2) In the email, I will link to my website which will display all of the offers, but most of them will have Amazon Affiliate links (I can’t put affiliate links in the email, against Amazons TOS (terms of service) and they would ban me). Not that it matters for ARCs or $0.00 or KU books, because affiliate links don’t procure any money for those links. What it might do, however, is provide an income IF you see an interesting book, and then go on to buy something else while you are there. There is no cost to you, the reader, to do this. Amazon will eventually pay me a small percentage.
3) Using the affiliate income, I can pay towards the Kindle(s) and the Kindle Shipping Costs (which can be expensive around the world), the email list costs and other subscriptions to make this work and (God Please) allow me to hire someone to do the newsletters. I really, really don’t like putting newsletters together. I can, and I will, but I don’t find it fun.
4) Finally, Kindle Paperwhites! The good stuff, not the Fire’s, are selected by Raffle to give away and provided to the Military personnel compliments of the Email Reader selected for that giveaway. Right now, this is only US military as I haven’t the foggiest notion how to do this for those in countries we connect with. I’m WILLING to do it, but don’t know HOW to do it. I think it would be cool to be able to also support those in other countries militaries.
Readers win by finding good books by Indie Authors and supporting giving Kindles at the same time. Obviously, Indie Authors win by getting in front of readers. Some book lovers in the Military win because …KINDLE! I will win because I have figured out a self-supporting method to help everyone I want to help and (maybe, hopefully?) it will grow if the Affiliate Income pays to help it grow.
The worst thing that will happen is I buy and give away two Kindle Paperwhites (which I’m going to do, whether this works or not), so no harm there.
If you are willing to jump on the PaperWhites for Military Members Book Newsletter - Just click here:
http://kurtherianbooks.com/readers-supporting-military-book-newsletter/
You can sign up for the email newsletter (seperate from your Kurtherian Gambit email) AND PLEASE Nominate someone (drop your contact info and I’ll get in touch with you to get their info) - links on the page and a FAQ as well at the link above.
PLEASE click on the link above and consider joining that email list. The email that comes will link to a page on my website highlighting authors, ARCS (free read for review if you are willing) and other stuff. I explain more (including it is NOT a NON-PROFIT and why) on the page above.
If you help me get that list to 10,000 names, I’ll write a special short story and release it for free. Just share that link above and encourage anyone you know that loves to read, supports the Military (U.S. for now) and Indie Authors. The emails will be simple and will point to a website to get more info (Amazon TOS).
I’m in contact with a military support group (http://operationsupplydrop.org) to help make MORE happen if we have the Kindles for them, so what the hell?
LET’S DO THIS!
So far, the Readers helping Military Readers email list (with minimal sharing in 48 hours) is at 82 so far. My Kurtherian Gambit email list is at 715 - but that took 10 books and 8 months. I’m hoping we can hit 2,000 signed up in just 2 months. That would be freaking cool as hell. I’m going to spend money to make this list happen, but I could use any help you can offer, as well.
You don’t need to ask me, just share and we can get sign-ups as quick as Bobcat goes through beers.
——
Now, what’s coming up?
I’m going to have a few short stories in anthologies out (I think) July and August. The first is a short that speaks to Michael’s changing over a thousand years ago and the second is a Ranger Tabitha short called Tabitha’s Vacation. It is setup to be a hundred and fifty years in the future.
There is a story by Paul C. Middleton called The Boris Chronicles - Evacuation coming out next week where I am a co-author (minor) on the book. It is happening between books 9 and 11. You get hints to this stuff in this book when Bobcat talks about needing space for Russians. Paul is at the editing stage right now… Well, he is in Australia, so he is actually probably sleeping right now.
I’m going to drop a thousand word snippet TOTALLY UNEDITED!!! At the end of this Author Notes to give you a taste of what I’m doing with Tabitha… She has attitude and it shows.
A lot.
Thank you all for reading these author notes, for joining me on this crazy adventure called The Kurtherian Gambit, for supporting the awesome things going on with the email list and supporting people who are using their lives allowing someone like me to make stories that we enjoy.
Michael Anderle
June 28th, 2016 - Just hours from Publishing.
UNEDITED - Snippet 01 - Tabitha’s Vacation.
One Problem, One Ranger.
I walked into Rossini’s Bar on Planet Bectal with what my boss calls a physical ailment of a short temper with a bad case of I-don’t-give-a-shit. I was grumping to him for the third monthly meeting in a row about nothing to do when he came to check on me in my area of the sector and as my doctor, he prescribed a two-month vacation for my medicine.
My boss knows me too damned well.
He isn’t going to lose my services for the three months. It’s three because I need two weeks travel both ways, and he knows I know he is still getting work out of me. So, he can kiss my ass on the actual travel time. I booked that on the nicest, most expensive luxury liner on this side of the Galaxy for my vacation, everything else was going to be work. Perhaps fun work, but work nonetheless.
Here on Bectal’s world, I would just be doing my job. Poking the alien equivalent of ant-hills, looking under disgusting rocks and kicking over dilapidated buildings to see what maggots from the local equivalent of the criminal world scurried away. Hopefully faster than I could figure out what the hell they’ve done wrong and if necessary, shoot them.
My usual area of responsibility was two solar systems back and one up and damned if it wasn’t getting too boring. It had taken me thirty years, but I’d finally gotten most organizations to understand The Queen Bitch’s Rule for her Rangers which is ‘One Problem-One Ranger.' The corollary to it, from my boss, is Rangers have no limits for our backup, it just can’t be another Ranger.
