A Succubus for Valentine's Day is out! (sort of)

 My 2nd collection, "A Succubus for Valentine's Day and other tales of Perilous Pleasures" is now out (sort of).

Here is the obligatory blurb:

Alluring, exotic, delectable, sexy... dangerous.

M. E. Hydra returns with a second collection of thirteen sizzling stories featuring seductive succubi, amorous aliens and other sexy femme fatales.

“A Succubus for Valentine’s Day” shows the perils of letting a succubus play cupid.  Two tourists discover a dark secret lurking in Amsterdam’s red light district in “Venus of the Red Lights”.  In “Knight vs Succubus”, a knight battles for his life and soul against a cunning and seductive demon.  A man finds out his pleasure planet of blue-skinned alien babes is not as it seems in “The Spiders of Thomisoidus”.  And finally, a young man has a very special date in “A Summer Dance with a Succubus”.

You will be enthralled, aroused, and terrified in equal measure by these and other tales of wicked, sensual predators.  They’ll give you pleasures beyond your wildest dreams, and terrors beyond your darkest nightmares...

This is my second collection of short stories, first published in 2011 through Excessica. I've republished it with a new cover and afterword (and a thorough editing pass to fix anything I missed the first time around). 

You can find it at

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/a-succubus-for-valentine-s-day

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-succubus-for-valentines-day-me-hydra/1141813683?ean=2940166601001

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/gb/book/a-succubus-for-valentines-day/id6443171589

It should also have updated at Smashwords, but check the preview first to make sure you're getting the updated version (the copyright page should mention cover art by Wombo AI and a 2nd edition date of 2022, which should indicate it's the correct version):
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/41826

I also uploaded it to Google Play this morning, so it should go live there in a couple of days.  Check my author page:
https://play.google.com/store/books/author?id=M.E.+Hydra

Where it isn't currently available, sadly, is Amazon.  I'm working on it and hopefully will have it available at some point, but I'm having to deal with staggering levels of incompetency from Amazon KDP's support department.  I'll put up a post describing my 'experiences' in full grisly details in a few days.  Kafka-esque nightmare doesn't even begin to cover it.

UPDATE: The problems at Amazon appear to have been resolved.  You can now find it there as well:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B8487XQ6

Problem with publishing rights for "A Succubus for Valentine's Day" on Amazon

About this time I was expecting to start promotion for "A Succubus for Valentine's Day" and giving you the link to pre-order it.  In fact, on some other ebook sites, eg Kobo, it is available for pre-order:
https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/a-succubus-for-valentine-s-day

But not currently on Amazon.  This is where it gets complicated.

I finished preparing the manuscript and uploaded it to the regular ebook sites last Sunday, setting an official release date of the 29th.  Amazon came back to me with an email warning of possible rights infringement.  I wasn't too fussed about this.  The same thing happened while I was republishing "A Succubus for Christmas".  Thankfully, Selina Kitt, the owner of my previous publisher, Excessica, was ahead of the game, and so when Excessica closed its doors at the end of 2021, she sent out letters to all authors officially reverting their rights back to them.  I replied to Amazon attaching that letter and "A Succubus for Christmas" was available for pre-order the next day.

I figured it would be the same here.  Except nothing happened.

I waited a week and then gave them a prod, thinking it had just been forgotten and that would jog them into making the book go live for pre-order.

This wasn't the case.  I got a response indicating they hadn't received the necessary documentation... despite me already sending them the relevant documentation.

So, I'm not really sure what's going on here.  It's unfortunately stressful and concerning.  It could be a mix-up that's easily fixed in the next couple of days, but then I thought that last weekend.  The problem with being the little guy dealing with the massive corporation is you can be in the right and it not matter a jot.  If something gets stuck, it gets stuck, and then you're shit out of luck.

I'm going to proceed with the July 29th release date as planned for everywhere else and hope I can resolve whatever is blocking things at Amazon.

It does have me concerned.  Amazon is 90% of sales and I was hoping to put all 6 collections back up as a series.  Amazon are not something I can just route around if they fuck up and don't fix it.

Coming soon... I hope!