RIGHT ASCENSION: Sci-Fi For Just $2.99 -- Just Hit 10,000 Sales!

[David Derrico]

Greetings, fellow book lovers … my name is David Derrico. I'm an author, avid reader, and huge fan of my K2. I'm beyond excited about the new opportunities that e-books afford to both readers and writers. As a reader, I've discovered dozens of new authors, re-discovered a love for the classics, and I've been reading more than ever. As an author, Amazon and the Kindle have allowed me to reach thousands of new readers, and given my writing career new life.

My story, briefly: I was a philosophy major at the University of Florida (Go Gators!), where I wrote my honors thesis on morality and ethical theory. After graduation, I was inspired to write Right Ascension, an epic, space-opera science fiction story that blends action & adventure with exploration of difficult ethical dilemmas. My goal in writing the novel was to entertain, but also to inspire and provoke thought about honor, morality, and right & wrong.

I then went on to law school at UC-Berkeley, where I wrote Declination, the sequel to Right Ascension. Both books were originally published by Bookbooters, a very small eBook/POD publisher, back in 2000, but their entry into the eBook market was a little premature and they are no longer around. I sold a handful of copies, and had some great moments, but Bookbooters was a bit early for the e-book revolution, and they closed their doors in 2005.

So, I worked as a lawyer for a while (yawn), but always yearned for time to continue writing. So, recently I quit my "day job" and devoted myself to writing, releasing my books on my own, and marketing my work. I finished my third novel, The Twiller, a humorous sci-fi book you can read more about here. I also maintain a blog devoted to e-books, e-readers, and the future of publishing -- I call it the "Always Write" Blog.

That's my story, and my writing journey, in a nutshell. As for the book, here's the description:

Set in the year 3040, Right Ascension explores mankind's place in the Universe, how we ascended to that lofty position, and the horrifying price of that ascension.

Humanity's struggle to assume a place of dominance within the galaxy is suddenly called into question when a sleek alien vessel arrives unexpectedly at Earth. Admiral Daniel Atgard and the crew of the Apocalypse embark on a mission to find these enigmatic aliens, but the focus of the mission quickly turns from finding answers to exacting revenge. Meanwhile, a belligerent species of reptilian warriors, seeking to avenge a previous defeat at the hands of the human-controlled United Confederation of Planets, takes this opportunity to plan an all-out assault on Earth. Faced with overwhelming odds and the terrible knowledge of humanity's most horrifying secret, Daniel must choose between honor... and humanity's very survival.

Fans of Timothy Zahn or David Weber might hopefully appreciate Right Ascension and its sequel, Declination. There are reviews and excerpts available on both Amazon and Smashwords, as well as my own website, www.davidderrico.com. Right Ascension reached #1 on Amazon's "Technothriller" best-seller list, and hit the Top 500 overall in the Kindle store -- thanks to readers like you. I do appreciate each of you who has given my books a chance, written a review, or told a friend. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the thread below, as I'm always eager to hear from readers -- you guys are the reason I keep writing.  

 - David

Right Ascension  |   Declination

[Betsy the Quilter]

David--

welcome to KindleBoards and congratulations on your books and your first post! 

It looks like you've hit the ground running here! You can use a book cover as your avatar and have image links to your books in your signature, subject to the character limitations.  Although self-promotion is limited to the Book Bazaar, most of our authors have found the best way to promote their books is to be as active throughout KindleBoards as time allows.  This is your target audience--book lovers with Kindles!

Thanks for being part of KindleBoards!  Feel free to PM us if you have any questions.

Betsy & Ann
Book Bazaar Moderators


The fine print:
Please add to your existing book thread when you have news about your book rather than start a new one, it helps the members who are trying to follow you.  You may have a separate thread for each of your books.  You may respond to all posts, but if there have been no member posts, we ask that you wait a week before "bumping" the thread by posting back-to-back posts of your own.  And we ask that Amazon reviews not be repeated here as they are easy to find at your book link.  Also, full reviews from other sites should not be posted here, but you may post a short blurb and a link to the full review instead. All this, and more, is included in our Forum Decorum. From time to time our site rules may change; be sure to check Forum Decorum for the current guidelines and rules.  

