New "Author Bio" on my website

For as long as I can remember, I have possessed the twin needs to "create" and "explore." In school, I excelled in both art and creative writing, but my need for exploration (partly fostered by watching Jacques Cousteau as a kid) led me in to the field of Oceanography. While science offered me a wonderful and challenging career, it wasn't quite enough. Therefore, my non-work hours began to fill up with more creative hobbies, which have included everything from creating CGI-based comics to building multi-player computer simulations with my brother.

Then one day I decided to return to my creative-writing roots and began working on my first novel-length, science fiction story. What started out as a high-tech adventure, with a young man attempting to rescue his girlfriend from a virtual reality simulation against the backdrop of the "technological singularity," evolved into a story about accepting the choices of our past, as well as reconciling our relationships with our parents, both before and after death. That novel, Cyberdrome, was finally published in 2008 and has now been read by over 40,000 people around the world, gained critical success, and created a huge fan base.

Spurred on by the success of that book, I decided to start another. However, rather than continue with the sequel to Cyberdrome (yes, there will be one), I decided to give myself a bigger challenge, and started a 5-book, dystopian, undersea series called, Novum. As before, what began as the adventures of a young, reluctant, cargo-ship captain trying to eke out a living below the surface of a distant "water world" (a planet covered by ocean) evolved into something more: a story of relationships, the importance of overcoming our caveman-inherited fear of the unknown, and the futility--and sometimes danger--of trying to live in the past.

What's next? I have a few more books to finish in my Novum series, and then I plan to start the long-awaited Cyberdrome sequel. Along the way, I also hope to complete some of the backlog of short stories I have outlined, covering topics ranging from how paradigms affect our view of the world, to the very nature of reality, so be sure to follow me on one of the social media links on my website (JosephRhea.com/contact) to receive updates and release dates, or just stop by to chat.

Thanks for stopping by,

Joe

Why am I giving an entire book away for free?

Two days ago I set the list price for the Kindle, Apple, Nook, and Kobo editions of the first book in my new dystopian science fiction series, Novum, to zero dollars and zero cents. That's right, I am giving the book away for free.

Why would I, or any author, do this? Some people call it a "loss leader" for a series, where you give the first book away, then hope it will lead to sales of the rest of the series. However, my reasons are even simpler. I want to save my readers money. That's right; I care about my readers.

So here is the deal. If I charge what Amazon thinks I should be charging, which is $2.99 per book (anything lower and the author is penalized %50 in royalties) then it will cost you $6 for the first two books. If I sold each book for a more reasonable $1.99, it would cost you about $4 for the first two books, which isn't bad, but due to the penalties mentioned above, I would earn only $1.40 in royalties. However, by making the first book free, and leaving the second book at $2.99, you will get two books for $3, and I make about $2 in royalties.

So in a nutshell, you save 25% on your 2-book purchase and I make 30% more in royalties. That's what I call a win-win scenario. The additional benefit for you, is by giving you the first book for free, in a real sense you get to "try it before you buy it." So now we are up to a win-win-win scenario, and I'd better stop there, before reality implodes. ;)

If you are interested in trying out a new dystopian science fiction series that has no zombies (sorry) then go to my website for the book links. www.JosephRhea.com

My thanks to the several thousand people who have already taken me up on this deal, and also the several hundred who have purchased the second book, Novum: Exile already. Maybe this is working as a loss-leader after all, which makes it a win-win-win-win...(stopping now!) ;)