Galactic Central – Philsp.com

iPhoneless

In my day to day marketing of Alien Dimensions and other titles, I’m always on the lookout for ways to make it easier for readers to find them. To that end, I was trying to find a way to link Alien Dimensions issue #15’s iPhone listing from the Alien Dimensions website, and from this site.

A bit of backstory. Having used a PC since the 90s, and Microsoft since Windows 3.1, I have yet to delve into the Apple iPhone ecosystem. iBooks is not available outside the restrictive iPhone-user-only interface, and I’ve never had the $ to buy an additional something from Apple that would enable me to get in. (Any spare $ was spent on updating Windows, or paying for Office subscriptions, or antivirus software or… I couldn’t justify running both environments.)

How did I get Alien Dimensions on iBooks when I’m not an iPhone user? Smashwords!

Smashwords enables me to upload a doc file for conversion and distribution to the iBooks system. Unfortunately, as they also distribute to quite a large number of ebook systems, it’s not possible for them to list the links. So, I usually have to find them manually, then work out what part of the link can be used by PC users.

While searching Google for the link (iTunes does not have a search feature for non-iTunes users), I stumbled across Galactic Central. I was totally gobsmacked by the discovery of this privately created bibliography of science fiction, fantasy and weird works, among other things, and took some time off from searching for links.

Totally worth it!

Incredible Database

The site features over 9000 carefully edited indexes of magazines, books and the like, with links to author lists. If you’re an author who has featured in a book at sometime, but haven’t seen your name up anywhere, perhaps this is where you’ll find yourself listed.

I was very happy to see that not only was Alien Dimensions perfectly indexed, but that even some of the things I hadn’t included in the contents in a few issues were listed.

The gentleman is thorough!

But, I think one of the most important things about this site is what ISN’T there.

There’s no advertising, no affiliate links and no requests for donations.

The site is a labor of love, and in the 21st century with so many sites supporting themselves with advertising, this is quite an achievement.

Check out the site here: Galactic Central

Alien Dimensions listing here

My author listing here

And, I did eventually find a way to access the iBooks listings for Alien Dimensions. You can find them on iTunes by visiting my author page here