KU Isn't For Me

Literature shouldn't have exclusivity clauses

Look guys, I made a mistake.

With the crushing realization that being an indie author means a laborious road ahead, I started to look for the short cut. This girl is no social media guru and currently, I’m working on about three projects so my blogs on here are even spotty. It was time to ramp shit up and hit the ground running again.

Not only was the idea of my books in more people’s hands alluring, the slight bump in a possible royalty was making me salivate. Who doesn’t need to make an extra buck these days?

For as long as I can remember, I have been using what little platform I have to boast about how important it is for everyone to have access to literature. I’ve been boasting and touting about how we should be supporting local, small businesses, and of course, our bad ass libraries.

This indie road is tough and to put it simply, there was a moment of weakness. After a phone call telling me to pick up my left over book from a local bookstore my heart sank.

For the record, it’s the only bookstore in town that cannot seem to sell my novel. It could easily be the shelf placement (Unskilled is literally on the bottom shelf in the corner because of my last name). I sat on that phone call for a few days and wrote to the store asking for an extension. It wasn’t my proudest moment but groveling ensued and they thankfully, are extending my contract for an extra six months.

They refused my offer of a book signing even after explaining how I am known to sell out no matter the crowd. This store also was aware of my reputation of managing to get even the most toxic type of men to purchase from me. What, it’s a fun game!

Needles to say, it was a low blow.

Afraid of continuing to lose sales, I turned to the only solution I could think of. Kindle Unlimited. The wild cheers of my author friends blurred out the whole fucking reason why I write.

With great hesitation, I started to sign up for Kindle Unlimited. My precious babies were taken down from IngramSpark and the process began.

And then it hit me. I was selling out.

Now, if you want your book unlimited on Kindle, that’s fine. No shade thrown. But, the idea that someone can’t request it at their library just felt icky to me. Maybe they can’t afford or choose not to pay for Kindle Unlimited. Should they really be denied literature because they aren’t going to follow along with a system I also disagree with?

What kind of hypocrite would I be if I were to refuse to use Amazon (unless absolutely necessary which sometimes it is) and then only allow my work on there? It just felt wrong for me. Amazon simply is a symptom in this disgusting system we are all slaves to- if you need to feed it fine.

As for me, I am re-enlisting the ebooks Unskilled and Flirting With Freud onto Ingram for a whopping price tag of $2.99/each. If that’s too much for you, I will kindly ask you request it at your library. It’s the easiest way to shake shit up.

Support libraries, support indie, support small. Oh, and tell a man he would be prettier if he smiled.

P.S. I will never judge someone’s personal journey unless it harms someone else. I know many people who rely on the royalties of KU and understand where they are coming from.