#supporting authors

Fuck you.

You didn’t stop me.

So your favorite author has a new book out! Yay!

How can you best support them and their book and continued career writing the things you want to read?

My good friend Alex (who just got tumbr @alex-phantom) has recently written and released their first book! they don't have a following but I know the contents will be of interest to those in the same fandoms as me, so they asked me to share their book with y'all!

The book is called A silent memory, and they worked really hard on it!

Oh and somthing really cool, not only was it written by a young author, one of my friends proof read, another edited and formatted, and I helped when they forgot the terms for stuff! so this was worked on by a small group of us young creatives! (These friends of ours don’t have tumblr)

Here’s the blurb

A young girls memories are taken by her father...

when her brother finds out about this he tries to take her back, along with the help of their friends.

but what happens when he can no longer trust the people he put his faith in?

And the prologue

The connection between humans, what is it? It’s the same as love, but what is love? That is a question not many people know the answer to. Though love can be many things; leading to a nightmare, or a dream come true. One thing’s for sure, it’s never… the same. Many things can come their way, change its course, lead people in, and drive them out. The people you wish to keep in your life may stay, but only for a short time, especially if it involves the ones you trust too much… but where could you go wrong with believing in those you trust? How much harm will they cause for you in the end?

Something that not all human beings will know…

Also the cover art made by our fantastic friend Vee

If you want to buy it either physically or on kindle you can get it here!

And don't worry, they're working on the seccond book!

Also plugging their YouTube and TikTok

I print my books via Kindle Direct Publishing, aka, Amazon's publishing platform. A lot of indie authors do, as it's more beginner friendly than Ingram Sparks, which is the other main printing platform. I personally like the quality, and since I'm Amazon-focused in my marketing (I am also exclusive in KU), it's nice to have all of my reporting in one spot.

Here's the deal, though - if you buy my books off another platform, I'm going to get significantly less royalties, because Amazon is still going to take its cut as the printers, but now another seller platform is taking a cut, too.

And I do mean significant - the royalty sum total of all of my books bought via Amazon is nearly $46, while if you buy every one of my books elsewhere ... I'm getting less than $10. And you're spending at least $180 for the stack, quite possibly more, depending on platform (Deposit books, for instance, generally charges a few dollars more than I list, so they can cover shipping). If you wanna look at my royalty breakdown, I have a spreadsheet.

Now, it is my choice to have my books in Expanded Distribution, and I accept that I'll be getting lower royalties. If buying one of my books elsewhere than Amazon is the more accessible option for someone who reads my books, all the more power to you. BUT, if you're buying my books elsewhere as a "I don't want to support Amazon" ... you aren't succeeding. They're still getting the money, I just get left with a few dimes rather than the dollars I would have through a sale on their platform.

And, please, I don't want to get hit with a "why are you even on Amazon" rhetoric because I'm pointing this out. As I've said, it's the more accessible option for me, and it's the system I know. This is true for a lot of authors. Making fun of people who are making the best choices they can with the tools available to them isn't cool. Further this post is NOT me complaining about lower royalties - merely pointing out something you may want to know about the way you spend your money.

I don't know an easy way to tell what platform a book is sold on. Back when KDP printed through CreateSpace, sites would clearly list the seller as CreateSpace, but now it's a mere "Independent Publisher" for both KDP and Ingram, so far as I can tell. I do know how to tell the difference between the printers once I have a book in-hand, but not on the sites. (Also, I just realized that only my books published while CreateSpace was a thing are listed on B&N. All books published on KDP are not there... Interesting).

It may be best to contact the author directly, and if they print via KDP, ask if you can buy the books directly from them. A lot of authors already have that set up on their sites - I don't, but it is a goal of mine to have the option within the year. (I do need to improve my relationship with my post office, though, as I am terrible about finding my way there, because I don't drive.) Most authors who sell books directly on their site will tell you that they make the best royalties that way, period. Amazon will still get the printing costs, but it is less, I believe. (I've not personally run the math) And you'll probably receive a signed book!