You know things are bad ...
It’s pretty bad out there when Jane Friedman goes off on GoodReads and Amazon.
Quoting the article:
There’s not much that makes me angry these days about writing and publishing. I’ve seen it all. I know what to expect from Amazon and Goodreads. Meaning: I don’t expect much, and I assume I will be continually disappointed. Nor do I have the power to change how they operate. My energy-saving strategy: move on and focus on what you can control.
That’s going to become much harder to do if Amazon and Goodreads don’t start defending against the absolute garbage now being spread across their sites.
I know my work gets pirated and frankly I don’t care. (I’m not saying other authors shouldn’t care, but that’s not a battle worth my time today.)
And that’s exactly what Amazon (not to mention piracy or hackers or AI or …) is counting on. They want you to feel powerless and like you must subject yourself to their arbitrary and unreasonable rules.
When you make a choice not to do something, you are choosing. And our choices have consequences.
I’m just going to say it. Judge Cote really screwed the pooch, with that brilliant decision of hers that protected us from the horrors of a cartel of Big Five publishers.
So, indies, how’s it working out for you now?
Do you still depend on Amazon algorithms to boost your self-esteem? Got enough FB likes to still feel that dopamine hit?
I’m going to suggest that there are other ways to be an indie author or indie creator of any sort.
Here are other ways to not support Amazon as an indie author:
Sell direct — you can do that and set any price you like; Amazon doesn’t view your
dinky littlestorefront as a serious threat. Hmm … :)Take your ebooks off the KDP platform and distribute them through other services. This gets tricky due to Amazon’s completely unreasonable response to any attempts to leave their platform, as described to me by a representative at Draft2Digital. If you do this, consider adding supplementary material to your book or combine your books in dual sets or box sets and redistribute them through a third-party account like D2D or Ingram.
There are now numerous ways to get your work out there for sale or subscription without kowtowing to Amazon. A few are Patreon, Substack, Medium, crowdfunding, direct sales, Radish … probably others I don’t even know about. It’s a matter of exploring options and thinking outside the box.
You can set up a Shopify or Zazzle store and sell branded goods there.
There are plenty of options for writers. And, frankly, Amazon needs you more than you need them. That would become obvious if authors actually had the nuts to perform a mass exodus from the platform. Someone would be crying and it wouldn’t be me.
Well, I say quit treating Amazon like they’re God. Normally, when you enter a contract there are terms and conditions that are negotiable. There is no negotiating with Amazon if you’re an indie author. Amazon tells you what they will do and what you will do, if you want to use their publishing platform. Simple as that. Except they reserve the right to change any of the terms and conditions any time they want. You have no right to change any terms and conditions, except the right to leave. I would hope. And when everyone is telling you that you must be on Amazon, because they’re the biggest, they’re forgetting something.
When I started writing novels, only the most unusual of authors dared to self-publish. The ones most willing to fail. The ones willing to do the work. So, one of your first thoughts back then was that you needed to find an agent, because the Big Five would only accept submissions from agents. Why? Because when thousands of manuscripts start clogging up your transom window (if you don’t know the word transom, look it up), someone has to make an initial judgment. Not everyone’s prose is as awesome as all that.
So, the insider advice was to go small, rather than big. Why? Because smaller presses have more at stake and time to care more about you and your fortunes as an author and creator. They might not offer an advance, but they offer more than you have as an indie. Or, I should say, as an indie without a team. But we can form a team, right? Or small teams. Think about it.
PS: If you’re interested at all in taking part in a community where authors (indie and otherwise) can find mutual support, networking opportunities, potential collaborators and accountability partners, and decent treatment, consider signing up for the waiting list.
I’ll also put in a good word for Sisters in Crime, an organization that’s been instrumental in helping me become a better-educated author. They’re offering weekly write-in sprints, if that helps get you get started.
BONUS LINKS:
Jane Friendman’s “Hot Sheet,” which reveals some extremely interesting information about subjects other than just agents and The Big Five. Scroll down past all the Big Five stuff and check out how small indie presses are forming and diversifying.
And January 1, 2025 was Public Domain Day: Works from 1929 are open to all, as are sound recordings from 1924!
