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My characters kill people so I don't have to.

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July 1, 2025 By Skyla Dawn Cameron Leave a Comment

A Month After Removing Most Books from Kindle

This post is intended for me to track some observations, as well as for people who are considering pulling some titles from Kindle. YMMV but this is what I’ve observed so far, some expected and some not.

A reminder: I have started by pulling series books. Standalones are currently up, as are series starters River and Blood Ties since those are the only ebooks available in their respective series. Eventually (maybe in another month), other Kindle ebooks will come down if there’s still no TOS update.

The Finances

I don’t typically make a lot on Kindle, at a glance this will seemingly hurt me less than it would hurt others…but it still hurt.

May was the best month I’d had on Kindle since Livi 5 released in 2021. Only a fraction of that was the new Waverly release–a lot was backlist sales, mostly Livi but also Waverly, due to two different author peers recommending those books to their own readers (*waves at Olivia and Glynn*).

The bulk, then, of those June sales below, are because I tried The Silent Places as a deal everywhere–and I’ll be honest, it was three days of like 11 sales, 6 of which were on Kobo (which is why, when asked about why I don’t price match on Kindle when Kobo runs a sale, that should explain it–I spent a half hour manually updating price changes everywhere only for most books to still sell on Kobo and I made like $20 for my efforts).

That changed when a Bluesky reader did a giveaway of five copies on Kindle (thanks, Kari!)–not only were those five copies claimed, but several other folks went on to buy the book, giving the month an overall bump up. Without that sale and subsequent folks recommending the book, the chart would’ve looked much different.

A bar chart showing sales this year so far.

When the rest of the books are removed from Kindle (which is incoming since they have not changed their TOS still), that will drop down to almost nothing since I don’t sell a lot of print.

The other difference, though, is Payhip. Glynn Stewart (buy his books) asked me where to link readers to when he mentioned Livi, and I suggested Payhip since it can be side-loaded for Kindle readers.

I made $143.87 USD on Payhip last month, and a lot of that came from him linking to the book. This is compared to the one or two books I sell on Payhip every couple of months–that’s significant, and direct sales rather than Kindle means I both get paid sooner and get a higher percentage (no doubt some sales are lost with the lack of Kindle availability; it’s impossible to say how it would’ve gone otherwise, but this is still a healthy number of direct sales).

(Also buy Olivia Atwater‘s books, she’s helping to keep Waverly in coffee.)

The Unexpected

You know those handy series pages on Amazon? It tells you what order the books are in, if there are supplemental titles, etc?

Did you know that page breaks if you remove Kindle books, even though your dashboard has the print still linked on the series page?

Waverly’s page now goes nowhere vs Elis’s page with the first ebook still there.

I list series order inside the actual books, and now in the descriptions as well as in the A+ content (which is a pain in the ass to update for all regions).

The product page for The Killing Beach in paperback, showing the series order after the main jacket copy.
In the "from the publisher" section, a breakdown of what's included in the paperback vs the hardcover, as well as a banner showing the reading order.

I don’t know yet if this will make a difference, whether readers buying print will have trouble navigating the series order and what they’re missing in the series. It’s concerning because I don’t write series as standalones but now it’s clear it’s vital that publishers, IMO, not rely on Amazon’s volume/series info because if they pull anything from Kindle, all that info disappears.

The Confusion

Amazon and Kindle are used interchangeably, by me as well, and this has led to some confusion. No, I did not pull my books from Amazon. Yes, I pulled many from Kindle, which is the ebook part of KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). Paperbacks and hardcovers are still there. I am looking at alternatives but that’ll create a lot of complications I can ill afford.

I need to do better making the difference clear. The KDP reps I spoke to said the genAI recaps are for Kindle books, not print, and so this is why print are remaining for now (although they seem to be testing a feature on one- or two-sentence summaries based on the jacket copy and they are fucking terrible).

The Ripple Effect

I expected sales to dip, I knew that many Kindle readers would not learn to sideload or follow to other platforms, and I made my peace with that.

What I did not expect was for five patrons to cancel right after I told them I was ceasing to publish new titles on Kindle.

Some might be coincidence with the timing but, for me, that’s a significant and unexpected number to lose in a day, and it’s hard not to assume they’re Kindle users. Given I’d had other messages of support, I did not expect the opposite to occur from what is usually the most dedicated area of my fanbase.

So if you’re making this choice and you rely on Patreon income, keep this potential consequence in mind.

