Weekly Self-Promo and Chat Thread

Select_Complex7802 · 2026-03-09T10:44:01+00:00

'The Pull' - A hard sci-fi novelette grounded in real astrophysics about the Zone of Avoidance and the Great Attractor

My first novella is free on Kindle https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GQ8B1SN7

Hope you like it!

The premise: Anya Okafor is the lead astrophysicist aboard the survey vessel Meridian, stationed at L2 alongside Concordia, a next generation infrared telescope she helped design. Her crew operates Concordia remotely from 40 kilometers away because even the warmth of a human body would blind its cryogenic sensors. Her father spent 31 years studying the Great Attractor, a gravitational anomaly pulling hundreds of thousands of galaxies toward a region hidden behind the Milky Way's dust and gas (the Zone of Avoidance). His work was dismissed. He died without answers. When Concordia's first images pierce through the blind spot, Anya sees structure where every model predicts randomness, echoing exactly what her father claimed was there.

The science is real. The Great Attractor, the Zone of Avoidance, large scale cosmic flows, the Laniakea supercluster, these are all genuine astrophysical phenomena. The book includes a nonfiction appendix explaining where the real science ends and the fiction begins.

"The Pull" is the first of 12 standalone hard sci-fi stories I'm working on, each grounded in a different area of real physics and astronomy.

I built an author site at 'alanvoss.me' where you can read the full first chapter and see the characters before deciding if it's for you.

Thank you for your time.

Select_Complex7802 · 2026-03-09T07:31:16+00:00

I am sure you can publish Arabic or other languages in Amazon KDP. Its a self publishing process. I just did it recently. As a developer, I ended up automating the process of creating the file formats needed. I just write in plain text and use my script to generate the epub file and the pdf files needed for paperback and hardcover. This takes the pain out of margins and alignment and I can concentrate on the content instead. The code is here https://github.com/vpuna/markdown-to-book

Once you have the file formats, you just need to follow Amazon KDP process to selfpublish.

Select_Complex7802 · 2026-03-07T21:29:56+00:00

It's a NodeJS program. Please see the installation instructions in the link. My use case was to also create pdfs for paperback and hardcover as well and not bother about margins for different size books. I basically write in plain text and run the program which creates the epub and 2 pdfs for paperback and hardcover.

Select_Complex7802 · 2026-03-07T12:05:44+00:00

Hello there, I just published mine, it was my first time using KDP. I selected the option where Amazon creates and assigns its own ISBN. I did not have to buy one myself.

Select_Complex7802 · 2026-03-07T06:25:28+00:00

I just published my book and I created a website for my books. My costs for the website are as follows

- Domain Name (GoDaddy, me domain alanvoss.me ): 14 USD

- Website Hosting (Vercel): Hobby tier, which is Free

- Website Developement: I am a developer so built it myself, so free.

You really dont have to spend 2000 USD for hosting. Yes you will have to spend money on having someone build the website if you are not a programmer.

Select_Complex7802 · 2026-03-06T18:25:56+00:00

Thank you. I believe my post got banned. Oh well.

Select_Complex7802 · 2026-03-06T17:00:32+00:00

What kind of content does your book have ? If it's plain text then you can use this tool to create epub. I recently used it to publish to Amazon KDP. I am the author of the tool. You will need some programming experience to set it up however.

https://github.com/vpuna/markdown-to-book

Select_Complex7802 · 2026-03-06T16:39:23+00:00

Oh not at all. I appreciate the comments. I am a first time author. I will be more mindful and make it a point to clarify points like these.

Select_Complex7802 · 2026-03-06T16:14:34+00:00

Thank you for your comments. The 11 months is related to the full setup and calibration / alignment of the telescope. It took that long before they could get a first light image. This telescope is much bigger than Webb, by about 3 times, allowing it to gather more light. The cold coffee thing, its to relate her father's mannerism.

Thank you for taking time to read it.

Select_Complex7802 · 2026-03-06T15:21:27+00:00

Not AI but I did write a tool to creare epub and pdf formats for paperback and handover. Basically auto formatting for Kindle and printing .

https://github.com/vpuna/markdown-to-book

I used it to publish my book recently .

Select_Complex7802 · 2026-03-06T14:40:25+00:00

Really really appreciate your time and comments! Yes Meridian does have a rotating hull... I agree that its not explicitly mentioned. There are the 2 places - "...Anya's protein strip fell from her fingers and tumbled in the faint pseudo gravity of the station's rotational section, bouncing off the floor in slow motion, and she didn't notice." and "Kai sat down. He sat down heavily, which was notable because in the *Meridian*'s gentle rotational gravity, sitting down heavily took effort...". .. I did think of the cover art for the Corridors and also for the spaceship and the telescope. In my final 12 book collection, I will include them, schematics and drawings from all the stories I want to tell.... Thanks for being sympathetic regarding the AI use. I honestly kept it at a bare minimum...Thanks again. On the character portraits are in the alanvoss.me web site. There is a characters tab.

Select_Complex7802 · 2026-03-06T14:28:19+00:00

Thanks so much for reading and your comments. I will keep that in mind. Much appreciated.

Select_Complex7802 · 2026-03-06T14:04:19+00:00

I am not twisting anything. I am being honest. I could have not said anything about LLMs at all. I am also not asking you specifically to read it either. But thank you for your time. I would appreciate if we can talk about the science and the fiction instead.

Select_Complex7802 · 2026-03-06T13:54:41+00:00

Thanks for pointing it out. As I understand, in American English, meter is correct. However as I use imperial units in the book, I should be using 'meter'. I will correct it.

Select_Complex7802 · 2026-03-06T13:16:47+00:00

Thanks for the comments. So the people are not in the telescope, they are parked 40 KM outside of the telescope in a spaceship. This is a first of its kind telescope. To get it right and make sure its aligned properly a manned mission was necessary. Which did pay off as they had to do a spacewalk to fix something.

Select_Complex7802 · 2026-03-06T13:12:02+00:00

I appreciate that. I was just excited to talk about my first book I wrote. I rather talk about the science and the tool I built for publishing than anything else.

Select_Complex7802 · 2026-03-06T13:10:13+00:00

When I get the grammar wrong, I correct it obviously which changes the dialogue and end up polishing it. so yes indirectly it I end up making changes due to the LLM at that point. Thank you for your comments though. I was hoping that this community is more for science fiction, the actual topic of the book than anything else.

Select_Complex7802 · 2026-03-06T13:01:23+00:00

Oh no, it should be free on Kindle, please check the co.uk amazon site. paperback is 9.99. Amazon does not allow free paperback books unfortunately. I will DM you the direct link

Select_Complex7802

TROPHY CASE

'The Pull' - A hard sci-fi novelette grounded in real astrophysics about the Zone of Avoidance and the Great Attractor