I mean I had intended to post yesterday but I ran out of time, soo... you're welcome?
Sooo.... what's happening? Anything good? Because I sure as hell don't want to talk about the bad (gesturing vaguely to everything).
September has Septembered is best I can say. It's hot. The trees are all turning yellow or dying way too early. Did I mention it's hot? I think yesterday was the first time it's rained since mid-August. It's hot, dry, and wrong, atmospherically speaking.
I don't know what else to say about other things. I threw my good knee out early in the month. My seldom needed cane has become a constant need. My left knee has been bad for decades, stemming from a childhood injury, that isn't really fixable without going through other, worse, fixes that I absolutely choose not to deal with this late in life. I mean, the original injury barely healed when I was ten, I doubt it would heal at all at fifty-six. So there's that. I need a motorized scooter for big walking needs. SIGHS! Anyway, health wise, I guess things are fine. Aubrey has been back in school for more than a month and hasn't brought home any colds or viruses. I'd like to think that university is different in that aspect. But a lot of people sharing a singular space is still a lot of people sharing a singular space no matter how you crack it.
The family cat, stage name Ebil, real name Rey, has decided I'm now her favorite person in the world. She's nine and a half and never thought much of me beyond the general co-existence and that I am somehow the protector of the others and the go-getter of food. I am allowed to pet her, only on her head, usually between her ears and under her chin, for an unclear amount of time that could be as short as two seconds or as long as two minutes, and then it's bitey time. No touching the butt or the tail and lord forbid I get near the tummy. But that has changed. She must now lay on me in the mornings. I must pet and pat and scratch all the parts. I must coo and sweet talk her. And she must be allowed to stand on my belly with her butthole in my face to make biscuits on the tender part of her choosing. I do not make the rules. She does. And how dare I not pet the exact right spot exactly when she wants that spot pet... but also don't touch that spot.
SIGHS LOUDLY!
And then there's Dawg. Not a stage name. My mini-dachshund. When I say my, I do mean mine. My dog. Whether I want him or not. He is mine and more importantly I am his. His mission in life is to guard me with every ounce of his little being. Considering he doesn't stand much taller than my ankles, it is a large undertaking. He is fierce. He is terror from the knee down. And yes, he is all that and a bag of chips. He might be mini but he is mighty. He's also twelve plus years old and dying. Completely blind now, he's losing his hearing, and his sniffer. He sleeps a lot. A lot more than he used to. He's confused. His little body is deteriorating rapidly, and I fear one more seizure will be the end of him. But, he's happy. I guess that's what matters. When he gets to the point that he seems to be in obvious pain, and can't get around on his own, I'll have to make the hard choice. Until then, I just talk really loudly and make sure his blankets are washed and his beds are nearby.
We do have another dog. I don't like that dog. He is not my dog. I wish I didn't get that dog. But Aubrey loves him. I feel bad that I don't like him. But that's all I have to say about him.
People are good. The grandson is growing like a little weed. He's built like a cinder block with arms and legs. And curly blond hair. He does not like dogs.
Not much else to talk about.
Ahh, the books.
Well, I guess I should talk about what I've done.
I spent the month poring over the data from a year in wide release and... well... Nothing is in wide release anymore. Not even Under a Crescent Moon. Right now everything is available on Amazon and in my Payhip store. Well, some books are available in my Payhip store. The twenty that are in Kindle Unlimited are not in the Payhip store.
I priced every book at either $2.99 or $3.99, depending on length. And I returned 20 titles to Kindle Unlimited.
Why? not because I wanted to. Because that's where the business is. If there's no business in wide, then what's the point of wide.
In other words, I give up. I mean, I'd given up years ago, but, I give the fuck up completely. I might return everything but Moon and River's Edge to KU before the month is over. Moon is blocked from KU and there's nothing I can do about that. I've played with the idea of pulling it from sale and changing the title. I've done that before. But none of the titles I changed were blocked from KU and I'm no strikes away from losing my account there, through no fault of my own.
Pride Publishing/Total e-bound is to blame for that. They didn't remove either of the two books I had with them from all platforms and after I re-issued the books after the rights reverted back to me and I placed them in KU Amazon punished me. Moon just happened to be my third strike and Amazon would not listen to my defense, so, Moon was permanently blocked from KU. Funnily enough, four or so years later I got a warning that that version of Moon was being sold in European markets by the previous publisher and I almost lost my account again because of TeB. But, this time Amazon sided with me and helped me get them to take it down because my emails were going unanswered. When they finally got around to contacting me, they had all kinds of excuses. But that's the way they operated. The way they still operate, as I'm told by authors dealing with the same crap.
Y'all, there's four reasons I don't deal with publishers. Of the five publishers I was with four of them fucked me over in vastly different and equally devastating ways. My opinion of publishing houses is that they're all bad in one way or another and for those who have never had any problems with their publisher I always add YET to their claims. You haven't had any problems... yet. Or that you know of. Because you never know exactly how many copies your book has sold. You can only hope that your publisher is honest in their reporting. And their payments are on time. And that they're not raking in money hand over fist that goes into one account that covers all of their operating expenses when it should be in a separate account, and that they won't suddenly close and declare bankruptcy and... yeah, that's happened too many times.
Point is, as an indie author I cover all of my expenses. Everything from the writing subscriptions to the editing to the cover to the formatting to the marketing is one hundred percent on my dime and time. And I can't afford to do any of it anymore. But at least I'm not doing all that just to have someone steal every damn dime I earned and tell me I don't know what I'm talking about while doing it. Been there, done that, don't trust a damn person in this industry. And yes, my experience is my experience, and other authors experiences are their experiences and no one has the same experience. And I hope and pray you never have a publisher do you as bad as any single one of the four that I had did me. But, always err on the side of... yet. It hasn't happened... yet.
So, if you're still here, all of my book pages to the right of your screen are up to date. Go grab whatever book you've missed or if you haven't read one in KU now is a good time. And maybe if enough people take advantage of that, then maybe I can afford to jump back into the game.
Until then,
Happy Fall
and as ever,
Peace
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