The Lessons

  1. Doing this in stages is, I think, the right move. Initially it was for my sanity–it felt like I was taking 5d6 psychic damage every time I unpublished a book, so I prioritized series books. Now at least it means I’m not cutting an entire income stream off in one go, so that leaves time to start encouraging readers to try out other platforms.
  2. I need to make more of an effort to encourage conversion to direct sales. Part of that is going to be showing how easy it is to side-load, which I need to do. I might take a short story or something, make it free, and encourage people to grab it and learn how to side-load.
  3. What I’ve been saying forever: we are in this together and to survive the major transition periods in (or collapse of) publishing, it’ll come from having one another’s backs. The majority of my book sales lately have come from folks recommending them to their own readerships. I try to recommend books myself a lot. Our little micro ecosystems of writers and readers is vital.
  4. There is a reason Kindle remains popular, and that’s ease of use. The giveaways from various folks on Bluesky regularly boost sales overall. Other sites can’t replicate that. Payhip has a gifting option but you need the recipients address. Smashwords has a gift option, but I’m not sure how that one works. Gifting isn’t something I can use given I’m Canadian, but it’s a useful feature for the US market. Other sites (like Kobo) badly need this. I cannot see a way to replicate this so it’s a small, super helpful promotional tool I have lost out on.

___

Many folks apparently took it as a personal attack when I chose to do this and dredged up their litany of excuses with “Well of course Kindle is terrible but I can’t afford to make such a decision”–and folks, I literally do not care.

At all.

I didn’t tell anyone else to do this. I didn’t expect anyone else to do this. I was not personally attacking people by saying “I am pulling series books from Kindle” and did not call on anyone to do anything more than write to KDP and demand a TOS change. (I did find a lot of folks outing themselves as hypocrites for screaming about Kobo *doing the right thing by having a TOS change and explaining what they’re doing* but not doing a thing about Amazon, and I stand by that.)

I cannot afford to do this either. I know the risks. And a reminder: if my writing income dips so much that I have to focus solely on freelancing, I will have to quit that as well and find an entirely different job because trying to put my focus 100% on other people’s books rather than my own will kill me. That is not hyperbole–I will become so resentful of others I will quit, and being unable to write will have a devastating effect on my mental health. I do not have a backup or alternative if pulling out of Kindle kills my career. This is a massively big deal for me to risk.

Suggesting for some reason I can just afford to do this is minimizing the devastating effect it’s going to have on someone who already lives on poverty-level income.

But what I see are patterns. What I see is absolutely no one manning the ship at KDP anymore. What I see is a path ahead where KDP will do something so egregious that I will wish I’d made the decision to jump ship earlier. By doing this now, I am hopefully in a position to build up more of my income elsewhere so, when they do something even worse than this–and, again, screaming into the void here, but: there is no terms of service update for authors/publisher regarding how KDP can use your books with generative AI!–I will not be one of the people scrambling then to find a way to divest myself of them. (Or, more realistically, just once again shrugging and saying “It’s Amazon, what are you gonna do?” while enduring whatever terrible new thing they’ve done.)

There is little we control in this industry as authors, yes. But there is also a learned helplessness, a refusal to sit with difficult feelings and tendency to use that lack of control as a reason to accept shitty things.

Every time a discussion about the harm Amazon does comes up, every time readers talk about boycotts and trying to shop elsewhere, it is authors who are quick to dominate the conversation, to guilt people and shut those talks down. “Your boycott will hurt indie authors, though!” is said so frequently I’ve just started blocking people for it. Everyone knows this. Everyone! Indie writers barge into every fucking conversation about it to stop people from exploring change.

Boycotts hurt. Good people get caught up in them. That’s how it works.

I applaud anyone who attempts to get out of the Amazon system, and sometimes that means I get hurt too because that’s where my print books are. But that’s fine–I made that choice, and I support readers deciding how best to spend their money. I do not take it as a personal attack when people decide to shop elsewhere, when my peers decide to sell their books on different platforms (like KU). I do not fucking care. But I will not be made to feel ashamed for my choice. If what I am doing makes you feel a certain way, sit with that and interrogate it–do not bring it to me to pat you on the back and make you feel better. I don’t care about your feelings. Your choices are your own.

I would, in fact, say that if you see people actively trying to get away from Amazon: encourage them. The first step in making the publishing ecosystem healthier is to stop repeating the idea that it’s “impossible” to get out. The next step is to support the readers shopping elsewhere and the publishers focusing on other sales channels. Otherwise, the “impossibility” of getting out from Amazon’s grip just becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

__

So that’s one month down.

I’ll look at things again in the fall, and certainly seeing how Waverly 5 does next year will be interesting (assuming I’m not dead in a US drone strike by then).

