giveaway | Alex Shvartsman's Speculative Fiction

The Golem of Deneb Seven and Other Story Launch Day and Giveaway!

April 2, 2018

The official release date for The Golem of Deneb Seven and Other Stories is tomorrow, but it’s been uploaded onto all the major platforms and you can get it whenever you want!

Here are some of the places you can obtain a copy of this book:

[Buy direct: Paperback | E-book]

[Amazon] [Google] [iTunes] [B&N] [Kobo]

But wait, there’s more. I’m running a Rafflecopter giveaway where FIVE lucky winners will receive a custom 8 GB flash drive preloaded with my three books: Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma, H. G. Wells, Secret Agent, and The Golem of Deneb Seven, in EPUB, MOBI, and PDF formats. I will sign the drives, too.

This offer is open to readers in the United States. Because the cost of international shipping is pretty high, any international winners will receive all the ebooks by e-mail instead.

To enter the giveaway, click this link.

#SFWAPro

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Various Updates and a chance to win a copy of Mission: Tomorrow!

November 11, 2015

Wow it has been a while since I updated the blog. Sorry about that! I’ve been incredibly busy traveling and working, but I’m catching up now. So, what happened in recent weeks? Let’s see:

I did not win the Canopus award. It went to Ken Liu’s “The Waves” as I predicted it would. He 100% deserves it. “The Waves” is my second-favorite Ken Liu story (after “The Paper Menagerie”) and I was kind of surprised not to see it on the major award ballots last year. Before the Canopus was even announced I asked Ken to include this story in Humanity 2.0, an anthology I’m editing for Arc Manor which will be published next year, and he agreed. I can’t wait to share it with readers who may not be familiar with it yet!
I loved the 100 Year Starship Symposium. It was an opportunity to meet with some incredibly smart people from NASA, SETI, and private space companies and listen to presentations on a wide array of subjects which I will be sure to use in future stories. The hotel which hosted the symposium also hosted the New York Jets that weekend, as they prepared to play the Raiders. The huge hotel lobby with clusters of rocket scientists and clusters of huge athletes was an amusing dissonance to observe, to say the least.
And the scientists know how to have fun too — the Halloween party was a hoot!

With Dr. Mae Jamison at the 100 Year Starship Symposium Halloween party.
A few short days after returning from Santa Clara, CA I drove to Saratoga Springs, NY to attend the World Fantasy Convention. It was great fun catching up with so many friends. Here’s a photo of an impromptu lunch which grew from 3 people to this in a matter of hours after we first planned it (this happens all the time at cons!)
WFC 2015 Saratoga Springs
My next trip will be to Philcon in a little over a week. I will post my schedule prior to the event.
Nature selected my story they published last month, “Staff Meeting As Seen By the Spam Filter” to be featured on their podcast. You can listen to it here.
Mission: Tomorrow, which includes my Canopus Award finalist story “The Race for Arcadia” was officially released earlier this month. You can read the first four stories (including mine!) in the sampler here. This anthology is excellent and has been highly praised at Locus.

Read the first four stories from Mission: Tomorrow here. (Click the Next link at top right of each page to navigate).
You can also win an e-book copy of Mission: Tomorrow right here on my blog! Simply comment on this post between now and Wednesday, November 18. On November 19 (which also happens to be my birthday) I will randomly select one person to receive an e-book. If 10+ people comment, I will give away two copies instead.

#SFWAPro

12 Comments | Event Appearances | Tagged: 100YSS, Canopus Award, giveaway, Mission Tomorrow, nature, WFC | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Two opportunities to win copies of UFO4

October 21, 2015

There are two giveaways ongoing for UFO4 right now; you can win copies at SF Signal and also at GoodReads. Go ahead and enter both! And if all else fails you can always, ya know, buy one 🙂

#SFWAPro

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Win a Signed Copy of H. G. WELLS, SECRET AGENT paperback

July 7, 2015

You can win a signed copy of the book at GoodReads. Of course, you can also pick up a copy from Amazon for only $7.99 (or $2.99 ebook) and I hope to have them available at Readercon this weekend (I’ll post my event schedule tomorrow and will know for sure if I’ll have the books in time by then.)

Also, Mike Ventrella interviewed me on his blog today.

#SFWAPro

Comments Off on Win a Signed Copy of H. G. WELLS, SECRET AGENT paperback | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: alternate history, giveaway, humor, steampunk, Wells | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Some Good News for UFO2

January 28, 2014

I just got word from Barnes & Noble — they are going to be carrying UFO2 (alongside UFO1) in their physical stores!

This is a pretty big deal. Few books from very small publishers like UFO Publishing are accepted for placement in physical B&N locations. They’ve been carrying UFO1 for about a year now, and I’ve received reports of it appearing in places like Texas and New Hampshire. This, combined with the best Amazon sales month ever, is really good news for the long-term viability of the series.

