Before I begin, I apologize for forgetting to include the link for Moon Tamed. You can preorder the book at the following retailers: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Apple Books.
Next week, I will be raising the price of that preorder on retailers to account for the extra staff I need to hire to pivot, yet again, for Amazon’s policies.
Amazon’s policies are ultimately to blame. They expect literal perfection out of a book. I currently have one professional editor and sixteen proofreaders. I also do numerous passes on each book.
There are eighteen people working together, and we still miss things.
Amazon has zero room for error. They allow readers to submit errors, and they immediately punish authors for those errors.
This costs money.
At the end of the day, people who use the retailers have to pay for the additional costs this policy creates. If I could charge less at the other retailers, who do not have this policy, I absolutely would. However, I cannot.
Amazon’s policies literally bar me from selling the book for cheaper elsewhere. Here is an example of an older nastygram Amazon sent me, just establishing this policy has been place for a long time and it is enforced:
That warning came roughly 24 hours after I had switched the prices at all vendors. Walmart, which is distributed through Kobo, typically takes 3-5 days to change. But Amazon literally has no chill, which is why I often extend sales on Amazon a few days beyond everyone else. Else I have sanctions threatened against my account.
So, that’s that. If I could charge more solely on Amazon, I would.
Now, onto the Patreon issue, as people seem to be confused.
This Patreon is only charged when there is a new release. Each release will be $5.99. And, because math in the publishing industry is what it is, I am paid substantially more on Patreon at $5.99 than I am at retailers at $6.99. (For the curious, Patreon charges a platform fee of 9%, roughly. Amazon charges $30% plus a $0.09-$0.14 delivery fee per book. Other vendors are typically a straight 30% fee unless I’m using Draft2Digital, which I DO use for some distribution.
So, the math on how this works for you is simple. You pay me $5.99 the first day of the month the book releases. When the book is ready, 3-7 days prior to the retail release, you will get the book.
I have to fix the Patreon notes because of the piracy issue. It was made clear I can’t do my initial plan for 4-6 months prior due to piracy. If I’m being pirated out of the gate, 3-7 days before, I will be pirated 4-6 months before without question.
Piracy hurts. I lose literally tens of thousands of dollars per release. The piracy losses are actually higher than what I earn on my books.
And I still have to pay my staff, etc.
Ultimately, Amazon’s policies mean I need to hire a new staff member to do an additional editing pass on the book. That’s in addition to my current staff. That costs money. A lot of money.
And just like I would expect every employee ever to ask more money from their employer for extra or harder work, that’s how it works. SOMEONE has to pay for the additional staff. Yeah. That person is me. And I don’t pay the cheapest on the market for my staff.
But if eighteen people, at current, cannot get a book to perfect before retail release… nineteen won’t be able to, either. (Because we are humans and humans autocorrect.)
If you found typos… congrats. Your brain autocorrects differently than my staff’s does.
For those of you who feels this is drama… could you pay the extra thousand or so dollars a good new staff member will cost me? Per book?
I am hoping to find a proofer who is a little cheaper than that to help make a corrections list on my older titles, but… editorial is not cheap. That is coming out of the earnings of my new titles, because I’ll be blunt… most of my money comes from new titles.
Someone has to pay for all this extra work, and that someone is me.
If you don’t like that the prices have to be adjusted to cover additional expenses, please go contact Amazon.
Ultimately, their policies are the cause behind the price increases. If Patreon isn’t your thing, well, I’m sorry. I’m still running into hiccups trying to find a way to sell books directly on my website without running into huge tax liabilities.
Should I figure it out, well, you’ll be the first to know. Because I’d love if I could only pay the lower fees to sell my books. It would also let me sell bundles on my website. (And yes, the bundles were removed from vendors because of how often they were targeted by people filing often-incorrect reports.)
But to give you an example, yesterday, the Vigilante Magical Librarians collection was hit. 42% of the errors reported weren’t errors: the reader had wanted me to write in a different style to suit their preferences.
The rest were either actual errors or questionable, so I addressed those. (And by questionable, Amazon does NOT allow authors to just refuse to make changes.)
Read that carefully: Amazon does not allow authors to refuse to make changes. That means if some reader, some random Joe I did not hire or ask for input, submits an “error”, I have to either a: write what the reader wanted or b: get into an argument with Amazon over why I shouldn’t change that “error.”
That’s not okay.
That would be the equivalent of me coming into your job, hovering over your shoulder, and forcing you to justify every single thing you do in your work.
(And if I had been hiring an editor, and they had a 42% error rate in “correcting” errors, they would have been immediately fired without question. As I’m ethical, I would pay them for the work, but they would be fired, and if anyone asked for references, I would report this editor had a 42% error rate. No sane author is going to hire somebody with a 42% error rate.)