Also I would like to point to fantasy author Delilah Waan’s comprehensive investigation into Kobo’s usage of generative AI and their TOS changes for anyone with questions about all that. I agree with much of her assessment, and that’s why I’ve marginally relaxed on the Kobo stuff, although I remain annoyed with them and wary.

She has a long-form video on the subject, she’s written thorough threads on Bluesky, and has a blog post up here (also, buy her books!). I am so grateful she’s stayed on them and provided clear, reasonable information for authors (and readers)–I’ve had a hell of a month.

(If you’re not on Bsky–first I dealt with a faulty smoke detector that went off in the middle of the night for two hours until I called the fire department, then the fridge died during the 44C humidex heatwave and it took a few days to get a replacement, and that’s the second time I’ve lost groceries in less than three months–it’s been stressful. And also I’m still dealing with Everand’s contradictory statements and weeks of silence which will also be a blog post soon, of which the details I relate publicly will be decided by the actions of the remaining person at the company who occasionally deigns to answer my emails. There is one path forward in which I go quietly and it remains to be seen whether they will step in that direction or not.)

Hopefully I will blog about non-terrible things eventually. I dunno, everything is just…very terrible and I’m tired.

Filed Under: blog

June 1, 2025 By Skyla Dawn Cameron 1 Comment

It’s Done

I went through and removed series books from Kindle (to start–I will probably go back and do the others, but that was enough of a psychic hit for the night). (I discovered the series page on Amazon is broken when ebooks are unpublished so that’s great.)

Screenshot showing a Kindle book is unpublished.

This is not only due to the Recap system (I’m so not a “bestseller” that I’m not even at risk of that) but the fact that they STILL have not updated their Terms of Service to reflect how books are used with KDP’s generative AI. All I have is the word of one employee that they aren’t used for training data. And the more folks I talk to (both publicly and behind the scenes), the clearer it is that no one knows what is going on at KDP. The departments don’t talk to each other. No one knows how various areas work. Authors’ agents can’t even get answers from Amazon’s publishing imprints. Draft2Digital has no idea what’s happening.

It is unacceptable that there is no ToS update about their AI usage. It is unacceptable that apparently no one is manning this massive ship anymore.

—

Want to know what a ToS update should look like? Well gosh, let’s just check with Kobo.

That’s right, they’re doing the same thing and this blog post details some of the usage. I am deeply disappointed and concerned. I have submitted feedback and received a prompt response. At least they’re being transparent but they had the opportunity here to show they are better than the competition and come out against this bullshit. Instead they’re embracing it. I have been a Kobo advocate while repeating “corporations are not your friend” and have always said I will turn on a dime and call them out if they do something egregious.

Well, they are.

I’ll have another blog post about it in a week or so. Because they have a ToS update, I’ve left books there for now, but it’s abundantly clear it is not the viable Kindle alternative many of us believed it would be.

ETA June 3: last night the Kobo CEO wrote a long thread breaking down how this isn’t as bad as it sounded. I still have questions but I am okay chalking some of this up to a badly written blog post by marketing.

—

Yes, you’ll notice that is leaving no options left for selling, especially when you consider B&N still hasn’t paid me. (ETA June 2: There appears to be a payment I think is from them that just landed. It does not match any of the payment reports on my account. So I can say…they have possibly paid me something(?))

—

ETA June 3: this is 10x than it seemed, I’ll have more later.

Oh, but we’re not done here! Because in a complete what-the-ever-loving-fuck move, Everand/Scribd has laid off the entire team producing audiobooks with books still in production, not told anyone anything, and I’ve been waiting three weeks now for a response after contacting three people. No one will reply, not even the single remaining woman I’m told is supposed to be handling this. I have no idea if my books will be stuck at Everand for seven years or if they will actually distribute to third parties so I can make some money.

Yeah there’ll be a blog post coming about that, too, because I am tired of quietly waiting privately for two simple yes or no answers.

—

A meme based on Christ in the Desert. Jesus looks exhausted and is hunched over, holding a cigarette. The text above says "Meanwhile, in publishing"

All of this happening like right now, at once. From everywhere.

I am so disheartened and sad. I don’t even have the energy to be angry right now. Just hit after hit and I feel like I’m gonna to need to make death saves soon because I gotta be near zero hit points–there’s been no rest, no breathing room. All I have left is to take the disengage action and dash the fuck out of here.

I want to stress at the moment I am okay, at least financially. I have good Patreon support. I have a few months of money coming from sales. Also, of course, I freelance. But May was the best month I’ve had at Kindle since the fifth Livi book (not even the sixth, that tanked)–a combination of the new Waverly book, two people recommending Waverly and Livi respectively to their audiences, and a whole lot of print sales.

