This Week in Being Independently Published

“Become a writer!” they said. “It’ll be FUN!” they said.*

Barnes & Noble is going to be late paying us for February sales.

I distribute through third parties, and one of them is taking out a line of credit to pay us all anyway. The other, I have no idea.

That is…concerning nonetheless, and I do not share D2D’s believe that B&N will come through. There is little excuse for the portion of sales due to go to authors to be tied up somehow–that money is OURS, not theirs, and this reeks of robbing Peter to pay Paul, and we’re all going to get screwed. I don’t buy the “sorry, we don’t have the money that we never should’ve spent because it’s yours” excuse when publisher pull it, when stores pull it–when ANYONE pulls it. And I’m still salty over All Romance eBooks closing and owing me money.

My backlist books are still at Nook for now. I’ve taken Blood Ties off of preorder there, however, and even when this gets sorted out, I will think long and hard about offering on Nook again. Nook uses epub format, so if you’re a Nook reader you can still buy epub direct from me, or my books are DRM free so should still be able to manage if you buy elsewhere.

I always endeavored to have my books available everywhere possible in as many formats as I can, for readers’ ease of use, but when I don’t get paid, I cannot continue to publish. I have no suggestions for a solution that readers can utilize–I can’t say “don’t shop at B&N” because I’m sure putting them out of business is going to guarantee we NEVER get paid, but at the same time know that there is no guarantee your money is going to authors or publishers if you buy there.

Speaking of not getting paid…

As mentioned, I had a sharp drop off in sales in October for Livi books. Up until that point, Livi books were about the only works of mine selling on Amazon at all. The sudden drop coincided with a sharp piracy spike on a popular channel and I’ve never recovered on Amazon.

In terms of writing income, everything for the past few months has been coming from Kobo and Patreon. Yes, I also freelance, but taking on more freelance means doing more freelance work, therefore less writing. So it’s crucial to have that regular writing-related income to guarantee I’ll have something to eventually publish (thereby bringing in more writing income, so I can write more, etc).

I’ve been in a super vulnerable position for a while now, basically.

You have to hustle as a writer. I’m constantly looking at what I can do–new channels, new opportunities, new avenues to explore–vs what I reasonably have the time and ability to do. And it’s always time and ability–I can’t afford ads or to throw money into the black hole of marketing, literally everything counts down to the penny at Chez Skyla.

“I know!”I thought last month. “I’ll finally kick out one of those series starter boxsets! New cover for it, formatting. I’ll do Kindle only so people can read free with KU, and maybe I’ll get some page views, which’ll be a few more pennies and do a countdown deal next month!” Maybe more people would check out the rest of the books, maybe not, but I was hoping with the pandemic those with a Kindle Unlimited subscription would have another option to read and I might make an extra twenty or thirty bucks for the month with enough pages read.

I didn’t expect to actually sell copies–this would not appeal to existing readers, the books have been out a number of years.

And I was surprised when someone said she was preordering it–and that a preorder actually showed up.

That was it, by the way. One preorder. One sale. One.

Not exaggerating. ONE. 1. A single copy. More than I thought!

…As soon as it was released, the book appeared on a piracy site.

When literally only one copy had sold.** Zero page views indicating anyone had borrowed in KU.

I strongly prefer to believe that either there’s some loophole that allowed a pirate to download a copy free without showing on my dashboard…or that the person who said they’d preordered simply lied and that single copy that was uploaded for thieves to take is someone else entirely.

Otherwise that means she followed me for three weeks and was aware that a. I live in poverty, b. I had a severe mental health breakdown recently, and c. I RESCUE BABY KITTENS, yet still chose to distribute my work to hundreds of people anyway. And that would make that person a some kind of psychopath completely devoid of empathy and feeling.

Or perhaps someone sharing her account did this cruel thing, in which case I certainly hope she confronts them and gets them to remove the files (which I’ve had no luck with).

I am at such a loss.

So Amazon royalties are nil, Kobo–my main source–dropped a lot this month, B&N isn’t paying, Apple royalties are always hit or miss. Now daily I brace to have patrons drop as everyone is out of money, and I’m battling not just one book on a piracy site but a bundle of three–which means THREE SERIES folks will now be requesting the sequels for.

I don’t know why I talk about this.

The burden for supporting books is already on the folks who do care, and I hate that they have to listen to me bitch when they’re already doing all the right things. The folks who are apparently psychopaths and don’t care probably get off on the idea that some books will never be written and series will continue to be cancelled because…I don’t know what other purpose could be served by directly harming someone by stealing their labour.

I think I talk because it’s not healthy to keep up the veil of secrecy about writing and publishing. I wish that books were magical things that sprang forth fully formed, that we live on air, that the most important thing is being read, that bills don’t exist and time is infinite, that everything could be the excitement of cover reveals and new releases and wow they’re making my book into a movie!

That’s not how it works. That’s not how any of it works. Every moment is filled with breathless vulnerability, any positive event tempered by knowing how precarious a good position is.

And I think I also talk because I still believe in a person’s potential to do better.

I believe there is always the chance someone will look at their actions and make the hard choice to do what is right instead of what is easy. Or, at the very least, to remind folks that often we know who you are and that eventually, I believe, if you flout not only the law but what is morally right, you will one day be made to pay for it.

Not gonna lie, though, I am tired of people like me feeling forced to expose our financial vulnerability and perform our poverty in the hopes of garnering the empathy of those who steal from us. It shouldn’t be necessary to beg to be treated like a human being deserving of fair compensation for our labour that folks want to steal.

I do not care if folks don’t want to read my books. No one is entitled to readers–if you see the cover, read the jacket copy, and decide it’s not for you? Cool.

But clearly people do want to read them because every single day I have to deal with people on piracy forums and sites asking for them. Every single day I see a string of new hits in my site stats looking for illegal copies. Those taking are stealing my labour, which is unacceptable. Even those selling my books apparently want to steal my labour.

Anyway, if you’re getting through this pandemic with entertainment–movies, books, music–please find a way of getting it legally, and ensure others in your sphere are as well. Spotify’s not great but at least artists consent to having their music there; if you can’t afford a bunch of streaming services, cancel one and pay for another; if you want books to read, try Scribd or Kindle Unlimited for a low monthly fee, contact your local library online, or search for the myriad of copies being given away legally by creators.

If you have an extra dollar a month–and believe me, I understand in this climate you might not–you can join my monthly patrons. Next month they get a new Livi excerpt…

…which I’m back to struggling with. Revisions were in progress but I had to close the doc this week with everyone going on. Besides, I have a mountain of freelance work.

Publishing is fun!

*Actually no one said that.

**A handful of other sales came in later, when I talked about the theft, so if you’re reading this thinking “Hey I bought a copy and I didn’t upload it, she must be wrong or exaggerating”–no, I know a couple of others sold after it was already pirated, thanks.