Welcome to my website. My name is Pete Molina and I am a science fiction author. I have been a sci-fi fan for as long as I can remember and have read literally hundreds and hundreds of sci-fi novels, if you don't believe me ask my wife who just rolls her eyes at my ever growing collection. I began writing seriously about five years ago. To date I have completed two stories broken into two books each. The first series begins with the book Version Innocent, and the second series starts with The Maker's Children. Use the Books link in the side bar to get to the books directly.

It's been a long road trying to get published and you never know how difficult it will be until you've tried. After seeking a traditional publisher for some time I ran into an intriguing problem in the publishing industry. It's very difficult to get published without having an agent and it's difficult to get an agent without having been published. Sounds almost like a time-travel paradox to me. Couple that problem with the recent mergers between the big publishers and what you have is a shrinking publisher base with limited resources to print and distribute books.

All this means is that it's hard for new authors to break into the market to get published because publishers and agents can no longer take risks on unknowns. How many great stories are being left off bookstore shelves because of this problem? To be sure there are many small presses starting up trying to combat this very issue but they can only afford to try and publish a few books each year and as the consolidations of major publishers shows, few books will be profitable for a business. The cost to set, print, distribute, and market a new book is considerable and most publishers cannot make back what they spend. This makes the business of publishing books a bad one except for authors that are guaranteed to be good sellers.

A new paradigm has emerged with the web, we authors now have the ability to distribute directly to readers. We can do this through two channels. The first channel is electronic distribution, the second is print on demand publishing or POD. On this website I offer free electronic downloads of my novels in PDF format. I also have links to my print on demand publisher where you can purchase a hard copy of any of my novels printed just for you. In this way I can offer the best of both worlds. With print on demand thousands of copies are not required for a book to be reasonably priced, the printer simply gets your order, prints your book, and mails it to you directly. The copies are slightly more expensive then a traditional paperback but they are, I believe, easier to read because of their 6 by 9 inch format and superior paper quality. I can even get an ISBN number and make the book available with online retailers like Amazon.com, barnesandnobel.com, and others. You can even order them directly from a book store. Though if you want a printed copy I recommend ordering from my print on demand publisher, Lulu.com, as their prices are the best because they don't have to sell directly to retailers at a discount.

I give away free copies of my novels in PDF format for a few simple reasons. First, it's free for me, or nearly free. Making a copy of a file and distributing it on the web costs me only pennies per copy. Second, I get to share my stories with others; which is the greatest desire of any author. Of course there are other reasons as well. If you like the PDF you might buy a printed copy of the same book or of one of my other books in which case I'll receive a small royalty. Or if you enjoy the story you might choose to give me a tip to help support my writing. Royalties and donations help me cover web hosting costs, proof copies for myself and my editor, and computer equipment I need to both write and provide these electronic copies for you. I don't require anyone to tip or donate to me, but consider that if you had a good meal you'd tip a waiter at least a few dollars for their service, I'm just asking for the same courtesy. So if you like the novels you read, consider buying a copy from my publisher or tipping me on my donation page, in return I'll keep writing and providing new stories for you and the rest of my readers.

Enjoy the stories,

Pete Molina