I will probably be singing a different tune in the fall. And I literally have no idea what my career will look like in the spring.

—

The first Waverly book came out two years ago on Friday.

I still vividly remember what a panic I was in. I kept going back and looking at preorder numbers from years earlier to remind me that consistently with every series it simply takes a while. The majority of my series readers don’t go from series to series, my standalone readers typically don’t go to series (there are exceptions I know, I love you folks). Solomon’s Seal preorder in 2016 was for like ten (10) copies. Ten! The climb up is hard. So I kept going back and looking to remind myself that after a few books, usually a series finds its readership–that sort of kept me tethered to sanity with The Killing Beach.

Before TKB was even out, I had the first three up for preorder, and I was so excited for the dozen or so people who had preordered 2 and 3 before even reading the first one.

Then TKB came out, and several people cancelled their preorders for 2 and 3 lol.

I knew it was a difficult character and a hard sell. I knew people were used to me writing urban fantasy and weren’t into a mystery (even though I kept warning it wasn’t paranormal). I stressed, and worried, and friends kept trying to keep me sane by reminding me Waverly would find her audience.

Before A Wild Kind of Darkness released, the total preorders were three less than The Killing Beach had. By the time Alone at Night came out, it was even with The Killing Beach.

But this year, miracle of miracles, Silent All These Years had sixty percent more preorders over TKB and AaN. Waverly developed rabid fans who are filling their books with highlights and sticky notes, writing down clues in their murder journals, and just living and breathing this character with me. It’s not Livi numbers, it’s not standalone horror numbers, but it was a steady enough increase that I felt like it might be okay.

I'm going to have to reread this book and I'm about half way. SO MANY HINTS! The mystery and details. @skyladawn.ca my pen's going to run out of ink! 😂

— Melissa Hayden (@mellhay.bsky.social) 2025-05-31T00:59:14.659Z

Folks, I am devastated to be doing this.

That is not hyperbole. I am devastated. This is the character of my heart, it’s the series of my heart–I’m writing a complex sprawling twelve-book mystery that demands patience and an attention span at a time when audiences supposedly don’t have either. Every word in every book, everything written and everything that’s coming, is exactly what I’d want to read. I want so badly for her to have just a small steady readership.

And I feel like I’ve just cut it off at the knees. Like I’ve made a choice that will eventually kill it. I’ve done this to her, and it’s for nothing.

Because this choice doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t fix anything.

Only a mass rejection of genAI and the companies trying to integrate it will shift this–only massive bestselling accounts with massive readerships getting loud about it can do that. Only the Big Five coming together and taking these companies to task might get policies changed. But none of them will, and everyone is going to just endure this because everyone’s income is tied up in it. People are not going to destroy their entire livelihoods, which is why Amazon (and every other company) continues to get away with these things and always will. In five years’ time, Kobo and Scribd will probably file for bankruptcy after wasting all this money integrating useless genAI, Amazon will be advertising “readers: create your own genAI book!”, and none of us will even see this dystopia because we’ll be dead from poisoned air and droughts caused by this tech.

(The only remaining company will somehow be B&N because they just don’t bother paying anyone so can keep limping along.)

This choice of mine doesn’t matter and the only person who will suffer here is me. I know that.

—

Except…

Except…

As I’m writing this blog post, teary and nihilistic at 4am, what I hear is Waverly because she’s ever present for me, and she says: fuck kindle.

She doesn’t care. She’s prefers to be alone and she is used to no one liking her and she’s feral and she’s mine whether there’s a readership to sustain it or I’m telling stories to myself homeless under the bridge.

What Would Waverly Do? She’d walk away. Her morals are wonky but if this was her line in the sand, she would not cross it. She would torch her career rather than give up control of her soul. And as I keep apologizing to her, she reminds me to stop having feelings because I’m making it weird.

There’s a lot I will do to survive but I’m hitting my limit of what I will bend over and take from soulless corporations. And this entire fucking industry is on the verge of collapsing. It’s going to destroy me either way, so I might as well go out on my terms.

Chidi from The Good Place when he's having his existential crisis. He's standing in front of the class making marshmallow chili, wearing a purple shirt, and ranting "The world is empty. There is no point to anything. And you're just gonna die. So do whatever!" He smiles with a mad gleam to his eye.

I will not be trapped in this particular darkness for so long that it starts to look like light.

So I’m going to bed sad. I will grieve the readership I was building that won’t follow to direct sales, the readership that has yet to discover the books and now won’t without them on Kindle. I will grieve the loss of excitement I had over the audiobooks. I will grieve the choices Kobo is making that will eventually doom it.

