d.w. @dvewlsh@wandering.shop

@inkican I have a friend who was 100% dead set convinced that the whole Gamestop STONKS thing was a *real* revolution and all this talk about other stuff was nonsense.

That and crypto were how everyone could stick it to the man and it's like... who do you think those 'institutional investors' that propped this shit up were?!

My original crypto stance was you cannot 'interrupt' capitalism with less regulated capitalism and expect a better result.

You literally cannot do the same thing that's not working but think because you, the laymen, are able to get in on it that you've figured out something that the people who's entire lives are about money haven't.

You just... it doesn't work like that.

Capitalism won't defeat capitalism.

@clacksee oof

I'll freely admit nothing makes me roll my eyes more as an indie author than the words "Free with Kindle Unlimited."

Oh baby, that ain't free, how did we get stuck on that line?

@Canageek At this point they've gotten it to where I'd only make about a $1.50 or so per book and they could close my KDP account if they consider it 'suspicious behavior.'

They are awful.

@Canageek They limit how many copies you can buy of individual POD titles to two.

So I had to buy in batches of two and it was more hassle than it's worth.

@Canageek Since it's a massive book that teeters on the page limit, I believe I get ~$8 per copy.

I can't lie, I bought a few when they were $4.80 and made a solid $3 on each one and have them to give away lol

@lordbowlich Yeah, I at least will buy stuff from Bookshop/Indiebound if I need to these days. You can set it up where you're 'buying from' a local store and they get a cut. If I have to pay a buck or two extra that's OK by me.

So many authors have Stockholm Syndrome and keep repeating "Jeff cares about books" because they think it'll magically be true and they'll all be taken care of.

@JoYo Ha, love it.

I've been trying to get in better with my local bookstores here in ABQ and have even been pointing local folks there to order my books from them instead of just a website.

@Canageek Essentially because Amazon is able to undercut everyone else for sales of physical goods like books, yeah.

They sell things below cost because their business model is just to force you to invest into the Amazon ecosystem and keep coming back to them for everything.

For example, I sell an omnibus paperback for one of my series. Retails for $28.99. Right now they're selling it for $6.83. I still make full royalties on it. It's ridiculous. But they want people shopping on Amazon.

@clacksee @felix lmao

Look, we all love DS9.

@clacksee @felix Kira did some tinkering with their last Fussy deal and only included a link to the book on their site.

Fussy is cool with that and they got I think 150+ people to download direct, which means you get their emails as well.

That feels like a pretty effective listbuilder lol

@clacksee The most depressing thing I saw is I had a very loyal reader who bought all my books via Google Play who posted on social media a few months later that his daughter got him a Kindle with a 12-mo KU sub and he was so happy because so many of the books he wanted weren't anywhere else.

Just... how crummy is that system?

@clacksee Yep, and they don't understand if you read elsewhere, buying a book via Kindle, even if they don't click on DRM, still makes it almost impossible to read elsewhere.

If I buy an ebook via Amazon and want to read it on my Kobo I need to strip out the KFX protection and convert it to an epub. This requires two different programs and I'm far more savvy at this than the average reader.

@felix What's funny is it's still accurate years later.

They still do all of that shit. Like, for example, they're fucking with a few of my prices. An $8.99 ebook is $6.73. I've asked them to fix it multiple times.

A $4.99 ebook is $4.04.

If I didn't need money I'd cut them off completely.

I'll always get a laugh out of how many authors push the narrative that Amazon is the only place people buy books. It's patently false in so many ways.

My book released today? 17% of the pre-orders were on Amazon.

The rest were from other ebook stores and 65% of them were paperback pre-orders.

So whenever tells you Amazon has 70-80% of the book market, feel free to challenge that narrative and explore for yourself. #indie #indieauthor #downwithzon

If you've yet to hop on board the series, Broken Ascension, a current semi-finalist in Hugh Howey's SPSF competition, is available as an ebook for free.

https://books2read.com/brokenascension

Guess what? Book five of my #Trystero series releases today. #scifi #sciencefiction #indie #indieauthor

https://books2read.com/smashedhopes