Three chances to get a free copy of UFO2!

October 8, 2013

UFO2cover#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.

 

 

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Status Update: UFO2 and Coffee anthologies

August 8, 2013

coffee#SFWAPro

Figured I’d post a quick report on how the two anthologies I’m currently editing are coming along.

UFO2 is nearly done. The digital ARC has gone out to authors. They have until the 10th to review their stories and request changes. Our proofreader is going over the text as well. There are numerous small fixes that need to be made.  By mid-month, the ARC should be available to reviewers and Kickstarter supporters for whom early access was one of the rewards.

Arnie Swekel is working on the cover and should turn it in before the end of the month. Once we have it, the book is off to the printer and I’ll be able to announce the release date. The ebook files are being currently worked on as well.

Meanwhile, I’m still reading submissions for COFFEE, both originals and reprints.

As of today I have accepted 6 stories (4 reprints and 2 originals) totaling just under 15,000 words of fiction.

There are 18 more stories being held for consideration, totaling 43,000 words.

The book will total approximately 40,000 words (it will be smaller. but also cheaper, than one of the UFO anthologies). So even if we were to close to submissions today, I wouldn’t be able to accept every story I liked, and more are arriving at a clip of 5-8 per day. This is actually a very light load, compared to UFO, because the theme of this book is so narrow. I’m enjoying not getting buried under the slush pile and responding to most submissions in under 24 hours. As of right now, all submissions received prior to 6pm today have been responded to. This also means if you haven’t heard back from me, please query!

I will be out of town attending WorldCon when the submissions close, so it may take me a few days to read/catch up on everything when I get back. Still, I expect to make all final decisions in early September and have this book out in November.

And now, back to the previously scheduled reading of submissions.

 

 

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

UFO2 Update

June 1, 2013

ufo2

Submissions are now closed for UFO2. We received well over 600 unsolicited submissions in addition to the stories from authors whom I asked directly to contribute to the book.

Most of the round 1 submissions have been read and responded to. All, or almost all will be responded to in the next 48 hours. At that point I’ll take about a week and reconsider all final-round stories, re-read comments and suggestions made by the associate editors, and send out the rest of the acceptances.

Once all the contracts have been signed and the TOC finalized, I will post the final line-up here.

 

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman

UFO2 Kickstarter is live

April 2, 2013

Unidentified Funny Objects 2 is coming to the bookshelf near you this September!

I already have stories from Robert Silverberg, Mike Resnick and Ken Liu. In addition, Esther Friesner, Jody Lynn Nye, and Tim Pratt agreed to contribute stories to this volume. And we hope to announce several more headliners this month.

Meanwhile, I can really use everyone’s help. Funding a quality anthology is *expensive*. It cost about $15,000 to create and print the original UFO book. I think I can keep these costs down to under $12,000 this time around, but it’s still a lot of money. So I went back to Kickstarter in order to help cover some of these costs. If you enjoyed the first book, or simply think the idea of an annual humor SF/F anthology is a good one and it’s something that should exist in the world, please consider supporting this project on Kickstarter.

Also, please help spread the word. The more money I can raise this month, the more cool stuff I’ll be able to do for this book and for the UFO web site.  I will blog lots more about this project, but for now the text of the Kickstarter campaign should cover most of the basics. Check it out!

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Posted by Alex Shvartsman