I will grieve that we have to waste time with this utter bullshit, time that should be spent on creative endeavours and instead is wasted sending “feedback” begging our sales channel partners to stop fucking us over, begging others to reach out and complain as well on behalf of everyone.

I will grieve and I will move on, because wishing things were different won’t fix it. Creating more stories is the only chance at survival and I will give no more of my energy (outside the upcoming aforementioned blog posts) to these companies who will steamroll over all of our rights in a heartbeat.

A drawing of a young white woman with messy dark hair, wearing a plaid jacket and jeans, holding a coffee cup. She looks deeply unimpressed with everything.
Here we are.
Because fuck you, that’s why.

Filed Under: blog

May 20, 2025 By Skyla Dawn Cameron Leave a Comment

KDP Recaps Update!

So this post was meant just for my readers and for me to link to, but it was viewed a lot.

Including for hours on Monday by at least one person at one of Amazon’s offices.

👀

In case they come back *waves* I just want to say, you are simply doing your job and not making a lot of these decisions, so I hope I’m sufficiently polite with you. If you enjoyed browsing my site, please consider buying my books!


Now, genuinely I am not somehow who enjoys stirring up distrust and while I have had plenty of criticisms of boneheaded choices being made by folks at Amazon, the truth is that I don’t want to have to leave another distribution partner in terms of eBooks. I also prefer the quality of KDP’s paperback and hardcovers (even if their warehouse workers are incapable of packaging them properly so I need to get replacements or refunds with almost every order) and I’m grateful for that option for selling books, or else the Waverly hardcovers wouldn’t exist.

So credit where credit is due: I did receive a response today about my last email.

Most of it is rewording information I already know or ignoring some questions entirely, but we’ll get to that. Here is the important thing:

First, I want to clarify that creating a Recap does not result in any generative AI training with the book's content.

I made that a screenshot direct from my email, but it says: “First, I want to clarify that creating a Recap does not result in any generative AI training with the book’s content.”

That statement is per Erick Heizer, Executive Customer Relations, Kindle Direct Publishing

If that’s what you’ve been wondering for over a month now, you have an answer!

…Recaps were launched early April, I’ve been asking since April 23rd when some other folks had been talking about it for a few days, and it’s taken this long to get this simple statement. I admit I am not exactly filled with confidence however! I appreciate this gentlemen’s definitive statement.

Another question I had was about side-loaded books bought elsewhere and whether they would eventually be scanned and summarized. To that question: “I don’t have information about future plans.”

That is fair! It’s likely only the higher-ups making decisions know.


So first I should show the email I actually sent on Friday when another Executive Customer Relations rep contacted me.

Here are my main questions no one has been able to answer:

  • Are scanned Kindle books “forgotten” after being scanned by the generative AI program recapping them or are they made part of the system? As just about everyone with a book on Kindle has already had their work stolen by Meta, OpenAI, DeepSeek, etc without permission or compensation, understandably this is a major concern for most authors. 
  • Why was there no Terms of Service update made at KDP clarifying how authors’ works are used? Is scanning their books with generative AI considered part of usage for marketing?
  • Will the “Recaps” feature ever apply to books bought elsewhere but side-loaded to Kindle devices by users? (Meaning will side-loaded books be scanned and summarized as well?)
  • What is the environmental impact of this usage of generative AI to create Recaps?

Additional questions:

  • What is being done to prevent readers from returning ebooks if they read the Recap after purchase and decide they don’t want to read the book based on it? Readers buying series books and immediately returning them after reading only to buy, read, and return the next is already an issue for many authors; the Recaps system seems ripe for abuse.
  • Will Recaps share a system with the customer-facing AI chatbot Rufus, e.g. could a reader ask Rufus about a book’s ending and have it spoiled before purchase? At this point Rufus seems to be focused on summarizing customer questions and book information, but if there’s no ToS update for KDP authors about how their books are used and in what context, it seems like something well within the realm of possibility.
  • On Amazon’s “Help” pages, it’s admitted there could be errors generated in Recaps–has there been any consideration as to how this will affect series sales for authors? Given we’re not offered the opportunity to review and correct recaps, we’re reliant entirely on this generative AI’s capabilities and for readers to notify us of any errors that might have impacted their reading experience. 

I admit I’m surprised that this program was announced six weeks ago but no one had any answers prepared for writers using KDP. Even those using distributors like Draft2Digital to sell on Amazon found D2D hadn’t been given any clarification either. D2D, in fact, recommended to inquiring authors that they pull their books from Kindle distribution entirely given there was so much confusion over rights issues and what KDP was doing with the books in question, which is not a good look for such an important and valued distribution partner like Amazon.

