Passion or Protest - Another Amazon KDP Rant.

 Its Monday, another work week has come and gone. Mud soaked clothes are in the washing machine and the sadness lingering over me of a dog I worked with being rehomed is fading. But I am not happy today, I am invigorated. You know by now that my writing is a passion of mine, its a way that I contribute back to the world in the way of story telling. I despise that I need big businesses like Amazon to help me with that, but these are wars and not battles, we win over them slowly until the landscape is more palatable. 

If I led the ideal life that I strive for, right now I would be selling books from my own site. Diogenes was a proponent for doing everything the simple way, he made a beautiful quip once while watching a child drink water from cupped hands and threw away his cup. He remarked that he has been out simplified by a child. Could that level of simplicity be translated into writing, simplifying my passion and further propping up a protest against the "machine" as a benefit. 

Writing can never be something owned by big businesses, but self published writers are at the mercy of companies and algorithms owned by men who are fundamentally destroying what it means to story tell in the modern age. I am sure that indie writers and small publishers through centuries thought the same when the first large publishing house was established, but something feels soulless in the face of the monoliths that Amazon and the other self-publishing platforms have created. 

Maybe something can be done, we can protest, not boots on the ground as this cause needs more systemic ongoing maintenance than direct defiance in the face of injustice. What I feel is needed, for those who believe also that the game is rigged and becoming destroyed with cheap, unlaboured, uncreative and AI generated works to quickly make a penny, would be to establish a line in the sand. No longer use Amazon, share the works we create for free amongst other like minded readers, seek out publishing houses directly that align with our values or create something different. Something self regulated, something funded by readers and writers that is in the hands of those who love the craft of writing, who love the adventure or experience of reading.

This will obviously sound like another hit piece against Amazon, but as I do my best to detach from KDP and the bear trap that has become the only viable way for self-publishing authors to really stand a chance of making money. Naturally those using writing as a way to get rich will come to the defence of the giants because they are the ones flooding Amazon with paid ads and receive the algorithmic boost to compensate. But for those who just want to write to tell their story, we need more options.

That is what I am thinking about today. I will come back with another blog post in a couple of days, I am still working on Bulldog 3 and have got some wrinkles to iron out before completing Franks chapters. But progress is progressing at a progressive rate. 

Stay safe and defiant out there, you icy Seals of the depths.