[telracs]

Links to the kindle editions:


$4.77 (paperback listed as 216 pages)


also $4.77 (paperback listed as 256 pages)

I'm more an Eric Flint fan, but I'm going to sample these.

[David Derrico]

Thanks for the warm welcome! I've been excited about eBooks taking off, and what they could mean to both readers and writers. Finally, the Kindle has been good enough to tempt people to give eBooks a try. The finances of eBooks seem to really favor readers and indie authors, since they eliminate the high costs of printing, storage, shipping, shelf space, and returns. I came across your board while trying to research the Kindle community, to see what Kindle readers wanted and how much was a fair price for Kindle eBooks.

As for my sig, I thought images would be too big and flashy, and I didn't want to come across like a billboard.    Thanks for clarifying the do's and don'ts... I did read the posting guidelines and I certainly don't want to step on any toes.

Scarlet, thanks for the links! I've actually read some Eric Flint... he co-wrote several books with David Weber, who I mentioned above and who I read a lot. I read Crown of Thorns, which they co-wrote, and I enjoyed it. I found it similar to Weber's other books, like his Honor Harrington series that I enjoy and found similar to my own work. I focus a little less on the military tactics of space combat than Weber does, but I think I have similar strong characters and moral issues that crop up in my stories, so I appreciate his style of writing. I've never read Flint's solo works, though. Which would you recommend?

[telracs]

Scarlet, thanks for the links! I've actually read some Eric Flint... he co-wrote several books with David Weber, who I mentioned above and who I read a lot. I read Crown of Thorns, which they co-wrote, and I enjoyed it. I found it similar to Weber's other books, like his Honor Harrington series that I enjoy and found similar to my own work. I focus a little less on the military tactics of space combat than Weber does, but I think I have similar strong characters and moral issues that crop up in my stories, so I appreciate his style of writing. I've never read Flint's solo works, though. Which would you recommend?

You're welcome (in all senses of the word), Dave.  I've been in a linkmaking mood lately, so it was no big deal.  I also like knowing price and page numbers, so that's why I added them.


I'm not big on the space combat, so if you have less of that, I might pick up the books.  I like my sci-fi with a bit of humor so I love Flint's Pyramid books (Pyramid Scheme, Pyramid Power).  I'm also an alternate history addict, so Flint's (with others) Grantville series (1632, 1633, etc) are highly recommended by me.  You can get some of his stuff free at baen books website.  Part of my problem is that I don't like series that go on to long, I get bored after a bit.  Also, I'm not a big fan of alien invasion stories, but since I like patronize kindleboard authors, I'm off to download your stuff.  Once I get through my TBR list of 200 books, I'll let you know what I thought. 

[David Derrico]

I'm not big on the space combat, so if you have less of that, I might pick up the books.  I like my sci-fi with a bit of humor so I love Flint's Pyramid books (Pyramid Scheme, Pyramid Power).  I'm also an alternate history addict, so Flint's (with others) Grantville series (1632, 1633, etc) are highly recommended by me.  You can get some of his stuff free at baen books website.  Part of my problem is that I don't like series that go on to long, I get bored after a bit.  Also, I'm not a big fan of alien invasion stories, but since I like patronize kindleboard authors, I'm off to download your stuff.  Once I get through my TBR list of 200 books, I'll let you know what I thought. 

Thanks again!! I'm also a fan of sci-fi + humor (I would list The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as my favorite book of all time), so I might give the Pyramid books a try. The short story that turned into a novella that is turning into a novel that I am working on now (called The Twiller) is sci-fi, about 90% humor and about 10% sarcastic commentary on things I find totally inane—like airline frequent-flier program restrictions, the traffic in L.A., law firms, and some of the fun people I met in Berkeley.