Given that this program is presently limited to US audiences, English-language books, and only bestsellers (although I’m unclear what qualifies something as a “bestseller”), it seems like an excellent opportunity for Amazon to get ahead of more problems and issue clear usage terms for those using KDP.

✔️ So first one: check! Answered!

❌ Second one, why there was no ToS update–not answered. (I am assuming he doesn’t know, which is fair–I’ll allow it.)

✔️ Third–answered! (Not right now and he doesn’t know the future plan.)

❌ Fourth–not answered. Again, fair, that’s a different department, but I still want to know.

Hitting my next batch:

✔️ Fifth–they monitor for abuse of returns and take action. I mean…do they, though? Plenty of authors would argue about that, but okay.

❌ Sixth with that chatbot–not answered. He probably doesn’t know because it isn’t currently a feature. Personally, I expect it to be eventually, much like scanning side-loaded books.

…Seven, and I’m going to quote the answer here: “I also wanted to address your concern that authors wouldn’t be able to review and correct recaps. We are using Amazon moderators in addition to technology to ensure the accuracy of Recaps; however, any author who notices an error in a Recap for one of their books can notify customer support and we will quickly review that Recap.”

This stuff I knew, the info is out there–I’ve been looking.

Except it doesn’t really answer my question, does it?

Without a way to view Recaps from our KDP dashboard, this means we’re reliant to either a) wait for a reader to notify us about errors or b) buy our own books on Kindle (if in the US) and review them that way.

So to, uh, “recap” here: KDP admits Recaps could be inaccurate, authors have no way to review them unless they’re American and they *buy their own books* and view them in the Kindle app.

Gif from The Good Place where Chidi explains "Okay but that's worse. You do get how that's worse, right?"

I truly don’t find this nefarious! But I do find it sloppy.

Recaps are for readers, I get that. This is why we can’t opt out–it’s to provide a consistent experience for Kindle users.

But you don’t have books to sell without authors and publishers. And poisoning an already rocky relationship with your Kindle partners by completely disregarding their consent and not having basic consideration for what they might ask is a very bad look.

I have asked the following regarding Recaps, errors, and moderators:

This information was found previously in the research I’ve done, yes, but the problem remains that authors will have to rely on readers to tell them if there’s an error or buy their own books on Kindle to check the recaps. Requiring authors to buy their own books to merely review recaps for errors is a deeply questionable business practice, but if there is no place within our existing dashboards to review them, they are forced to do so or potentially suffer consequences that can impact their sales. 

As well, who are these moderators? Are moderators reading entire books to double check summaries are accurate or are they merely scanning for typos? What assurances are there that the moderators will know if a story error has been generated in a recap?

I have also repeated, again, the environmental impact of Recaps should be made known and whether or not this will be incorporated with the Rufus chatbot, allowing readers to ask for a book’s summary and ending before making a purchase.

I acknowledge this fellow likely doesn’t have answers to a lot of this.

I’m asking stuff that multiple departments are involved in. Stuff that decisions haven’t been made about yet.

But this is why I said the rollout is sloppy: before launching a major new feature like this, someone should have been asking these questions and prepared to address them.

No one did. So, alas, I must continue to be annoying.

I hope KDP Customer Service Reps are well-compensated for having to deal with me–someone ought to be.


ETA: This was the final update that came later that day from KDP regarding my questions above.

Thank you for your response. I’ve shared the information I have available, but will pass along this additional feedback to the Recaps team.

So this is as far as it goes.

This is confirmation this entire system was poorly thought-out and rolled out without any consideration for authors and publishers. Again: it took an entire month for someone to tell me books would not be made apart of any AI training data. They didn’t have that answer ready!

This is a mess. I strongly recommend readers consider the ways they can get out of the Kindle ecosystem, and writers as well.


If you enjoy me wasting my actual work hours doing this as end-of-the-month expenses barrel down on me, please consider buying me a ko-fi and/or buy my books!

Filed Under: blog

May 18, 2025 By Skyla Dawn Cameron Leave a Comment

Soundtrack Sunday – SATY Edition

3D image of the fourth Waverly Jones novel

The book has been out a couple of weeks now and most people like it (a few aren’t done yet because it’s obscenely long). Here’s the soundtrack finally.

Kat Leon – “Silent All These Years“ (cover)
I love Tori too but this version was on heavy rotation for this book–it’s eerie and I can see the forest of the provincial park, see the bay with a storm coming in, hear the wind making the wood groan in the old boathouse at the end. You’ve got a book about someone whose victimization has been repeatedly minimized and denied by others, about the past rising up like a scream felt in the present, about secrets coming to the surface, about complicity and reckonings. So yeah, this was my big trailer theme song.

