d.w. @dvewlsh@wandering.shop

People who aren't indie authors who write SF like to argue that SF is a broad, diverse audience, but these people don't get the replies to my newsletters that I get.

Where vague mentions of weather gets people talking about seasonable ailments in their small town life.

I should add that my twins had their sixth birthday in Friday and we had a big party for them at a park with all their friends from school in Saturday.

It was a lot of work but I was so happy with how many kids showed up and how excited they were. No matter how tough things are, my kids always help ground things.

July 20th is always one of my least favorite days of the year.

It was the day my dad died in 2009 from a brain aneurysm, just two weeks after I'd been out to visit for what I didn't know was my last time.

Was wondering why I'd been so off, I have this internal clock that remembers constantly.

@renegadecut@mstdn.social you know what?

Thanks for understanding. I've had to fly once with my kids when they were 2 1/2 and it was almost impossible. You try so hard to make sure they don't disturb others and it's such a miserable experience.

Sometimes I wonder if the research I've been doing is detrimental to myself.

It's very alienating to try to talk to people about America post-WW2 because it's very ugly. The other day a friend called me "authoritarian" for suggesting we weren't the good guys and our system needs to be overhauled to reflect the population, not obsessing about our "democracy."

@clacksee and a lot of these people have giant attitudes, too. It's wild. Goodreads is a terrible site.

@felix Of course, it's a system built on white supremacy and capitalism.

The only answer is dissolution, although lol, who knows how that could happen.

Very tired of 'red state' or 'blue state' nonsense.

These last few days have only hardened my belief that the US cannot be helped or saved, not even a little bit.

@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