The Firebird is now available!

That’s right, my first foray into self publishing has happened.

 

‘The Firebird’ is one of the short stories from Splinters of Truth, the collection I’ve been harping on about for a year.

For the duration of today and tomorrow (22nd – 23rd September), The Firebird will be free to buy on Amazon! Go on, then. Fill yer boots.

While Splinters is taking longer to edit than expected, I wanted to get The Firebird out now, as a kind of introduction or teaser. Therefore, I’ve used the cover art I had made to go with the former to publish the latter as a standalone novella.

This is something of an exploratory phase for me, working out how best to utilise services like Amazon KDP publishing and social media. Plus, the eBook conversion process took a lot of trial and error (big thanks to fellow author Dave Eccles and the Smashwords Style Guide).

On that note, The Firebird won’t be available on Smashwords yet, or indeed anywhere but Amazon, because I opted to try out their Select program. That means that for 90 days, my baby can only be purchased from their store. After that period, it will be available for free elsewhere- I’ll let you know. This being a teaser publication, I’m not out to make mega dollarz.

I’ve also added a lovely book page to my site, but please allow me to quickly repeat the book’s description here:

Ekaterina wants to be taken seriously by the men of her village, so she sets out to hunt the greatest prey of all, the legendary Firebird. On the way she encounters three strangers who give her the gifts she needs- for a price.

This short story, inspired by Slavic folklore, is a symbolic tale about the importance of choosing wisely and keeping sight of the things that truly matter.

I hope you like it. I’m really optimistic now that I have something officially published; it’s an adventure that I get to enjoy myself, instead of writing adventures for my characters!