Poets of the Fall – “War” (acoustic)
More about that one here and why it was a key to unlocking another character’s POV. I like both versions, including the original, but the acoustic is specifically my favourite.
“If I can let the memory heal / I will remember you with me on that field” and “When I thought that I fought this war alone / We were one with our destinies entwined”

Tusks – “Demon“
“Lay me down / Hold my flaws / Oh my love / I’ll be yours”

Le Bon – “The Darkest Places“
Waverly Investigates Stuff song.
“Feel the twists and turns / Tangled in your web” and “The darkest places are calling / Nothing around to keep me from falling / Every night you haunt me”

Seven of Cups – “Strange Unknown“
Another Waverly Investigates Stuff song, whole lyrics really.
“Do you want this? / Do you really want to know? / The secrets in your bones / When you open the door / To a strange unknown”

Jack Carty – “A Case of You” (cover)
Okay I listened to this one and the Sierra Eagleson version from the last book too, and there’s a chapter titled after it. Just quiet downtime with lots of YEARNING for the reader to take a breath and absorb everything so far.
“She knew your life / She knew your devils and your deeds / And she said, ‘“‘Go to him, stay with him if you can / But be prepared to bleed‘”

Angelo Badalamenti – “Questions in a World of Blue” (demo)
The chapter “Stepping into the Past”, attempting to revisit what happened when Det. Kyle disappeared twelve years earlier, was written after I actually DID write what happened from his point of view. This is the demo and it wasn’t meant for Badalamenti to sing, but something about this version playing low in the background while I was writing completely gutted me. I have no plans to share that POV, it spoils a lot of stuff, but even without it, just the scene in this book with the grim rain and the weight and pain of the past, trying to figure out what happened the day everything changed, still is so sad.
“Why did you go? / Why did you turn / away from me?” and “When did the day / with all its light / turn into night?”

NerdOut feat Ben Schuller – “Running Up that Hill” (cover)
Usually I link to YouTube but the version there has the voice overs from Stranger Things–on Apple Music (which I have) or Spotify (linked to there), you can hear just the song itself. This was on repeat for the scene of Waverly’s big confession of what she’s been lying about for a few books.
“You don’t wanna hurt me / But see how deep the bullet lies / Unaware I’m tearin’ you asunder / Oh, there is thunder in our hearts”

Poets of the Fall – “Late Goodbye” (unplugged)
Lots of awkward tension at the B&B and driving around looking for Waverly’s car.
“And we keep driving into the night / It’s a late goodbye, such a late goodbye”

Spelles – “Dead in the Water“
Some of the final boathouse scenes, and the final conversation with Lashbrook later where Waverly knows something is very wrong here.

Band of Horses – “I Go to the Barn Because I Like“
I tend to have multiple songs for certain scenes depending on POVs, so while “White Flag” (below) is the primary one, this was the other one–something in the tone change midway through feels like a goodbye and a bittersweet embrace.

Kina Grannis – “White Flag” (cover)
Ending theme (goodbye and the cemetery). If ever there was a Waverly song, right?
“I promise I’m not trying to make your life harder / Or return to where we were / But I will go down with this ship / And I won’t put my hands up and surrender / There will be no white flag above my door / I’m in love and always will be / I know I left too much mess and destruction / To come back again / And I caused nothing but trouble / I understand if you can’t talk to me again”

Bonus from the hardcover:

Otis Redding – “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long“

As usual, because this series is one big story to me, a lot of the same songs are on repeat and you’ll find the other playlists on the soundtrack overview page.

If you’re ready for the fifth book, ADaDH is up for preorder at Kobo and iBooks, or there’s still one eARC available in the contest at waverlyjones.ca

A Dark and Distant Home promo image

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: soundtrack sunday

May 12, 2025 By Skyla Dawn Cameron 3 Comments

Torching Kindle (and Probably My Career, YOLO)

So, as I said, I’m removing my books from Kindle.

I’m starting with series but I expect to pull the rest too. No future books will be published there.

Early April, Amazon announced their new Recaps features for series books–US readers were the first to try out recaps for bestselling English-language series books.

Nowhere on there do they mention generative AI creating the recaps, of course–people had to reach out for that info.

I’m not sure if authors and publishers whose books are already available that way were notified or not, but I know the rest of us weren’t. This is all the information available on KDP’s site about it.

These “recaps”, summaries of books in a series, are generated entirely by AI. They admit it may contain errors. There is no opportunity to review or correct. There is no way to opt-out.

There has been no update to their Terms of Service for KDP authors/publishers clarifying whether books are scanned and “forgotten” or whether they become part of Amazon Nova’s training data.

