The Plan

So, given that the news of my publisher closing its doors is now out in the wild and is no longer a secret I have to keep, I've been freed up to start thinking about what I want to build for myself in the future. Of particular concern of mine is how to go about building a writing income that aligns with my personal moral compass, because so much in this business seems reliant on some really awful companies or practices. I don't want that for me or my work.

For example, Amazon is a terrible company. They treat their workers horribly. They treat their authors nearly as badly. Having to sell through them and therefore having them earn money off my writing feels really fucking gross, to be honest. So, I've decided that I don't want to anymore. I don't want them to earn a single cent from the stuff I write. I don't want my labour going to fund predatory business practices, or lining the pockets of a multi-billionaire who's perfectly happy to watch the world burn as long as it bags him more money - despite having more money that he could spend in several lifetimes.

So... I'm not going to be selling through Amazon any longer.

This is a stupid business move on my part, if I'm being absolutely honest. Amazon is the biggest bookseller in the world. By refusing to sell through them, I'm making my goal of being able to support my life with my writing infinitely more difficult.

I'm not making this decision lightly. We make the world, and it is through money that we do it. I see the world we've made, and I find myself despairing. The problems seem so vast and insurmountable. But we created these problems, we funded the people who created these problems. So, though it means I'll probably never achieve my dream, I have to do something. I have to make a stand. I have to start aligning my actions with my beliefs.

It won't change much. It won't change anything, to be honest. It's one drop in a vast ocean, a single grain of rice in the harvest. My exceedingly meagre contribution to the problem will absolutely not be missed. But I will be able to rest easier at least, and that's not nothing.

So... what does that mean for me? Well, it means that I won't be able to get a wide distribution for any of my titles. Not through Amazon, at least. There are, however, other channels I can go through in order to achieve my goals.

I can continue here, and hope that enough folks decide I'm worth giving a dollar a month to that I can safely retreat from the office job and create for you all full time. That would have to be thousands of people, which feels extremely unattainable, but who knows what the future will hold?

Physical copies of my books will be sold through my shop on Ko-Fi, on books.by and via other channels that aren't Amazon. Ebooks will similarly be sold here, on itchio, and other channels that aren't Amazon. Some of these titles will be offered on a pay-what-you-want basis (the ones that are serialised stories, essentially), others will have a fixed price point.

I am also hoping to create other income sources related to my writing. Of most concern right now is YouTube, though I am not able to post frequently on there yet. That will change if ever I manage to get enough free time. I have two channels - my writing one, and my publishing one. The writing one (here) will be focussing on my writing journey, more or less. A much more personal look at the stuff I'm writing, and doing within the writing world. The publishing one (here) will be much more about the books themselves. Also included here will be any audio stories I come up with. For now, I want to do an audio story for Her Father's Eyes, from the anthology The Dying God & Other Stories, which I offer for free as an eBook short story. This will be going up on the Overdue Books YouTube page when I get that done. I might also do the same with the opening chapter/prologue of each novel I turn into an audiobook just to get people interested in the audiobooks. But creating these in the way I want will be expensive, and there's not a lot of income from YouTube itself that I'll be able to generate (not least of all because I first have to build a subscriber count that will get me into the earning bracket for the site). This one will be slow going, but I'll get there eventually. Every little bit helps.

I know I'm making things harder for myself. At least in the earnings side of things. I am, however, feeling much more ease on the personal/moral side of things.

Speaking of ethical decisions, I'm also trying to follow this with my social media. Hopefully, I will one day be able to fully leave behind the Meta pair (Facebook and Instagram), and also TikTok. There are Canadian-created analogues for each of these, and I've signed my publishing arm up on them all.

Hey.Cafe = Facebook. It's a platform that is very much a Facebook analogue. You can even create the equivalent of Facebook groups (called cafés here) that can be either private or public, depending on what you want. It is my real hope that all my family will move over from Facebook, so I can start a private family café, which will be nice. I'm also hoping to build a decent following there for my publishing stuff.

Pixelfed = Instagram. The interfaces are mostly the same. What is missing from PixelFed are the video shorts that we now get on Insta. Still, if you're after sharing pics with folks, and you really don't like Meta or the man behind the company, then this is a great option. I do not have a personal account here, because I'm slowly trying to extricate my personal life from social media. That life is mine, and I don't want just anyone peering in on it. My publishing stuff, however, will all be going up there. I might try and make a writing one, like on YouTube, in the future, but for now, I'm using this.

Loops = TikTok. TikTok wasn't great... and it's gotten worse. Still want short form video? Loops might be for you. Like PixelFed and Instagram, the interface on Loops is very much like TikTok. It's by the same folks behind PixelFed. Of course, there are some differences, but it works much the same. Again, I've only created one for Overdue Books, and there isn't an easy way to bounce between accounts like on TikTok that I've found, so it'll likely only be Overdue Books for a little while.

I'm being less foolish here. I'm waiting until I get a decent enough following on these platforms before I leave behind the companies I dislike. Unlike online purchases, for social media, I do have to be where the people are. But the plan is to eventually leave behind Meta and TikTok and go somewhere better, or, at least, less offensive to me.

Things aren't great. And I'm trying to build something of my writing and publishing. But I want to do it right, in alignment with my values, and as close to goodness as it's possible to get for me in this business.

It's also important to note that I can afford to take these hits because I am working full time. I can afford to take a step back from the largest bookseller in the world because I have a steady income. While having this steady income means I have much less time for writing and creating as I would like, it also means that I can make the attempt to build something in the way that I want to. So though I may grumble about having to work and wanting the time to write, I am also very grateful that I have this income. Not everyone does, and I will not stand here and judge them for generating income via any outlet they can. Nothing beats to reach of Amazon (yet), and while I can step back from them now, many writers absolutely cannot.

​Anyway, here's to the future. May it be kinder, brighter, and filled with joyful creation.

Slán go foill!