by Ernest Hogan
Praise the gods! After years as an out-of-print, hard to find, underground cult classic, High Aztech, my novel of mind-altering viruses running amok in a futuristic Mexico City -- renamed Tenochtitlán -- is available again.
It’s only $0.99 from Amazon for your Kindle. $0.99 also can get it to you just about any e-format you want from Smashwords.
And, until August 2, 2013, if you use the coupon code TV57H at Smashwords, you can get it for free.
Some may ask, why the low price? Why the freebie deal? Well, back when High Aztech was first published, some muy misterioso things happened, that I told Rudy Ch. Garcia in an interview:
The ad in Locus had no text, just the cover. There were no reviews. Later I kept hearing, “Your book is out? We got the box from Tor, but it wasn’t in it.” People had to call them and cuss them out to get review copies. I did my best to promote it, doing bookstore signings until I was informed, “We don’t have any more copies in the warehouse.” When my agent called to ask if they were going to print more, she was told that, “No, because it didn’t sell.” When the Mexican science fiction magazine Umbrales did a positive review, I sent letters to my editor and the publisher, telling them to make sure it was stocked along the Border. Both letters came back unopened, stamped “Address Unknown.” I checked the address with my agent, I had it right. “Gremlins?” she pondered when I asked what could have happened. After all that, they rejected the proposal for Smoking Mirror Blues, which no other Nueva York publisher would touch. I haven’t been able to sell anything to Nueva York book publishers since.
Fortunately, there were reviews in offbeat venues by people who loved High Aztech. They keep popping up. This book just refuses to die, cabrónes!
More reviews, not just in Amazon and Goodreads, but where ever possible, would be a big help. So use the code, tell the world.
Or as they say in High Aztech:
¡TICMOTRAPASARHUILILIS!
Ernest Hogan did not die when Nueva York turned its back on him. He was not the model for the Dell Harris painting on the ebook cover.
Funny how self publishing bypasses the cabrones in Nueva York. You won’t get rich at 99 cents a copy, but that is not the point. The point is that your stuff is out there and gente can download it and read it. They may not like it, but that is their decision, not a decision made before hand by the aforementioned cabrones. I publish my stuff in Smashwords and so far I have gotten good reviews and all together, over ten thousand downloads. My stuff is free because I’m not in this for the money. Are we being stupid by giving it away so cheap or free? You know, I would rather give it away for free than let it turn into dust and unread in a drawer in my house. Keep the good work.
ReplyDeleteI gave up on getting rich back in the 20th century. I still would like to make money, but meanwhile I have a day job. And Nueva York won't be the center of world publishing for very much longer.
ReplyDeleteCongrats, 'Nesto!
ReplyDeleteMay Hi Aztek flood the Internet with your chicanada,
RudyG
Thanks, Rudy. And so far, more of the gente are paying for it than downloading it for free.
ReplyDelete