So, some of you will surely count this as drama.
That’s fine.
This is why my per release Patreon will be remaining at $5.99. If you’re on a budget, you’re covered. You can get the books at the original rate.
But for those who feed the retail system, yes… the cost of additional work and staff is passed on to you. Otherwise, I can’t afford to write, and then nobody gets books.
Better to raise prices by $1 per book and maintain the ability to write, especially considering the additional staff I’ll be ultimately required to hire than the alternative.
And yes, quitting is always an option. It isn’t an option I particularly want to do, but it is an option. The quitting might just be Amazon only and selling my books directly on my website, but in reality, right now… Amazon is the majority of my earnings.
I might have to quit the entire lot unless enough people jump off Amazon, and the reality is… the majority isn’t wanting to jump off Amazon, no matter how much damage the company does to those who are providing your entertainment.
At the end of the day, I am a human. I’m even a human with feelings.
And that means I will maintain my freedom to be a human with feelings and share those feels. I also understand you use me as a way to escape from reality and obtain joy.
But… no, I will not be quiet when a policy, such as Amazon’s, results in mental health problems, illness (physical), and a loss of money. And yes, somebody has to pay for the time, effort, extra staff, etc.
Writers don’t write for free. I love to write, but this is how I pay for my home, feeding my family, and so on. And while my husband and I have discussed trying to move somewhere cheaper, in reality… he has his dream job, and I will not ask him to sacrifice his dream job for lower rent at this point in time. (But some days, I wish I lacked in the morality and ethics required to do so.)
I, also, have my dream job… but with Amazon’s malicious policies, some days, it definitely feels like a nightmare.
In reality, that $1 extra just covers the expenses Amazon creates with their policies. That’s it, that’s all.
But writers are people, too. And we’re absolutely allowed to become frustrated when readers make use of malicious tools that cost us a lot of time, effort, and money–and stress, in the form of understanding these malicious policies can result in our accounts being closed and owed royalties not being paid. And yes, if Amazon closes down an account due to the number of errors reported by readers, we do not receive our royalties.
Even though the books were purchased and consumed. Amazon does everything it can to keep as much money as possible.
So yes, every time someone does submit an error in that tool, right or wrong, it is yet another tally against me in Amazon’s system, that may one day lead to my account being closed.
Right now, whenever I discuss errors with Amazon, the customer service agents always include a line that basically reads (paraphrased): Your account is currently in good standing.
Which makes one message clear: if I don’t provide perfection, my account may no longer be in good standing… and accounts that are not in good standing are not paid.
So, next time you see an author upset over error reports, it’s not just because someone is upset we aren’t perfect.
Our livelihood may be taken away from us at any time.
Food for thought. I hope you have a better day than I am having.
Charge $2 extra maybe that reader will give up and not buy, so they can leave you alone, I’ll join to buy directly from you.
$1 extra is sufficient to handle the new costs, and I try not to be greedy. I DO want to be able to continue writing/paying my bills/paying my staff, but I don’t see a need to fluff the price beyond what’s needed to cover the additional expenses.
How effective would it be if we, your readers, communicated with the Amazon Customer Service to comment on how unfair we feel their policies are and how they are negatively affecting our access to our favourite authors?
I seriously doubt it would do any good. Amazon doesn’t care. They only care about their bottom line.
I have to agree, unfortunately. I and others did complain to Amazon about that “report an error” BS – they are still doing it, so they don’t give a rat’s ***.
I’m sorry to hear the buttheads are harassing you. You have many fans who love your work. Please dont let the nitpickers get to you.
Alas, Amazon’s enforcement of their policies, and their demand I HAVE to fix things on their schedule rather than mine, kind of dictates it.
The nitpickers are why so many good authors quit.
I’m so sorry the creeps and Amazon’s bad behavior are giving you financial and emotional pain.
(1) I’m on your Patreon Cindercorn tier. You write it, I will buy it and read it. I have preferences among your various worlds but I will stick with “You write it, I buy it”.
(2) I have never reported typos. Mostly I just ignore them. There have been a handfull where I had to re-read the sentence to understand it but that is rare.
(3) Before your post on the subject, I did return half a dozen Amazon books because they were greatly different from what I expected or wanted. I did not know the author was penalized beyond not getting royalty for the sale. I won’t do that again.
(4) Per your description of Amazon behavior, I will start buying from author’s websites or other non-Amazon mechanisms where possible.
Give a hug to your husband and editors. I hope you have a better day.
I’m sorry Amazon is so bad. I buy from Apple and your Patreon, too. Should I quit buying your books from Amazon? I was trying to be supportive.
