Jake – I have read Konrath’s book too. But I have not read Randy’s book. I’ll look into it. Thanks!

I do agree with your cross product marketing logo idea. I’m already noodling and doodling to come up with something that will work across books and shorts. Great suggestion!

If you’re going to modify the covers to better tie them together, I doubt the font being similar will be enough. You need some kind of Star Trilogy Universe icon you can “stamp” on them. Something akin to “Star Trilogy [icon here] Universe”. That seems to work for other series of books, so that might do the job. The icon would be something separate from the coins, of course. A logo, an icon, a graphic of a galaxy, whatever…something to quickly and definitely brand the books as being linked. It doesn’t have to be in your face obvious, but there and the same across all the books using it. No font change, no icon change, no color change, nothing.

Just a thought.

If someone were to read Starforgers, they would remember the planet Ocherva from that novel, hence they would see the anthology and understand it is related. Also, same font for author again. I want the covers to be different it makes them more interesting. But I want the trilogy to be very similar, so you know they go together. When I release the third book in the Star Trilogy, I’ll offer them all as one bundle too.

I should probably put some kind of a banner on all the non-trilogy books that directly states they are set in the Star Trilogy universe.

You’re right about the audience not being the same though. The SF/F genre is very strange in that regard. Most Mystery readers will read both. All, well.

I would suggest creating linkages for the novels (oh, you liked this, you might also like this) so that people are exposed to all of the books. You could offer a bundle (buy all three as one purchase, and don’t forget the short stories). You might want to relook at the covers. Starstrikers and Starforgers are very similar, and even though “Tales” have the coin/icon, it’s definitely not the first thing you notice. Tyrmia looks completely different.

Just my two cents.

I’m glad Gimp left the option open to use either view for the window mode. There are times like you say that it comes in handy to separate out the various windows.

I’m very glad to see the listing of applications you shared. Most of them I already use, but there’s one or two that I plan to look into.

I’m ambivalent, myself, about the one window mode of Gimp. When i first heard about it, I wasn’t sure I’d like it, but apparently it was a major request. Having played with it a little, I’m very glad that it’s an option rather than the only way you’re going to get it. I find myself using both modes equally, so far. Switching monitors between a large monitor and the laptop screen, the single window mode is nice to get everything into place quickly and easily. On the large monitor, I like the multiple windows as that lets me make the graphical window full screen for maximum working real estate and a quick click or two gets me to the controls.

Someday I’d like to see a writeup on you actually using Scrivener. There’s tutorials, write- ups, blogging, but there’s not really anything out there I’m aware of that describes it being used. Something that lets me watch over your shoulder as you use it.

Oh, about Sigil, that application nobody uses…I’m another user. Erratically, but I still do use it every so often.