I don’t have an issue with recaps, in and of themselves. If this were optional, if users could provide their own (many authors do within books themselves), I might not care. But any feature that cannot be opted out of raises a pretty big red flag in my eyes.

So I reached out to KDP with some basic questions.

  • Are the scanned books “forgotten” or made a part of Amazon’s training data?
  • Why was there no update to the ToS explaining this?
  • What is the environmental impact?

That was on April 23.

When it was clear the first KDP rep could not answer my questions, I was told to wait a few days while he researched. Then I got a new one who told me to wait a few days while he researched.

At last I got an answer today, May 12.

This is Emanuel and I'm one of the KDP supervisors/managers.

I understand You'd like to know how these kindle books are going to be used or if they will be used as training data but we do not have this information . We are actively monitoring the rapid evolution of generative AI and the impact it is having on reading, writing, and publishing. We remain committed to providing the best possible shopping, reading, and publishing experience for our authors and customers. At this time, we are not showing this information to customers, but may choose to do so in the future.

For more information, visit our KDP Content Guidelines help page: https://kdp.amazon.com/help/topic/G200672390

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has provided information about their products at: https://aws.amazon.com/ai/generative-ai/nova/. I don’t have additional details about AWS’s models.

They can’t tell me.

No one knows. Or at least no one wants to say. They took weeks to get back to me and still did not have an answer.

No one will reassure me how our books are used. No one will say why there’s been no ToS update warning us about this. And even if this is not as nefarious as it seems, even if i take this at face value as something truly benign: if they get no pushback, if they do not allow opting out, and they refuse to offer transparency, this is the first step in many that will lead to very bad places.

Why should it matter at this point, right? It’s inevitable. My stolen books have already been sold to various copies to build their plagiarism machines like Facebook’s “AI” chatbots, right?

It matters. Everything, every little bit, matters.

We know about the high environmental impact and massive carbon footprint and it’s worse than people realized. Grok is literally poisoning the air in entire communities. The humans paid pennies in developing nations to train this tech have severe PTSD and no support after being exposed to the firehouse of awful scraped from the internet.

Now the president of the US has fired the director of copyright after a report came out on AI training data and usage (suggesting the theft of copyright work to then compete with it is beyond fair use) and the GOP wants a ten-year ban on AI regulations–all this to loot from copyright, destroy entire industries and the fucking environment, to devastate the work force, to silence and stifle creative thought. genAI like this is built on stolen work, trained by exploited people, and is hastening climate change. It is the tool of fascism, supported by everyday users who are too fucking lazy to write a goddamn email.

I cannot stop it but I will not accept being a part of it.

Fuck the techbros. Fuck the pirates. Fuck Facebook.

And fuck Kindle.

There are two circumstances where I consistently make more on Kindle than I do Kobo–one is the day I have a new release, and the other is the rare time a book is recommended in a high traffic place or something with reach outside my circle (last time was about three years ago on recommendation thread for The Book Devouring Horde–that was for Livi). But it’s still the place most new readers go–the first question anyone in the US and most of Canada asks is “Is the book on Kindle?” So it’s next to impossible to have a career self-publishing with no real reach without also having things on Kindle for the sake of convenience, at least with a US audience.

But some things are wrong, and here we are.

I’m waiting until the end of the month to remove my books so readers who prefer Kindle have time to pick up what they might’ve been waiting for payday to get. That’s two and a half weeks.

Books can still be sideloaded to Kindle–I sell direct at Payhip for that reason. If you’re on your tablet or phone for reading, most other stores offer apps (like Kobo). And remember, your bought books on Kindle will remain in your library–they don’t go anywhere, you’ll still have your notes.

I strongly caution Kindle users to consider having an alternative in general because Amazon can fuck with them as well when they’ve got users locked in, but the likelihood is that everyone else will keep their books there because they can’t afford not to (I cannot afford not to either but, well, I would rather my career collapse than put up with this) so you’ll still have lots of books.

Godspeed to those who remain.

Follow-up post is here.

Edited to add: probably too late for this to make a difference, but having to devote a lot of time to dealing with Amazon and then keeping Bluesky informed, atop hours spent trying to get Barnes & Noble to pay me, has eaten into my regular work hours. If any of this has been helpful to you, please consider buying me a ko-fi.

Filed Under: blog

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MEET SKYLA DAWN

Writer of urban fantasy, thrillers/mysteries, and horror.
Fifth-generation crazy cat lady. Bitchy feminist.
So tired all the goddamn time.

My characters kill people so I don’t have to.

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Writing Elis 5. Also kind of sort of writing Waverly 8.

I'm not inclined to resign to maturity.