You can keep buying on Amazon. Support is support, but… holy freeeeeaaaak, Amazon’s power trips get old after a while.
I would like to suggest a possible answer to your “armchair editors” problem. I have been buying e-books online since before Amazon put out their first Kindle. Many books I buy are DRM free, that is, unlocked. With an unlocked book file, the purchaser can load that book onto any offline library they have on their computer. I use one of those. It holds my (OMG) 14,000+ books. It contains an editing feature. If typos or other errors really really bug me I can correct it on the editing app. This gives me a “clean” copy of the book as well as the original work. I understand that this might very well offend you as the author (and I truly mean no offense- typos happen). I love your books and reallyreally want you to keep writing. Your continuing struggle with Amazon is heartbreaking. If you “unlocked” your books, would that help make the armchair editors go away, or would it simply add to your piracy problem?
None of my books have DRM enabled.
An honest question… I know a couple of very successful authors who got booted from Amazon because they insisted there’s no way they had the page reads they had. They’ve gone to Kickstarter and continue to do well. Have you considered that in addition to Patreon? I know it has it’s own set of headaches.
I only do kickstarter for print copies. The headache and stress is SO not worth it. I get physically ill doing kickstarters. My current kickstarter, which I’ll be fullfilling as soon as I finish getting the print spreads done, is already going to drive me to the limits of my sanity.
I was buying from Amazon. I’m currently buying from Apple.
I wish to remove said armchair from the armchair editors possession and see how they like things taken from them.
I wish to pay your patreon account for further books. I will do my best to change my purchasing ways. This will be done to give you a higher percentage of my purchase price so as not to pay Amazon further for your work. Please ask your husband to hug you, you both deserve the love. ?
I shall demand extra hugs and cuddles from my spouse because I am definitely greedy for hugs and cuddles from my spouse! :3
Hehehe, hugs and cuddles ? ? . ‘Tis not greed when said hugs and cuddles are mutually enjoyable. ???
Everytime I read things like this I get angry. I don’t get it. Don’t think I ever will. Why do people care so much? I have honestly never found an error in your books. And I’ve only ever dnf 1 book for writing style and that was because they switched POV every couple of paragraphs and so the book made no sense. But I didn’t go blab to anyone about how badly written it was I just didn’t read it.
Some people read books to enjoy books. Others read books trying to feel superior I guess. I can’t imagine they’re actually ENJOYING what they’re reading if they’re being so critical.
It looks like I will have to look more closely at Patreon. I have a number of fave authors going that route. It also means I can no longer be a lazy user and will have to figure out how to download a book for my kindle not off amazon. Sighs. I certainly understand why you are doing this. These idiots do it to authors that have been writing and publishing longer than you. These same idiots would rewrite the bible.
I consider myself a good proofreader and do a lot for my agency before we put out publications. I am not the only one. And we still miss stuff! No one is perfect. But your books, even at $6.99, are still less than I pay for some other authors. Do I balk at that for a new, unread author? And by new, I mean one I’ve never read anything by. Yes, I do but you are not a new author and a $6.99 book is not going to stop me from buying your books because I love your books. I buy from Amazon but I would never report an “error” to them. They are a retailer and should not be able to tell an author to clean up their book or they will be punished. As far as pirates on Patreon, I wish you could find those people and kick them off. How dare someone sign up for a site meant to help you, the author, and then turn around and steal from you.
That’s just stupid. Why even include an error report option in the first place? Competitors can cheat and report tons of errors to run you out of business!
And they do.
Jayne Ann Krentz charges 14.99 for a e-book. People need to realize you are giving them a deal. Hell raise the price.
I mean, yeah… that’s the reason why I only grab her stuff when it’s on bookbub nowadays. I enjoy her books, but not $15 per book. So I just wait until there’s a bookbub deal on them and get when it’s at a price I like. I think her publisher is the one generally setting the price on those, tho.
Am I understanding you correctly? Are you saying if someone reports a typo in a book, but that person is actually dyslexic or misinformed or whatever and is making an inaccurate report, you still need to make some sort of correction to satisfy Amazon?
Yes, that’s correct. Or I have to get into an argument with Amazon.
I am also SO the type to get into an argument with Amazon over it. I do it constantly, because I will NOT have some unasked for, unwanted nitwit forcing me to change my books to fit their preferences.
I’m a technical writer and I’ve never seen an “error” in any of your books. It is so sad that you have to go through this persecution by Amazon just because a few readers can’t seem to enjoy your books for the works of art they are. I am a big fan of your bundles and I would pay any price for your books (I will just have to buy them at a slightly slower rate as you keep being forced to raise your price).