I can't tell you how encouraging it is to find a place with such avid readers—people who have "To Read" lists of 200 books and who enjoy discussing and recommending books. Most people I know tend to look at you funny when you told them you were reading or at the library, and would never consider a Kindle because you can't text on it and it doesn't have Twitter. So, as someone who read 4 books in 4 days last week (the first 4 books of "The Lost Fleet" series by Jack Campbell, which I enjoyed, but are even more "tactical" than Weber's stuff), it's good to find people who feel similarly about reading.

[David Derrico]

Hello again... I just wanted to let everyone know that, after much internal debate, I have lowered the prices of my novels to just 99 cents each. I made this decision mainly based on you, the readers. It seems that many people enjoy the idea of trying out new authors, but are much more likely to do so for a buck. I've read with interest the thoughts you've shared in the "Will 99 cents become the new standard?" and other threads, and watched when other authors experimented with lowering their prices. While I think my books were fairly priced before, I realized that whatever small amount of money I might make on them is completely irrelevant. What I enjoy is the thought that someone out there just downloaded my book and will hopefully enjoy reading it. To be perfectly honest, I get a huge thrill out of seeing a sale that has nothing to do with the royalty I'll receive from it.

I'd also like to do my small part to stick my tongue out at traditional publishers, who have no clue what they're doing with eBooks and are trying to (IMHO) gouge readers with unfairly high prices. I'd like to show that they should embrace and not fear eBooks, and that they can lower prices and make more money on volume.

I hope this allows many more people who might have been on the fence to try out my work and hopefully enjoy it. I'd certainly love to hear your thoughts, either here or in a review on Amazon. I hope this little experiment is a success. 

[David Derrico]

A HUGE thank you to everyone who has taken a chance on my novels and helped me break the 500 sales mark! (Hey, you gotta start somewhere, right?) You've also helped push Right Ascension thisclose to the Top 10 in several categories on Amazon, including #12 in War, #14 in Technothrillers, and #19 in Adventure (and up to #71 in overall Science Fiction).

So far, I'm glad that I dropped the prices to 99 cents, I like the fact that people are out there enjoying my novels and that they were able to grab them at a price that hopefully doesn't put a dent in their Xmas shopping budget.

Anyway, thank you all again, and I'd definitely love to hear what you think about them!

[talleylynn]

I finished 'Right Ascention' a couple days ago and I enjoyed it very much. I loved the 'old man' who was anything but. I'm currently in the middle of 'Declination'. It, too, is a good read, but it has a different feel than the first book. More politics and battles than the first book - at least so far. Keep up the good work. I'm looking forward to your next book(s).

[David Derrico]

I finished 'Right Ascention' a couple days ago and I enjoyed it very much. I loved the 'old man' who was anything but. I'm currently in the middle of 'Declination'. It, too, is a good read, but it has a different feel than the first book. More politics and battles than the first book - at least so far. Keep up the good work. I'm looking forward to your next book(s).

Thanks so much for the kind words -- I really appreciate any feedback I receive. And I'm very glad you're enjoying them.

After doing the entire first novel from the protagonist's point of view (in order to make him as three-dimensional as possible and allow the reader to relate to him and become more immersed in the story), I decided to try something a little different in the second book and have multiple POV characters with intersecting story arcs. I was going for a more fast-paced feel with more going on, seeing things from multiple perspectives, increased tension as you have to wait to find out what happened to one character while we catch up with another piece of the story, etc. There were definitely pros and cons to each approach, but I can tell you the second one was much harder to outline! It was difficult making all the different story lines converge at the right places and times. And the first requires a very strong and interesting main character to pull it off well.


Scarlet -- I just finished reading 1632 and am about to start on 1633. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, although I'm not normally a fan of the alternate history genre. But there were some powerful scenes and I appreciated Flint's attention to historical detail.

[David Derrico]

Sorry for the bump, but I'm just too excited not to... my first novel, Right Ascension, just cracked the Top 25 Kindle Bestseller list in "Science Fiction," and the Top 1,000 Kindle overall! Woo-hoo!! 

