If you're like me, you're just trying to stay sane right now. Two weeks. Just two damn weeks and...
Fucking hell!
So, there's no need to rehash the obvious. But the not so obvious, well, I guess we need to discuss that.
The effort in Oklahoma to make romance books illegal. Yeah, that wasn't unexpected, at least if you were paying attention last year. They've made it abundantly clear that books, all books, are enemy number one, but romance and gay literature are in the top of the pornography inclusions. So, we're watching that very closely, or I am, you should be too. Romance or any author with on page sex scenes will be subject to prosecution.
This my friends is why I first started considering pulling my books from Amazon. That the owner is all up on the orange bandwagon being the main reason, but, I've long thought the amazon book department was something that would end up killing the book world. I won't discuss why. I'm just going to say, those laws and that site are not unrelated at this point, as far as I'm concerned. Not saying it is. But to keep a weather eye out.
So, about boycotting Amazon. Have I done that? Totally... no. But... sighs... I have purchased a few small items from the site in the last month. Things that I absolutely needed but could not find anywhere else. I'm still waiting for a bolt of batting that sells for more than a hundred dollars locally, that I bought nearly a month ago. I had no choice but to buy my college student required art supplies there after exhausting all local and other online stores for said items. I don't have prime. I don't have a KU subscription. I have only really used that site as a last resort. Unfortunately, that's going to stay an option until local shopping makes a comeback. And because, if or when my local JoAnn's closes, that will leave only hobby lobby as a fabric and other crafting option. Yes we have a Michaels. Michaels has a bit of everything. They are a jack of all trades master of none type store. You can get a lot of licensed fabric there. You can't sell items made with licensed fabric. Hobby lobby doesn't even have a portion of the fabric options JoAnn's does.
Sorry, I'm off on a tangent. Back to books. And when I said I'd be pulling mine from the Zon... yeah, BIG BIG SIGHS.
I took most of them off. I put some of those back. I haven't had a single sale or page read in a week. And I'm okay with that. They will eventually either all come down or all go back up. Depending on which way the winds blow. But yeah, don't buy my books there. And if I do stay, I will never put anything back in Kindle Unlimited.
Now let's talk about Barnes & Noble. And that as I relisted after this last term in KU expired I noticed that some of my books were not showing in search. I couldn't even find them by searching precise title and my author name. I could find them through the direct link on the listing page. All of the MM books with two or more shirtless men were hidden. Two of the single shirtless men books were hidden. I hadn't made it through half of the titles when I noticed so, considering how very little I actually sell there, I just pulled everything.
And Apple. Again, the ceo all up on the orange glow turd... but does anyone even buy books there anymore? I have everything available there but... nothing. There's never been much but the past year or so... let's just say I may have made a hundred bucks there all last year and that's being generous.
Now where do I prefer to have my books purchased... My Payhip Store. Obviously. I get the money immediately. You save 1 to 3 dollars off retail by buying directly from me. And I do have some signed copies available there too.
Smashwords is good. I still haven't upoloaded the Southern Scrimmage books there, I'm still working to refresh and update the back of the book stuff and reformat. I have all of the Scrimmage books and a couple of the straight rom books that I might not bother with.
And if you want to read my books without purchasing, and if you have access to, I highly recommend Kobo and their subscription service Kobo Plus. I know it's not available worldwide yet. I'm sorry about that. But if you can get it, you get a one month free trial, and it's $7.99 US a month after that. AND as a reader you will find titles that haven't been available in KU before. But, and here's the best part, for us writer/publishers we do not have to be exclusive to the service and can have our ebooks available in wide release... AND!!!! if you as the reader like to re-read your borrowed books, we get paid for all reads, not just the first one like in KU.
So, to recap:
Payhip Store, for immediate in my pocket money and a 1 to 3 dollar savings for you.
Smashwords because they pay more royalty to authors.
Kobo, because Kobo Plus, and well, they're Canadian and if shit does hit the fan like it seems like it might, they might be the only book seller left for romance.
APPLE if you like them.
Amazon, if you must.
If you find my books free somewhere other than where I've listed above, then you are pirating my books and because of people like you I can no longer afford to write... so... do with that what you will.
Links below
Peace,
Mercy
PS: You can get the Kobo app on most devices even certain Kindles. I read on my ancient iPad.
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