Musings From A Writer's Perspective: June 2018

Thursday, June 21, 2018

I'm Kinda Excited

I’m kinda excited.

I’ve finished I’m Your Boogie Man – A Tale Of Sardis County. I got a bad case of writer’s block there for a while, but I’m over it now…and the story is done!

This story is all about the Sardis Slasher, and how Sheriff Napier and Deputy Blake deal with it. It also expands the story behind the Sardis witches, and just how deep their power goes. The backstory on the father of Phoebe’s kids is also explored, and a certain security company from the city sets up shop in Sardis County…making Sardis County their rabbit hole. But, they might have bitten off more than they can chew!

So, I’m kinda excited about that.

I’ve started work on Black Dog – A Justice Security Novel. In the story, several members of Justice Security are dealing with nightmares from the aftermath of events in Hell’s Bells. And that’s all I got to say ‘bout that.

I’m kinda excited about that, too.

But, this is what I’m most excited about: in mid-July, the rights to The Night Chicago Died revert back to me.

What does that mean?

Well, in 2015, I wrote The Night Chicago Died as a team-up between my Justice Security and J. A. Konrath’s Jack Daniels. Mr. Konrath didn’t have time to add anything to all of the stories that he had received, so, rather than co-write the stories, he partnered with Amazon and created a Kindle World. Many of us authors were invited to be the initial suppliers of Jack Daniels stories teaming his popular character with our characters.

Fast forward to this year: Amazon pulled the plug on Kindle Worlds, taking both authors and licensers by surprise. Kindle Worlds will be shut down completely by mid-July, and rights to all of the stories therein will revert to the authors that wrote them. However, the stories themselves were written using characters belonging to whoever licensed the Kindle World.

I emailed Mr. Konrath. His solution was simple: rewrite the story using your own characters.

I did. On August 1^st, the new edition of The Night Chicago Died – A Justice Security Novel will hit store shelves everywhere! There will be a hardcover print edition, and the ebook will be available everywhere…not Amazon-exclusive. Now, the basic story is the same – and if you purchased the Kindle Worlds edition, you already have the basic story. The story still remains the eighth story in the Justice Security canon. It just has new characters replacing J. A. Konrath’s characters, with a couple of editorial changes.

I like these new characters in this reworked story. I’ll have to write more stories with them!

So, yeah, I’m excited about that! I’m glad to have the story “back in the fold”, so to speak, and away from Amazon exclusivity!

So, those of you that buy your books through Kobo or Google Play or Barnes and Noble, get ready…because on August 1^st, you’ll be able to add the eighth Justice Security story to your collections!

And, all of you, please…

Keep reading!

T. M. Bilderback (But you can call me Michael)

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Friday, June 8, 2018

To Amazon Or Not To Amazon - That Is The Question

Readers, I’m taking a good, hard look at Amazon right now.

Amazon has begun policing its book section for scammers, pirates, and general ne’er-do-wells. That’s all well and good, but, like a tuna net that captures dolphins along with the fish, they’re capturing and punishing honest authors, too.

Kindle Unlimited is one of the biggest problems. Scammers target unsuspecting honest authors to hide what they’re doing to scam the system. When they target honest authors, Amazon threatens the honest author with cancellation of their accounts because of something over which the honest author has no control. Now, I don’t have any titles in Kindle Unlimited, and haven’t for some time. It doesn’t affect me.

Something that does affect me is their CreateSpace arm. I use CreateSpace for my paperback books. I intend to switch them to another distributor soon, but, until them, I’m using CreateSpace. Since I began republishing paperbacks through them, they’ve been suppressing them until I can prove that I own them. I’ve done so with each title, but they’re dragging their feet on clearing some of the titles…and I’m not the only author that’s experiencing this. Soon, I’ll begin moving the paperbacks to another distributor, and I won’t use Amazon’s publishing services for print again.

Add to this the fact that their ACX division, including Audible, is trying hard to pay pennies for each audiobook purchased. Many authors, including myself, won’t work through ACX/Audible to provide audiobooks because of this. I have several titles under contract with them, and I have no option with those titles…but, the audiobooks will begin coming out of contract beginning in 2020, and I’ll be pulling them and distributing them myself, through other distribution networks. I won’t use ACX/Audible again under their current terms.

Now, I’m giving serious thought to pulling my ebooks from Amazon, and only using them for a distributor of print books. My ebooks would be available at all of the other retailers, like Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Apple – and with the Walmart/Kobo deal coming very soon, I highly recommend obtaining a Kobo ereader.

I’m thinking about it. I haven’t done it yet, and I may not do it. But, you know it’s bad when I’m at the point of thinking about pulling my ebooks from Amazon.

What are your thoughts?

Please let me know in the comments. But, mostly, thanks for your continued support!