[David Derrico]

Thanks to everyone who has taken a chance on my novels -- January was just an unbelievable month, and I know I owe a lot of it to my fellow Kindleboarders. So a very sincere thank you!

Right Ascension continued to climb the Amazon bestseller lists, rising into the Top 500 on the overall Kindle list, up to #14 in "Science Fiction" (#5 if you exclude free stuff!), and #2 in several sub-categories, including Adventure, War, and Technothrillers. I am in awe.



I sincerely appreciate your support of independent authors, and I hope you've enjoyed my novels at just 99 cents. If you have enjoyed them, please consider posting a review on Amazon, I would appreciate it very much, and it would help other readers decide if my books are right for them.

Cheers!

[Edward C. Patterson]

Today's Feature at The Indie Spotlight

David Derrico - Right Ascension

http://www.theindiespotlight.com

Come up and read and leave a comment.

Edward C. Patterson
& Gregory B. Banks

[ibrewalot]

Hmmmm, I thought I'd picked these up when I read about them in the sci-fi thread recently.  Anyway, just one-clicked twice and added them to the "to read" list.   

[David Derrico]

Ed, thanks for featuring me on your site today. I really liked the interview questions you asked, they opened up some interesting avenues of discussion and I think help give readers a good bit of insight into the writing process and the minds of authors.

And thank you, ibrewalot, for the support. I hope you enjoy them! Please let me know what you think when you're done.

[J Dean]

Cool looking stuff!  If you resemble Zahn, that's good.  He's a great writer; I love his STAR WARS stuff.

[David Derrico]

Cool looking stuff!  If you resemble Zahn, that's good.  He's a great writer; I love his STAR WARS stuff.

Zahn is amazing. I first found him through his Star Wars novels (the Thrawn Trilogy was the first SW stuff I read, and still the best by far), and then I ended up reading almost everything I could get my hands on by Zahn. I particularly liked the Conqueror's Trilogy; he had a great ability to create an entire civilization and make you feel like he had actually visited a real place and was reporting back from it.

I wouldn't be so bold as to say I'm as good as Zahn, but I do resonate the most with his style of writing, and I was inspired to write Right Ascension after reading the Conqueror's Trilogy. You may find some similarities in the beginnings of both books, although they diverged from there.

[Anju No. 469]

If you don't have these books, you need to get them!

[David Derrico]

If you don't have these books, you need to get them!

Thanks, Dona, you are the best!

In exciting news (OK, very exciting to me, anyway), I finally cracked the top spot in the Amazon "Technothrillers" category! 



It's been a good few days, as I was also fortunate enough to get some very kind reviews from readers, including:

Fantastic book with believable science and real characters
By Mark S. Whorton (Huntsville, Alabama USA)

This is an absolutely fantastic book. Right Ascension is the type of hard sci-fi book that I look for but rarely find. In my opinion it stands right up there with the best of Asimov and Clarke. While stretching our minds about physics in a believable way, the characters are very real and the writing style flows well. I especially like the way the book tackles difficult ethical and moral issues that are fundamental to human nature. Kudos to David for a very enjoyable and thought provoking book (even though he is a Florida Gator fan). I look forward to reading the rest of his works -- keep them coming!

This review was especially validating, since I had gotten a couple of reviews that were critical of the science in my novels. But, after an email exchange with Mark, I learned that he has a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering and worked for NASA for 20 years. Yes, he is literally a rocket scientist. 

[David 'Half-Orc' Dalglish]

I wouldn't be so bold as to say I'm as good as Zahn, but I do resonate the most with his style of writing...

Haha, I had a feeling while I was reading the beginning of Declination that something seemed familiar. Now I get it. The Thrawn series was a great read. Out of curiosity, have you read any of Stackpole's Rogue Squadron series?

Oh, and friggin awesome on the number 1 domination. If I may be so bold, how many sales a day does a 500+ Kindle rating nab? This may be akin to asking a girl her age, so you can say no if you want   

David Dalglish

[David Derrico]

It was actually in Right Ascension ... the first contact scene in the Conqueror's Trilogy kinda jump-started my mind with the idea for the start of my book.