One time, on the Sver’an planet, I got into a shouting match with the equivalent of the local Warlord. I hadn’t wanted to lay waste to half a city just to pull out his good-for-absolutely-nothing second cousin from his whatever-the-hell the third parent was called in their family group.
So, in front of him and his men, I told him I would call for a battalion of the Queen Bitch’s Guardians if he didn’t produce the miscreant.
That rat-faced POS just stared at me and called my bluff. He didn’t know us Rangers very well. So, I did.
Call that is.
Because as a Ranger, we have a direct link to the Queen Bitch herself, Bethany Anne. The conversation back then went something like this:
“Tet-gurky, you will produce your psychotic murdering little prick from god-knows-what-you-call-the-baby-momma or I’ll call in a battalion of the Queen’s Guardians to pull his useless ass out of this city.”
I was rather angry at this time. It was my third time to this hell-hole of a planet, and the inhabitants were having problems with the Queen’s version of justice. Which is to say, ‘be nice to each other, or else.’ Some alien species had a real problem with the nice part. Oh, it isn’t that they don’t understand the concept, it is pretty universal, it’s that they have lived so long with the concept of those who have strength rule, that when someone comes along with more strength, they have to test it.
A lot.
All the damn time, it was starting to piss me off. Sure, the first time people test Bethany Anne’s rules I get it. By the second time, I’m wondering if this area just didn’t get the memo (and I call to make sure the PR department sent the damn memo). By the third time, it’s j
ust a case of who is backing down first, them or me.
It's sure as hell not going to be me.
So, it was my third time to speak to Tet-gurky when I figured he had to have read the memo, and they had done the research, and the rumors about Bethany Anne’s Guardians had to have made their way around the planet from the fighting two solar years back.
But, the little prick answered me, “Do it, Ranger Tabitha.” He spread his furry little arms around his Warren with the other fifteen leaders of his clan, “I don’t think we are so significant to the Queen Bitch that she would waste such valuable resources as a battalion of her finest soldiers to locate one little problem child.”
“He’s not a child, Tet-gurky, he has created his own little psychopaths with baby momma's,” I answered.
“You say, psychopath, we say the strongest is always right. He was the strongest.” Tet-gurky’s sibilant laughter spread to the fifteen little rat-faced throats around him, and it pissed me off.
It wasn't my job to kill them all, no matter how upset I was at being laughed at. My job was bringing the little bastard to justice for killing someone on the world under my jurisdiction. So, fuck’em.
Bethany Anne?
Hello, Tabitha!
Do you have a second to chat? I asked. While she is a friend, she is still the Queen and even after a hundred and fifty years, I treat her as my liege first, my friend second.
Yes, I’m en route to check on a diplomatic mission. We are in the middle of a transition, recalculating the heading. I fucking hate this shit. Some of the ships with us are so damned slow.
Well, if you didn’t ride in the fastest chariot of the group, perhaps you wouldn’t be so impatient.
Yeah, well, some things don’t change with age. But, enough about me, what’s up with you? You rarely call just to say ‘hi.'
Sorry about that. Bethany Anne was right. I did rarely call just to chat. I’ve got a problem here on Sver’an where I need to pull out a POS. I either need to get help from the local Warlord, who is related to the little creep, or drop a lot of shock and awe to either make them produce the freak. Or actually, tear apart this city to get to him. So, I told him to produce, or I’d request help.
He called your bluff, did he? Bethany Anne replied to me, humor in her voice.
Yes! Little turd-magnet says he doesn’t think his little cousin-or-other is important enough for you to support me.
Did you change your body to produce red hair? She asked me.
No, why? I responded, confused.
Because your language when you change your body to produce the red-hair drops back to when we first met.
Oh, hadn’t noticed.
Either way, tell him that the I will speak to him within two galactic-standard hours, or he can keep his cousin. If I’m waiting more than five minutes when I get there, I’ll find his cousin, and he and his men are forfeit. Please keep the area calm until then.
Wait, what? I just need a battalion. I’m not asking you to show up.
I understand but think about your reputation. When you threaten a Queen’s Battalion on this no-where little planet, and the Queen Bitch shows up?
Yeah, but which rep? The one with the criminals, or the one in the Rangers? My group is going to laugh their asses off. I complained.
Well, the rep with the Rangers is your own to deal with. Besides, Barnabas is going to think this is funny as hell.
Yeah, well he would, I grumped.
Alright, Pilot says the new course is locked on and I’ve told the group I’ll catch back up to them on the third jump. Besides, you can tell the other Rangers I was bored.
You are bored.
See! When you tell the truth, the truth will set you free.
With that, she closed off our connection.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Author Notes - Part 2
Still here?
Wow!
I was literally exporting for the final update before dropping this on Amazon and thought about one other item.
Death.
As in, Michael’s death.
The BIG M…
Oh, holy crackers did the reviews come FAST and FURIOUS (hard focus on ‘furious’) right away. When I just checked, It’s Hell To Choose has 98 Reviews compared to We Will Build’s 97. The ONLY book in the series with more reviews is Death Becomes Her with 149 (Almost 150 WOOHOO! (Then, like 200 is a goal ;-) )
So, in 1 month, it jumped to the second highest reviewed book. Death, apparently, brings out some opinions, really f’ing fast.
Really fast.
Really…painfully…fast.
By now, you know that Michael is coming back in his own series in the Winter as he focuses on pulling the Earth out of the Second Dark Ages so he can get to the stars, and fulfill his promise.
So, please. Don’t hate on me.
Just saying, I was crying too.
Later ;-)
Michael
Release the Dogs of War Page 27