The Verge had an interesting article on Monday that summarizes the issues with the recent kerfluffles in the romance community.
I've spoken a little about #cockygate (here) as well as #tiffanygate (here) in between all my tests and doctor's visits.
I get wanting to make a buck. I don't object to making a buck.
Nor do I object to properly trademarking your SERIES name or a man writing romance.
But as a former attorney myself, I have a serious problem with using the law as a weapon to prevent competition as in Faleena Hopkins's case. I have an even bigger problem with Chance Carter's bizarre sex cult of personality shtick.
However, the absolute worst to me is Amazon out-and-out lying about their ability to track page reads in the KU program. With little authors like me testing the system, we know damn well they can't! It's one of the reasons I dropped out of KU a year ago. The only way I could make money through Amazon alone was by joining the Dark Side.
Frankly, I did better in Barnes & Noble and the iTunes store anyway so it wasn't worth the spiffy red lightsabre or the black robes.
Would I like to make millions of dollars? Hell, yeah! But not at the expense of writing. Because I have as much fun writing these stories as you all do reading them.
And I can live with that.
More Challenges for the New Year…
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Our Regular Four Challenges Enter the 2025 Holiday Sale… For years now we
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7 hours ago
I know people who are making good money in KU, and not by cranking out shovelware or anything like that. But that's not the direction I'd want to go in either. It's inherently limited, for one thing; the pool of money each month is only so big. And although Amazon is the single biggest income source for many (maybe even most) indie writers, it's not everyone's biggest source. You're only one example. Heck, I know a guy whose best income source is freaking Smashwords, and he makes a decent income. You just never know how things will shake out in the future. And you'll never ever know how things might've shaken out if you limit yourself to one vendor. That just doesn't seem smart to me.
ReplyDeleteAngie
I don't think I'd be half as disgusted with KU if it worked as advertised. As a former IT person, I can't stand sloppy coding. The black and gray-hatters are a layer of greasy film on top.
DeleteIt's why I tell newbies (when they ask) to experiment to find what retail method works best for THEM.