It is very interesting to me how people promote their books. Established authors have their established techniques. SM Stirling puts up sample chapters as a come on. His new book in the "Emberverse Series" has already listed seven chapters. He usually goes to about ten before he publishes so he is almost there. I had ribbed him about this and he even came here to reply in the comments section when I had an open blog. That's the kind of thing you lose when you have a closed shop.
In any event Eric Flint does a different thing. He has a place on his website that he calls "Snippets" where he post the first bit of several chapters of his new work. So when you read it you get the rest of the chapter and then of course the rest of the book.
His latest work of alternative history is called 1636: The Cardinal Virtues in which he imagines that the Queen of France is impregnated by Cardinal Mazarin with the collusion of Cardinal Richelieu. This has long been speculated about by historians but Eric picks it up as fact and weaves it into his science fiction alternative history series.
I don't know if you are aware of the "Sad Puppies" controversy and the Hugo Awards and the big fight between the SJW and the reading public. Basicly there are two groups in science fiction. The politically correct wing that controls most of the big publishers and the outlaw grouping in Baen Books that self publishes a bunch of authors. I am a big Baen fan for several reasons. One of which is that they have this thing called ARC or Advanced Readers Copy where you can get a book months before it is available on Amazon. The problem is I can never figure out how to download it on my Kindle so I download it on my Ipad and then end up buying it again for my kindle. Even so the total cost is much less than what the hardcovers used to cost and the books aren't underfoot and gathering dust. So it is worth it.
I might get the ARC of the Cardinal Virtues after I finish the Custer book.
