Today we’ve got a guest post from author Jason Halstead to give you some perspectives on his writing endeavors. Enjoy!

I’ve been a writer for more years than I want to recall. My first book, Voidhawk, was published in 2009. I had a few more published following that, but I never saw much in the way of success. I blamed my publisher because I didn’t know any better. I still blame them a little bit, but now I know that a large part of my lack of success was because I didn’t know what the heck I’d gotten myself into!

Enter 2011. I was thoroughly fed up with both of the publishing companies I went through and determined to try it on my own. I retained full rights to my books so I launched my own self-publishing career. I started off slow, but that was because I still remained quite ignorant. I was motivated and ambitious though, and that allowed me to stumble across a tweet from a guy by the name of kreelanwarrior – aka Mike Hicks.

He was finishing up his day job at the time and on the verge of going full time as a writer. This was thanks to loads of success throughout the first half of 2011 and a forecast for continued success with his books. He and I talked a bit via Twitter and then some rather lengthy emails. I even picked up his book on self-publishing success, which really helped me get a foundation for what I needed to do.

Sure, I tried a few other books in that venue as well (similar stories from John Locke and Michael Mattias). To be honest, Mr. Locke’s was the least useful – but there were still a few pearls of treasure to be gathered from it. Of them all Mike and I continue to communicate on an almost daily basis via Twitter, but even still I was surprised to receive a tweet from him asking if I’d like to do a guest post on his blog. Surprised, but also very pleased. I considered it another notch in my writing headboard – or perhaps another run climbed on the long ladder to making writing my day job.

So of course I was only too happy to oblige. He suggested using it as a promo op. I’d be a fool to pass up on that, but I wanted to start it off by sharing this limited exposure I’ve had to Mr. Hicks and that it marks him as a man of good character. I’ve tried to pass the goodness on to other writers that ask me questions.

As for me, I’m a long ways from my goal but I’m making steady progress. I’ve published 18 books so far, with number 19 due out in a few weeks, and in 2012 I’m finally breaking the 100 books sold per day mark with regularity. I won’t say I owe it all to Mike, but I will say he definitely helped me get there a lot quicker than I would have done otherwise!

Now for the shameless self-promotion part: Mike and I both write science fiction and fantasy. I occasionally dabble in other areas and hope to continue to expand, but my best selling series right now might appeal to fans of the In Her Name books. It’ s a futuristic space based series called Vitalis. Book one is titled New Beginnings and follows the lives of a crew running a transport ship that are set upon by salvage reclamation experts (aka pirates). Things go horribly wrong and the ship is damaged beyond repair. Their only recourse is to enter cold sleep to survive the long passage to the next star system light years away outside of human colonized space. In the new solar system things really get interesting…

Rather than go into spoilers, let me just say that each book in the series (there are five published, as of April 2nd) expands on the original storyline. New characters, concepts, and life forms are introduced. Every time I write a book for it I get more excited about what’s going to come next. In fact I have no idea when I’ll stop writing this series, it’s so much fun and there is so much potential with it! My Vitalis books are novella length books, designed to allow for a quick thrill that can be handled in a couple of hours, but they’re also priced accordingly.

But don’t stop there, if you prefer a more modern sci-fi story I’ve got plenty of those, as well as some pure fantasy full length novels. Want some paranormal? I’ve got your fix there too! Feel free to check out my website for samples, my blog to see what’s coming up next, or follow me on Twitter BooksByJason to say hi.

And as always, a heartfelt thanks to all the readers out there and to Mr. Hicks for giving me the chance to share this with you.

You can get the bestselling In Her Name: Redemption trilogy (218 4- and 5-star reviews on Amazon US) abso-freakin-lutely free for the Kindle! It’s available free at all the Kindle stores on 16 and 17 May:

• Amazon US
• Amazon UK
• Amazon DE
• Amazon FR
• Amazon IT
• Amazon ES

“But hey! I don’t have a Kindle! Waaaah!”

Listen, no Kindle, no problem! You can still take advantage of Kindle freebies by snagging one of the free Kindle reader apps. They’re available for PCs, Macs, smart phones, whatever – if you have an electronic doo-dad more advanced than a mop, chances are there’s a Kindle app for it.

So what the heck are you waiting for? Grab your copy of In Her Name: Redemption today!

Psst! See those little buttons down there that say Facebook, Twitter, G+, etc.? Do me a huge favor and click on the ones you have accounts for so you can share the love with your friends, right?

IN HER NAME Series

Listed in recommended reading order

	First Contact (In Her Name: The Last War, Book 1)
	Legend Of The Sword (In Her Name: The Last War, Book 2)
	Dead Soul (In Her Name: The Last War, Book 3)
	Empire (In Her Name: Redemption, Book 1) – Free!
	Confederation (In Her Name: Redemption, Book 2)
	Final Battle (In Her Name: Redemption, Book 3)
	From Chaos Born (In Her Name: The First Empress, Book 1) – Coming Soon!

Novellas And Short Stories

The Journal Of Avery Moore – Coming Soon!

Non-Fiction

The Path To Self-Publishing Success – Coming Soon!

IN HER NAME Series

Listed in recommended reading order

	First Contact (In Her Name: The Last War, Book 1)
	Legend Of The Sword (In Her Name: The Last War, Book 2)
	Dead Soul (In Her Name: The Last War, Book 3)
	Empire (In Her Name: Redemption, Book 1) – Free!
	Confederation (In Her Name: Redemption, Book 2)
	Final Battle (In Her Name: Redemption, Book 3)
	From Chaos Born (In Her Name: The First Empress, Book 1) – Available Soon!

Novellas And Short Stories

The Journal Of Avery Moore – Available Soon!

Non-Fiction

The Path To Self-Publishing Success – Available Soon!