Kit Jameson writes

Needless to say, my frankness about how royalties work and just how little many of us are earning from our labor has drawn the ire of a few people, even here on Tumblr.hell.

I'm not particularly bothered by this. In my view, they're the same people who won't discuss wages in the workplace because they don't want anyone else to earn what they do. They know the system is unfairly rigged, but they like it that way because they're scared if more people are educated about how things work, they'll lose whatever competitive edge they think they have, thus enforcing the status quo.

Needless to say, I don't care for this view.

I'm very much a "holy shit, two cakes" kind of creator. I also very firmly believe in pulling people up behind me and spreading the wealth of information that was shared freely with me by other like-minded individuals who also believe that the mysteries around publishing are gatekeeping bullshit and everyone deserves the chance to earn money from their creative endeavors, not just the people who can afford to.

Anyway, David Gaughran's 'Let's Get Digital: How To Self-Publish And Why You Should' is an invaluable resource for indie authors and provides great insight into how publishing and distribution work. It is available for free through the retailers listed on his website.

If you don't want to publish exclusively through Amazon, draft2digital.com does global ebook and also paperback distribution. (I've only used it for ebooks, but I'll be trying out their paperback options for my next book.) You can pair it up with a books2read account to create easy-to-post buy links. Draft2Digital also allows for distribution through library lending services like Overdrive. So that's neat. (NB: if you use d2d, you can't use Kindle Unlimited, so be aware of what links you have active and where if you decide to enroll in KU. You can always opt for wide distribution again once your KU time expires.)

D2D also recently partnered with FindawayVoices.com for audiobook distribution. You can find voice actors there, or you can upload your own files if you already have them. You can submit to Audible through them, too, but you'll earn a pittance more if you upload directly through Audible. Findaway also allows for library lending distribution through Libby and several other global equivalents.

If you need ISBNs, you can buy them cheaper in bulk from Bowker at myidentifiers.com

Individual storefront options like Payhip.com and Gumroad.com are also great ways to allow people to buy directly from you, though I soured on Gumroad after the whole NFT thing and their CEO harassing people on Twitter over it. Payhip is now my preferred storefront, and as an added bonus, they calculate VAT in European countries as well, so that's one less thing for me as an indie author to work out. As an added bonus, Payhip can be directly integrated into your author website if you have one. It's a feature I'll be implementing soon.

itch.io also allows for the sale and distribution of ebook files, though I haven't used it yet.

If you don't have the means to hire a cover designer or the means to do it yourself in photoshop, Canva.com has some decent-ish ebook templates. Just make sure the images and fonts you're using have the right licenses for commercial use.

Editing and formatting are also extremely important, though I know not everyone can afford them. If you can, I highly suggest doing so and shelling out extra to have them format your work across mediums. Ebook formatting is different from paperback formatting, and it can look very strange if you just try to format an ebook into a pdf. It is a skill you can teach yourself (plenty of youtube videos) if you really want to, but I prefer to throw money at my editors, who provide formatting as an additional service. Whatever you can afford to do to streamline the process is money well spent.

Also, do not be shy about using affiliate links to sell your work. Authors lose a solid chunk of money to places like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, etc., in distribution fees. Whatever pennies you can scrape back through affiliate links for directing traffic to those sites is hard-earned--and it is literal pennies sometimes. You can also integrate any affiliate links you do have into draft2digital, so they auto-generate, which is handy.

When it comes to paperbacks, BookShop.org offers the best affiliate earnings, and a percentage of the sale goes toward supporting indie bookstores. They do not take that percentage from your earnings, they pay it themselves. Libro.FM is the audiobook equivalent of BookShop.org, and they also give a percentage of sales to supporting indie book stores.

Anyway, I hope that helps someone. Good luck out there.

“Hark, Lord Bollemer, ye shall taste the steel of my Cursed Blade, and thine doom willst finally be upon you! Ready thyself!”

Me: I need to go home. There’s a hurricane coming and my basement apartment is on the coast, so I’m worried about my cats. (To myself: And maybe needing to evacuate.)

Boss: Is your house and your cats more important than this job?

Me: YES.

