Free Updated Reissue

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To celebrate my ninth year of giving away free, original fiction to readers online, I've put together and posted on Scribd a reissue edition of my very first free e-book, Sink or Swim, a collection of a year's worth of short stories I published on my old web site way back in 2000. As with all my Scribd e-books, this is free for anyone to read online, download, print out and/or distribute for non-profit/educational purposes. *Note 9/3/10: Since Scribd.com instituted an access fee scam to charge people for downloading e-books, including those I have provided for free for the last ten years, I have removed my free library from their site, and no longer use or recommend using their service. This reissue and all of my free reads may be read online or downloaded for free from Google Docs; go to my freebies and free reads page for the links. See my post about this scam here.

I've added a new introduction as well as some retrospective bits on each of the stories in the e-book, as many of the stories went on to inspire new novels and series ideas. Thanks to the very talented and possibly psychic Deena Fisher, I also have lovely new cover art.

It was fun to look back at what I was writing at the turn of the century, and to realize just how much I've accomplished since those first terrifying months of being a pro writer. Now to plan more radical ideas to try out for the next nine years . . .

Incoming

To help celebrate my eighth year of giving away free e-books, I'm reissuing Sink or Swim, the very first e-book I published on the internet way back in 2001.

I still remember the various reactions other published authors had eight years ago when I proposed the then-radical idea of distributing original stories over the internet as a form of promotion:

(Scathing and Dismissive) Don't be stupid, no one does that.

(Patronizing and Pitying) You're only supposed to give them teasers so they have to buy the book to read the rest of it.

(Frantic and Fearful) Have you lost your mind? You'll destroy your career before it gets off the ground!

(Snotty and Superior) Don't you know that real professionals sell everything they write?

It's funny now, looking back and remembering how crazy everyone thought I was. But while a few authors tried to convince me to stop giving away my work and rejoin the herd, most of my peers ignored me. Because really, who cared what some rookie SF writer did? It wasn't like serious authors and major publishers were ever going to give away free e-books.

Yeah, well. I won't gloat, but now you understand why I smile every time I see a free e-book on the internet. Especially the ones by the serious authors being promoted by the major publishers.

The new edition of SoS will feature all the stories contained in the first edition, along with new content on what happened with the stories after I self-published them. I'll also pass along how well I think e-books with original/unpublished content and shared universes can work as promotional tools for authors and low- to no-cost gifts for readers across the globe.

I also have some new and beautiful cover art for the book, thanks to the very talented Deena Fisher, featuring her eerily accurate depiction of my character Holly Noriko:



Sink or Swim will be posted on Scribd shortly (I'll post a heads-up here when it goes live) and, like all my free e-books, will be available to read online, download and print.* Note 9/3/10: Since Scribd.com instituted an access fee scam to charge people for downloading e-books, including those I have provided for free for the last ten years, I have removed my free library from their site, and no longer use or recommend using their service. My free reads may be read online or downloaded for free from Google Docs; go to my freebies and free reads page for the links. See my post about this scam here.