And that includes this book and the serialized version of this book!
Now, you know I’m all over that shit! :)
Hey, did you know Amazon owns more than just MGM Studios?
They own:
And a healthy-sized portion of the internet itself.
PPS: Or feel free to ignore me. Again.
PPPS: Here’s some antitrust law for you.
Congress and the Sherman Antitrust Law: 1887-1890 by William L. Letwin
23 U. Chi. L. Rev. 221 (1955-1956)
The Origins of Antitrust: Rhetoric vs. Reality by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
13 Regulation 26 (1990)
Did Antitrust Policy Cause the Great Merger Wave?* by George Bittlingmayer
The Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 28, No. 1 (April 1985).
*The asterisk is to a footnote that I couldn’t copy and paste and it was too long for me to type, because why should I, huh? Why am I doing any of this?
Because I’m a writer, that’s why, not a copier of beautiful, but lengthy, expressions of gratitude to the many people who’ve helped write anything that isn’t mine. You don’t even know them, okay? Unless you are one of them. In which case, you’ve been thanked, okay? Let’s move on.
Anyway, see if you understand antitrust laws any better after reading those three legal writings. Now, you understand completely. Right? No. Well, me neither.
PPPPS: Sorry I could only provide the first pages of the three documents. The rest were behind a paywall I didn’t create.
But I urge you to read this article. And thank you, Matt Buchanan.
Here’s the bottom line(s):
Should Amazon find itself overwhelmingly controlling book sales, it’s unlikely that the Justice Department would act—that is, unless Amazon were to abuse its position. The law is “not anti-monopoly, it’s anti-abuse of monopolies,” Picker said. And Amazon has shown, again and again, that it has little interest in battering its customers, even if it is more than happy to abuse the industries whose products it sells.
Is it too late to say happy new year? Just glad I’m still here.
Epilogue to the PSes:
To all my paid subscribers, my sincere thanks. You’re always first to know what’s up here.
Oh, my. The sound just went out on the video I’m trying to play …
No matter how many times I click the audio, nothing happens.
Guess I should try turning the computer off, then on? :)
I’m sure this is all a coincidence everything will be fine.
Epilogue to the Epilogue*:
I can hear this with no problem. :)
I can also hear this. The whole thing makes more sense than this situation. :) Like life, it’s not a dramedy, it’s a tragicomedy. :)
With thanks to Nik Nak’s Old Peculiar!
Clearly, I need to get a whole lot weirder.
How about this then? :)
A debut author speaks out: Annie's journey. By Annie Seyler.
I’m still trying to get organized. Organized enough. :)
No New Year’s resolutions—just a discussion about setting goals and evolving as a screenwriter.
I have no idea what this says. I live it every day.
Narrative Directors: Meet Taylor Coriell, FilmMaker, recovering opera singer.
Free for WIFV members, $15 for non-members.
I’ll see how I feel after a whole afternoon of torture physical and occupational therapy.
Okay, here’s a preview of my memoirs some of my story in bad drawings.
Is that weird enough for you? :)
Because there’s way more I could tell you.
Why is my grandfather introducing me to a “nice young man” in the early 1970s? I’m 15 at the time. Yes, I was mortified. I’d also just moved there that past year and didn’t have many friends, because I’d previously lived in California and left all my friends there when I moved to Maryland and couldn’t make a friend as a brand new kid/sophomore in high school to save my life.
Until I met Bill and his family.
My friend Bill is dead. I still miss him. And other people who’ve died.
One final note:
Sorry that this post is “too long for email.”
Still can’t get the sound to work, but fuck it. I don’t think I’ll need it after all.
I’ll just write it off.
Here’s a community for freelance writers. And even more tutorials. Which may or may not apply to writers outside New York. Something to look into, perhaps?
Some people actually get shit like that done.
Navigating the Tech World Just Got Easier.
I can’t vouch for the efficacy of any of these resources.
So, here’s a complaint form.
Here’s what it says:
Thanks to funding from the NYC Council, we are able to offer free legal assistance and support specifically tailored to the needs of independent workers.
Please tell us about the situation that you are experiencing in as much detail as possible so that we are best able to assist you.
Really?
