fi and Fantasy books. Share your email address with us and we’ll send you a link each month. 

Sign up here. https://iasfa.org/get-free-books/

If you’ve already signed up, hang loose because you don’t need to sign up again. You’ll be getting an email shortly from us with the link to this month’s offering.

Aliens – get some today. For free. Because everyone needs an alien in their life, even if it’s only your book buddy.

March is all about Alien Science Fiction – the benign, the creepy, and the outright dangerous. Do you get a thrill at the thought of first contact? Do you revel in alien overlords begging to be overthrown? Do you long to explore the mysteries left behind by ancient alien races? You can discover all that and more in this month’s free books. Alien adventures abound.

Exclusive from March 9th through the 13th, more Alien Sci Fi than you can shake a blaster at. Grab the stories that will keep you up all night and leave the world behind. Free books from the benevolent

Next month, magic and mayhem with Urban Fantasy

The next free book promotion will be alien science fiction. The book must be free from March 9th through the 13th. Permafree are welcome as well as books that run their free days while in KDP Select. You must set your book to free to buy during the days of the promotion and when you sign up, you’ll need to use a universal link (like geni.us or books2read) because we have readers from around the world. If you offer your book via BookFunnel, you must not have email collection turned on. IASFA collects the email as part of this promotion, but IASFA shows your book to a broad audience.

In this case, “book” means at least novella in length – that’s 17,500 words or more. I don’t want to see short stories or novelettes in here as readers are expecting more robust works (not surprising what people expect to get for free, but we’ve set a standard for that hook book, the one that gets them into the rest of your work). And this book must be complete. It can’t be the first ten chapters of a longer book. That’s not what we’re doing here – that’s what I would call a bait and switch. Please don’t do that to us as we’ll lose readers when angry subscribers come for us with torches and buckets of tar.

These promotions are to get your books in front of new readers and to continue building the IASFA newsletter list with quality subscribers. Right now we have over 2200 active subscribers to our list. We started this effort in January 2021, so six weeks to 2200 new subs. Our target is 20,000 subscribers by the end of the year. We’ll use this list for promotions (for discounted books, new launches, and free promotions) on a schedule of sending a newsletter twice a month.

As part of including your book in the March Free Book promotion, you need to share the promotion (we will provide a media kit closer to the start date) with your newsletter list and on your social media channels. Since there is no monetary cost to be a member, the cost is your participation. Help us to help you and we all win. A rising tide lifts all boats. We rise together. This isn’t a competition as we are peers in this business. The readers will vote with their money. Which books do they like so much they go on to buy the rest of the series? Readers are the final arbiters of quality.

What do we mean by Alien Sci-Fi? Not SFR (Sci-Fi Romance – that promotion is set for August). Outside of that, do you have aliens in your science fiction? Great. Put it in here. I’m not a big fan of horror, but Aliens was a great film and right in there for good alien science fiction. Star Wars, too and Star Trek (the books). They both have some great stories revolving around aliens. Let your aliens flow through IASFA to a broad range of readers. Expand your fan base by hooking them with a great book.

Future promotions are as follows. You can only sign up for the current promotion after the previous promotion has run its course. Easy as Pi.

Alien Sci-Fi Mar 9-13

Urban Fantasy Apr 13-17

LitRPG/GameLit/Cyberpunk – May 11-15

Post-Apoc Jun 8-12

Dark Fantasy Jul 13-17

Sci-Fi Romance Aug 10-14

All Sci-Fi Sep 14-18

All Fantasy Oct 12-16

All Urban Fantasy Nov 9-13

Space Opera Dec 14-18

If you put your book in a targeted genre promo (like your Alien SF title), you can also include it in the all Sci-Fi promo. We will continue building the list each month as this evolves. The pyramids weren’t built overnight. It will take all of us and we will work toward an ever-expanding engagement. IASFA is in the business of helping authors to realize the most value from their words. IASFA members are published authors.

Alex Newton runs K-Lytics, a data analysis service that looks at all things Amazon. He publishes monthly reports on different genres. The most recent one is on Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2020. These are paid reports because this data analysis is rather extensive and employs multiple people. Here’s what you’ll get in the report. I opened the SF one, but you get the same data for Fantasy as part of this one report.

One of the big takeaways from these reports is the sub-genre trend and why with minor tweaks, I put my hitman with a conscience thriller into vigilante justice sub-genre, in addition to the keyword analysis (I think this is better than what I’ve gotten from Publisher Rocket in regards to keywords).

https://k-lytics.com/dap/a/?a=4611&p=k-lytics.com/scifi-fantasy/