I believe I read the first one or two books in the Rogue Squadron series. To be honest, I've read so many Star Wars books (a while ago) that I lost track and don't remember them all. I know I've read some of Stackpole's SW stuff, though.

Here's a link that gives some data on how sales ranking correlates to sales numbers. This post was from 9 months ago though, but I'd basically double all the sales numbers it gives (although I can't speak to the really high rankings!). But I'd say it takes about 20-25 sales a day for the Top 1,000, and more like 40-50 to hit the Top 500. Keep in mind that the sales ranking can bounce around quite a bit if you have a good or bad day (or hour!).

http://ireaderreview.com/2009/06/06/interpreting-kindle-store-sales-rankings/

[David 'Half-Orc' Dalglish]

I'm trying to remember which one of your books it was (the training sequence between the two main characters in the fighter ships). I just remember reading it thinking, "This feels familiar. Why is this familiar? Wait a minute..."

I was thinking Stackpole over Zahn, personally, though it doesn't surprise me at all that it might be an amalgamation of the two. The story just had a feel to it, kind of like you read so much Star Wars that you just had to write a book of your own.

And, let's see, so you sell, on average, 40-50 copies a day for each of your two books? Dear lord man. Clearly, I need to switch genres, catch up on my Zahn, and find some guy with a telescope to make me a book cover. Oh, and learn to write better.

David Dalglish

[David Derrico]

No, I don't sell that many on average, since I'm not always in the Top 500 with Right Ascension and never with Declination. RA peaked at #479, but usually hangs out between #500 - #1,000. Declination peaked at #852, but usually hangs out between #1,000 - #2,000. (I'm not complaining, mind you, I'm thrilled, but I don't want it to sound like I sell more than I do.) There are some indie authors out there cracking the Top 100 and even the Top 10, so there is hope for all of us.

The scene that is most directly influenced by Zahn is the first contact scene with the alien ship, that starts at the end of Chapter 1 of Right Ascension. Basically, I read a "teaser" excerpt of Conqueror's Pride at the end of another Zahn novel, where humans encountered a new species for the first time and, without a word, the aliens blew a whole bunch of our ships the hell up. My mind started racing with what might happen next and ... Right Ascension was born (which turned out much different than Zahn's Conqueror's Series).

As for the training scene and some of the other stuff, I have no doubt some of it was generally influenced by all the Star Wars novels I read. I'd say anything that I've read and enjoyed has served to inspire me to some extent. But there weren't any other scenes that were directly inspired by anything in particular. But I'll take it as a compliment if you thought it was similar to some Star Wars novels. 

As for your sales, it sounds to me like you're on the right track, and your covers are fantastic. I originally wrote the novels back in 2000-2002, so it has taken a long long time to finally taste some measure of success. Even my first months on the Kindle (Aug 2009) were nowhere near what they are now, it took a while to start picking up steam. You just released your book a month or so ago, right? My advice is just to keep plugging away, keep promoting, and keep writing, and I bet the sales will come.

[David 'Half-Orc' Dalglish]

Basically, I read a "teaser" excerpt of Conqueror's Pride at the end of another Zahn novel, where humans encountered a new species for the first time and, without a word, the aliens blew a whole bunch of our ships the hell up.

I've only read the five or so Thrawn books, Angelmass, and the Green and the Gray. That bit right there has me wanting to hunt down Conqueror's Pride.

Perhaps you should use that quote there for your product description for the book. Nice down to earth feel.

"Aliens showed up, and without a word, blew us the hell up. Want to find out how we respond? Read my book."
 


David Dalglish

[David Derrico]

Perhaps you should use that quote there for your product description for the book. Nice down to earth feel.

"Aliens showed up, and without a word, blew us the hell up. Want to find out how we respond? Read my book."

Yeah, I kinda like that. Hey, it worked on me!

In other news, I'm running a contest until the end of the month where I'm giving away a free signed paperback. To enter, just become a fan on my Facebook page and post a review on Amazon:

http://www.facebook.com/NovelAuthor