®
YOUR GUIDE TO SELF-PUBLISHING
Jane Friedman on Publishing Better, Not Faster •
Ask the Editor, with Betty Sargent • Indie Scouting Report •
Book Cover Redesign • 105 New Titles Listed
Empire
Building
A writing duo finds success
with a space opera
BY JENNIFER MCCARTNEY
A 62-page self-published space opera seems an unlikely candidate for the New York Times bestseller list. Yet in
July 2016, part one of Zenith, the first installment of the Androma Saga by authors Lindsay
Cummings and Sasha Alsberg, reached the
#1 spot on the young adult e-book list in its
first week of publication.
The serialization follows a mercenary named
Androma who commands a glass starship
with an all-female crew of space pirates—a
classic entry in a science fiction subgenre
that blends romance with space warfare and
a bit of melodrama. (The space opera subgenre
is perhaps best known for Orson Scott Card’s
Ender’s Game and George Lucas’s Star Wars.)