Of course, it takes a wheelbarrow of money to put together each book. That’s why Kickstarter has been so instrumental. It doesn’t cover 100% of the costs, but it covers a large enough chunk to make it possible for me to do All The Things in order to produce the best book I can.

To that end, I’ve been doing a bit of a media blitz, promoting the current Kickstarter campaign, such as this interview. I’ll be appearing on a few more blogs and podcasts in coming weeks to drum up support.

Also, SF Signal is running a giveaway for copies of UFO1 and UFO2. Click here for details!

#SFWAPro

Comments Off on Some Good News for UFO2 | Publishing | Tagged: giveaway, kickstarter, UFO | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Getting Short Fiction Published & a Coffee Giveaway

December 20, 2013

I was recently interviewed at SF Signal on the subject of getting one’s short fiction published. Really, the answer is very simple and straightforward: write a good story and keep submitting it until it sells somewhere. But if you want a more elaborate version full of snark, or to learn what sort of bribes I accept, or to see me slam non-paying markets (again), then go ahead and click that link!

And speaking of getting short fiction published, I recently sold a humor flash “Bedtime Story on Christmas Eve, 1,000,000 AD” to Spark: A Creative Anthology and it will appear in the next issue., which launches on January 1 and features a foreword by Kevin J. Anderson.

A reprint of “Life at the Lake’s Shore” will appear in an upcoming “Outpouring: Typhoon Yolanda Relief Anthology,” a charity projected edited by Dean Francis Alfar. No link yet, but I will post one as soon as it’s available.

Not much else to report on the acceptances front at this time, but then things do tend to slow down around the holidays.

Meantime, I’ve been laboring away on Unidentified Funny Objects 3. I’m very happy to report that I already have three stories from three huge names in SF/F, and a fourth story in final edits. I have a really cool cover, too. Expect more information on this in January. A number of folks asked about the next submission period: we will have one in the Spring, most likely in March. I am absolutely committed to keeping each volume of the UFO series open to subs from the public alongside the stories solicited from the top pros.

Meantime, there are a few days left to enter the giveaway for a signed paperback copy of COFFEE: 14 Caffeinated Tales of the Fantastic. Over 700 people already entered this giveaway, but it’s free to enter, so why not give it a shot? Just click here to participate.

#SFWApro

Comments Off on Getting Short Fiction Published & a Coffee Giveaway | Acceptances & Publications, Craft of Writing, Publishing | Tagged: acceptances, anthology, coffee, giveaway, rejections, Submissions, UFO | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Three chances to get a free copy of UFO2!

October 8, 2013

#SFWApro

It’s been a busy, busy week.

I shipped out several hundred copies of physical UFO book to Kickstarter supporters, distributors, and pre-orders. I set up the digital book to make it available on Amazon, Smashwords, B&N. and Kobo. I hosted a launch party for UFO2 on Sunday (thanks to everyone who came by!) and attended a SFWA reception on Monday, where I got to hang out with some of our awesome contributors as well as hand out a few copies of the book.

If you haven’t attended one of these things, there are at least three separate opportunities for you to snag a free copy of UFO2:

1) GoodReads giveaway:

You can enter the GoodReads giveaway between now and October 20th to win a paperback copy signed by me.

2) Jim C. Hine’s giveaway:

Jim is giving away a signed copy of either UFO2 or Heroes in Training on his blog to one person who contributes to Eugie Foster’s fundraiser. Eugie Foster is battling cancer right now and could really use the extra help, so please consider contributing to this.

3) J.W. Alden’s giveaway:

JW Alden is also giving away a copy of the book on his blog. All you have to do is post int he comments!

And if you don’t win? You can always click here and follow the links to buy a copy of the book from your favorite e-tailer. Or, buy a copy directly from UFO Publishing. I’ll get to keep more of the money and use it on — what else? — putting together UFO3!3

And, just in case you need a little more convincing, before you fork over some hard-earned cash for a copy of this book, check out our first review, by David Kilman at Amazing Stories.

Comments Off on Three chances to get a free copy of UFO2! | Publishing | Tagged: fantasy, free books, giveaway, humor, science fiction, UFO, UFO2 | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Win a copy of the COFFEE anthology!

July 7, 2013

Enter this raffle to win a signed copy of the COFFEE anthology (the book will be shipped anywhere in the world, when it releases in October).

You can accumulate multiple entries by sharing this giveaway on social media and backing the COFFEE Kickstarter campaign. You can earn an extra entry via the Twitter link each day.

#SFWApro

a Rafflecopter giveaway

6 Comments | Publishing | Tagged: anthology, coffee, contest, fiction, giveaway, raffle | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman