The War no one knows about

​​      This war started innocently enough just as I was beginning my first ventures into the realm of self-publishing and still finding my footing for the journey ahead.  I of course knew that Amazon was the biggest e-book retailer to be found in the digital realm, but I did not yet know that they that got that way by sacrificing and punishing authors.  And while some might think I am being overly poetic by saying such a thing, I assure you that I am not.

     One of the things that originally attracted me to self-publishing the results of my odd little hobby is that I would be the one in control of how my books would be presented.  I was in charge of the editing, I was in charge of the cover art, I would dictate how the text would lay out across the page, and I was the one to decide how much to charge for my books.

      But contrary to what the less generous souls of this world might think, I didn't publish my books to become famous and I didn't publish my books to make heaping stacks of cash.  I wanted only to see if there were people out there in the world who would like the results of my odd hobby as much as I did.  Yes, I charge money for my books, but I have debated long and hard about how much to charge for them.  And with an price range of Free to $2.99 I do not believe I am asking for a premium for the hours of entertainment that I offer.

       However for Amazon, this isn't good enough.  While they might claim to offer 70% of the royalties to their authors, it is a lie and a deceit and this undeniable fact is at the heart of my conflict.  Depending on which retailer my books are purchased from, I stand to make somewhere between 59-72% of the cover price.  But during the few short months my books were listed on Amazon, on average I made only 25-59% of the amount promised to me.  This is because any book sold through Amazon is filled with (*)'s that the public doesn't see.

       Amazon does not allow authors to set their own prices, I in fact had to fight them for a month to get them to list my Free book as being Free.  Amazon also reserves the right to change those prices when, where, and how they see fit, without permission, authorization or input from the author's who wrote those books.  And while they might claim that they pay *70% of the royalties for books published through them, it is only one books priced between $2.99-$9,99.  But it's not until one sees the fine print that the truth might be discovered.  Amazon also reserves the right to offer special discounts, coupons, and to add 'delivery' fees, and 'handling' charges.  Oh, and if you book is 'value priced' like mine, if the discount is even $0.01, a single penny, you get not '*70%' but '32%'.  And they did this as often as they liked, whenever they liked, and as they wished.  So I would have had to raise my prices, those prices I feel at which my books are both paying me for my time and effort, and at which my customers were getting a good book for a fair price.  At a third the cost of a paperback novel, I don't think I ask my customers to pay top dollar out of my greed for something they might not like.

       But the $1.00 Amazon collected for the books sold for which I got my 65% royalty, after the fictitious 'shipping and handling' taken from my share, wasn't good enough for them.  On more that half the books sold through them, they decided that $0.89-0.99 was good enough for me and they simply took the rest.

        While I am not into self-publishing to make heaping piles of cash, I'd like to get something for all that I have done. I don't like to think I am being greedy, I am not trying to fleece anyone, I am not looking for fame, I am not looking to bleed my readers dry for every penny, but what exactly is Amazon doing for me?  They aren't advertising my books, I am.. sort of,  Amazon isn't shipping these things overseas by plane and paying someone to hand deliver them, they aren't beating the streets to make sales, they aren't stocking it on shelves, they aren't paying employees to run the cash register.  

        What did Amazon do for me? they built a website and made an automated piece of software to take a text file and an image and put it onto that website, and provided a fragment of digital space to which I could access.​  It was said once by someone else who reviewed Amazon's e-book division, 'They are selling books for cheap so they can get people to buy lawnmowers', and this could not be a truer statement.  But I go one step further, and say that they are selling lawnmowers by climbing across the backs of authors.​



         What did I do?  I spent two months writing a book, spent weeks editing it, re-read it a dozen times, spent two weeks editing it again, spent days making a cover image, copyrighted it, published it, spent days creating a website (twice now), tried to advertise it with a blog, marketed it, and pimped it as much as I could.  So in what paralleled reality does Amazon deserve 70% of the profits from my efforts?

                                     I am sorry that this inconveniences my Amazon customers, but a girl has to draw a line in the sand somewhere, and my line was crossed.  So Amazon can kiss my Lily white butt...