Boss: …oh. Okay. Uh…see you tomorrow…

Different boss, several years later, a conversation that happened multiple times:

Me: Hey, it’s starting to really snow outside, I live on a steep hill, and I only have 2-wheel drive. If I don’t leave now, I can’t get home.

Boss: Is getting home more important than getting your job done tonight?

Me: Considering I value my life more than I value this paperwork being digitized? YES.

Boss: ….

Me: Bye. See you tomorrow.

Boss: Uh, yeah, okay.

Different atttempt:

Boss: Why don’t you just get a hotel after work?

Me: Do I get a raise so I can afford it?

Boss: No.

more important than getting

your job done tonight?

Please share this!!!!! As you resident vitiligan and fellow artist I am here to educate people on how to properly create a character with vitiligo and other things to keep in mind about the disorder.

Only 1% of the entire world’s population has vitiligo but I see so many artists making characters with it when they sometimes don’t even know what vitiligo is and pass it off as “skin pigmentation”. Like— what does that even mean??? XD

If it’s noodles, pour them on your sister instead of on her computer, or if the noodles are quite hot, pour them on her pillow or in a great spattering arc around her room.

If you have a supervillain at gunpoint and *they* say you’re “too good” and “won’t do it,” shoot them in the leg/foot or the shoulder. The former allows them to think they’re right while you lower the gun only to be confronted with sudden understanding and regret when you blow their metatarsals to kingdom come, while the latter is instant and avoids giving them even a moment’s satisfaction or any time to charge you while you’re lowering the gun to shoot them in the leg.

1. Always follow through. If you make a threat, then don’t do it, whoever you’re threatening will literally never listen to you again. You won’t get what you want, and you’ll lose pretty much every ounce of respect. Not only that, but you’ll also telegraph to anyone around you that you can be walked over.

2. Never start at the top. If you’re threatening someone, always have a point to escalate to, in case you need to follow through a second time to get what you want. You can only kill someone once, and if you threaten to do so and then don’t, you’re breaking rule 1. You want to start at a level that matches your desires, and then step up each further threat until you either get it, or they’re dead. Usually you only have to threaten someone twice, because they’ll know from the first time that you’ll do it.

A REINTRODUCTION —

[[ previous wip intro || spotify playlist || taglist ]]

genre → high fantasy market → young adult status → second draft et cetera → fairytale-inspired ; bonding through crisis ; mayfly-december romance ; trauma as far as the eye can see —

“I’m sorry, Father.” “You’re sorry?” A heavy footfall, next to her—she flinched and scrambled back, and Liev stayed where he was, staring down at her. His face was drawn up in a snarl that belonged to a wolf, not a man. “Do you know what you have done?”

Irina would give her heart and soul to hunt a snow bear. The massive, ancient creatures live near the edge of the world, far from where any mortal man may tread. When she finds evidence of one in the woods, she breaks from her family's hunt to chase after it—but spilling a cub's blood across the snow only makes her a murderer.

Then her brother Fedya is stolen from her by a shadow—a stranger in the dusk—and she can't go home without him.

The questions say WIP, but they can be answered for finished projects as well!

What kind of readers would be fans of your WIP?

What do you plan to do with this WIP when you finish it? If you HAVE finished, how long did it take?

Assign your WIP a color.

Assign your WIP a taste.

Assign your WIP an astrological sign.

Describe a trope present in your WIP.

You’ve published or shared your WIP and it develops rabid fandom. What’s the fandom known for?

Create an incorrect quote meme for one of your OCs.

You’re browsing the Internet and you find a weird piece of unlicensed fan merch for your WIP. What is it?

Which scene from your WIP would make good fanart fodder?

Write a 5 star review for your WIP.

Write a 1 star review for your WIP.

What line from your WIP would your fandom constantly quote?

Which character from your WIP becomes the fan favorite?

Someone creates a tumblr fan account for your WIP. What’s their username?

Make a meme for your WIP.

You should’ve expected it, but you’re still surprised when you find out people aggressively ship (which non-canon pairing of OCs?)

What kinds of fics could people write about your WIP?

You attend a convention and see someone cosplaying one of your OCs! How are they dressed?