Also weird though because those are the last of my short story ideas. I'd had this whole folder full of them since around 2014 that I kept actively adding to through 2017, and those were the last two. So unless my brain comes up with some new short ideas, all I have left are novels.
What will I do with these? Well, my brain is not capable of concentrating on JLTFT currently, so it's good to have some spare stories to feed to Patreon while I try to get my brain back in "finish this damn novel" mode
Story 1 is done. Did it follow the original outline? No, no it did not. But the general premise remained the same.
Story 2 is outlined and ready to write but I'm forcing myself to stop for today before I pass out. That one is sticking to the original outline, I just fleshed it out more.
Things have been really stressful lately so what did my brain decide to do? Finish off the last two short stories I'd had in my "ideas for Patreon" pile for the last TEN YEARS. Very weird jumping back into the headspace I was in a decade ago.
The UI is serviceable. It accepted my epub and cover no issue. It let me pick and choose which retailers to distribute to. It didn't require any payment from me. This might be an option if you don't have the spoons to go direct to a dozen retailers and cannot afford the D2D fee.
Trying out XinXii for ebook distribution. It gets Amazon, Apple, B&N, Casa del Libro, Kobo, Google Play, Tolino, Everand, and maybe a few more. Seems to do audiobook too. The UI isn't great, but it's *free*.
I might be overselling it, lol
#TimeTravelAuthors 19: authorities
Authorities as in power dynamics, or as in experts? In the high school timeline, there are of course the teachers (and one flexes her authority by hauling Maureen back to school when she's "playing hooky"). There are also experts in magic, like Signora Loretta.
I liked this one a lot
You can read Titanic Voyage (I guess we'll call it the prequel to Immigrants' Journey?) on Hoopla for now (free to you if your library offers it), or it's available at a reasonable price at pretty much all major retailers. www.hoopladigital.com/ebook/titani... #LateNightWrite
#TimeTravelAuthors 17: How do you feel about story structure?
I think my books all follow the "standard" story structure, but I don't really think about it too hard. At this point I've been doing it long enough that I can kind of intuit what works as a story without needing to dwell on mechanics
Exactly!
Kevin Tumlinson on Facebook: So far, regarding the Draft2Digital fees, the response I see from the industry insiders is "It's only $12 a year, what's the problem?" The problem is that it's only being charged to the LOWEST EARNING authors. If it were a charge every author had to pay, regardless of sales, it wouldn't look so much like a money grab. D2D is doing this for good reasons, and it's a good business decision. But it looks very bad to the author who took a chance, wrote the book, and didn't get any sales. I have literally seen authors say they're walking away from publishing because "clearly I'm not good enough." So to my fellow industry insiders: Remember who we're doing all this for in the first place. Show just a bit of compassion here, rather than trying to make these authors feel foolish for having qualms over what you think is small cash.
Did a quadruple take that Kevin Tumlinson was the one who posted this, I did not know he was not working for D2D anymore
I did it last night and people might wanna be aware they just gonna keep your money if you are under the thresold even if you close your account
A riff on the "equality vs. equity" meme. Panel 1: Equality. Everyone is standing on one box of the same size. The two tallest people can see over the fence to watch the ballgame, the shortest person still is too short to see over the fence. This is labeled, "Making everyone pay $12." Panel 2: Equity. The tallest person gave his box to the shortest person. Now everyone can see over the fence. This is labeled, "Polling the users to find something workable for everyone." Panel 3: Reality. The tallest person is standing on seven boxes. The shortest person is standing in a hole. This is labeled, "Draft2Digital's solution."
EVEN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS NOT STUPID ENOUGH TO JUST OUTRIGHT SAY "yeah if u earn more than x u don't have to pay taxes," THEY DO IT WITH LOOPHOLES AND TAX EVASION SCHEMES. D2D JUST OUTRIGHT FUCKING TOLD THE WORLD THAT RICH PPL DON'T HAVE TO PAY THEIR TAX, IF YOU THINK THAT'S OKAY THEN FUCK OFF
Facebook/Reddit are full of this corporate cocksucking and I am at the limits of my rage over it. THIS IS A POOR TAX. THIS IS A POOR TAX. THIS IS A POOR TAX. I am very close to the limit for not having to pay it. If I got my wide earnings up enough to get it waived, I WOULDN'T SUDDENLY STOP CARING
I don't want to hear a single goddamn person making excuses for D2D. If this was their solution for dealing with slop, why are they singling out just small authors? If it's such a great idea, why not make everyone pay it? "Well, because then *I'd* have to pay it. I'm okay with just YOU paying it."
They are also saying that if you unpublish all of your books, you will not be billed the $12 and will still be able to receive royalties from any royalty shares/collaborations/etc. They also suggest unpublishing your books instead of closing the account so you don’t have to pay $20 to come back.
Yeah, man, make our IBPA membership fee worth it again now that Ingram has no fees 😂
Incidentally, I contacted them last week to ask if I could get a KDP invite so that I could royalty split for an upcoming anthology I'm doing, and they answered me on Monday and said they're not distributing to KDP at all anymore. I think just books that are already in now.
Update: The language on the Account Status page has been changed: bsky.app/profile/lyss...
Yes! I QT'ed my original post, Amy got an email from them clarifying and then after that she checked her account status page and it had the updated language on it.
Update from Amy: they emailed her back and said if you don't have any books published, you won't get charged. So all you have to do is delist the books. After she received that email, she said her account standing page updated to now say this.
I sat down with myself recently & made some hard choices about what shitty compromises I would make to keep my publishing/author business alive, reaching readers with books (good) amidst all the tech company fuckery everywhere.
So I know. We do what we must. Stories are hella important right now.
StreetLib quietly removing their Basic free tier and then pretending it doesn't exist to people who contact them about is all I need to know about them. Holy gaslight batman
Last night I was all ready to nuke my account, I was even willing to forego the non-Overdrive library channels, but I remembered Bookshop like an hour ago and was like dammittttttttt
Yeah I looked at them this morning and saw they only had paid tiers and I was like "wow, that didn't take long"
Does anyone know if there is any way for indie authors to sell ebooks with Bookshop.org other than through Draft2Digital?
Being a selfpub author is, at least three times a year, spending months and way too much effort switching to a new platform minutes before it announces that it's going to pay everyone in expired Free Hug coupons from now on.