Why do I self-publish? Partly because this is a hobby: it would be grand if one of my books turned out to be popular, but I do this because I like doing it, not to get rich. I want to do things like mix US and UK spelling (partly out of personal preference, partly because I have characters of both origins and also to give readers cause to wonder why I did that). I also like to launch a book to my own timing.
It’s also fun figuring out how to do a cool cover design.
The Superpower started out from an idea for a movie. Since I have no connections to sell a movie script or track record in that field, that was always a long shot.
Having completed the script, I sat on it for a long time – not only because I had no idea how to market a movie script. That is potentially a solvable problem if I really wanted to do that. My bigger concern was that life has a way of imitating art and there was always the possibility of a real US president mimicking some of the more crazy ideas in the book.
As the 2020 US elections loomed and the Covid-19 crisis showed no signs of abating, it was clear that the Trump administration didn’t need to learn anything about craziness from me. So I decided to turn the script into a novel and this is it.
The book is in a slightly unusual niche: SciFi political satire. Some top authors like George Orwell and Kurt Vonnegut Jr have played in this space; I make no claim at being in that league but the novelty of the niche may appeal to their readers.
I’ve priced the book as low as I could while still allowing it to be sold outside the Amazon ecosystem; I also priced the Kindle edition low and ran a 5-day promotion when it was free of charge; I will do that again when allowed. That’s another benefit about cutting out the publisher: I don’t have to worry about their cut in deciding the pricing.
I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it; in the crazy times we are in, a little wry comedy goes a long way.
If you spot any typos, please feel free to pass them on to me using this form. I will acknowledge any corrections in an update (here is how you get updates delivered – Kindle edition only, unfortunately).
If you want to follow me on Amazon, here’s where to find my Amazon author page.
Update:
3 November – I put in a round of corrections that I hope covers most typos and wording that needed clarification. It takes a while for changes to reach all platforms; if you have the Kindle version, you should be able to update.
