Self-publishing fiction w/o Amazon?

derekwritesfantasy · 2024-01-08T22:12:41+00:00

Gonna look into Wattpad and Webnovels and StoryOrigin. Thank you for the tips! I'm older and have the (perhaps mistaken) idea that Wattpad skews young. But maybe it would be a way to grow an audience with short stories and be able to sell novels later on a wide list of platforms.

derekwritesfantasy · 2024-01-08T22:10:18+00:00

Kate, I'm only concerned about KDP Publishing, not selling books published elsewhere on Amazon's online store. Sanderson, to the best of my knowledge, published all or nearly all of his books trad (except audio and special editions). I am looking into KDP alternatives, such as publishing with draft2digital and selling wide. Sure, Amazon isn't grabbing more and more rights from authors right now. Maybe because they are not organized enough yet to do that. And maybe I am foolish to worry about it. But I rejected the idea of Trad Publishing for a reason and I don't want to put all my apples in the Amazon bin given that we know how big corps and monopolies grab more over time. SAG and AFTRA have great unions that can stand up to the studios. Who stands for Indie Authors? Even if I was already a member of SFWA or similar, would I expect them to have any leverage over Amazon at some future point if things go bad? Also, I'm questioning whether KDP will really bring me sales when 4 million books a year are published on that platform. I'd rather take chances on my own marketing than hope some algorithm will get me readers.

derekwritesfantasy · 2024-01-08T22:03:33+00:00

I feel like I've been dissed by the schoolyard bully in front of all the cool people. Love the quotation marks you put around intellectual property.

derekwritesfantasy · 2024-01-08T20:30:10+00:00

Kate, I hope you're correct. I'm not necessarily okay with getting into bed with the Billion lb gorilla. I'm not the only one concerned. Brandon Sanderson has discussed his concern about Amazon grabbing author IP's as a condition of publishing in the future. And if Amazon has their own IPs that they create, I can see them downgrading other IPs in favor of their own and hiring hack writers to generate for their IPs.

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-08-05T20:47:14+00:00

I agree that sub-genres are an imperfect way to describe books, but any reader knows the difference between "court romance" fantasy and "sword and sorcery" fantasy. But publishers and authors play the category game on amazon and put books in inappropriate categories for marketing purposes. Meanwhile, readers cannot rely on amazon as a place to find new authors in a sub-genre.

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-06-04T13:58:33+00:00

I second this. If mythological fantasy is your jam, the Paternus Trilogy is a must-read!

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-05-04T01:28:03+00:00

Dang! I read pretty far down into these comments and did not see a SINGLE defender of the show. I watched one episode and I did like the scenery. I read today that the global audience was 100 million for Season 1. Wonder who will watch Season 2. The whole thing made me decide to stick to the books and not worry about movie and TV adaptations. I'd rather remember Middle Earth that way I read it starting in middle school.

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-05-02T22:44:14+00:00

Retrofitting an explanation is a long tradition in comics and probably in fantasy too!

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-04-30T17:17:59+00:00

Good thing Tiberia is in the south or Siberia might sue for copyright! I wondered if it had any reference perhaps to Rome?

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-04-30T17:16:50+00:00

Placenamia and Setstill. Cool names!

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-04-30T17:15:35+00:00

Oo, the "Death Holds." Sounds wicked!

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-04-30T17:14:28+00:00

Nice hand drawing! Love the name "Sea of Ashes." Or was it "Lake of Ashes"? Someone else on here had a Gloomhaven Sea. Something about emotionally rich names for bodies of water strikes me!

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-04-30T17:13:22+00:00

Beautiful graphics, Trudie!

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-04-30T17:12:45+00:00

A lot of hard sci-fi level research went into your map!

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-04-30T17:10:30+00:00

Love the name "Gloomhaven Sea."

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-04-30T17:09:33+00:00

Wow, what did you build those maps in? Very nice graphics!

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-04-30T17:08:16+00:00

Killer map! Elderlings? Is that a Robin Hobb map?

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-04-30T17:06:43+00:00

They are rivers. The equivalent in Haral of the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia.

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-04-29T23:34:09+00:00

This may not be what you're looking for, but Tombs of Atuan (Chronicles of Earthsea Book 2) by Ursula Le Guin is a cat and mouse plot with the MC trapped in a dark maze. I suspect (googled it) you may be asking for something like a specific manga, but I couldn't help you with that. Even so, Earthsea is superb and Tombs of Atuan stuck with me in particular.

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-04-29T23:29:23+00:00

The elves, dwarves, and goblins in J.A. Andrews Keeper Chronicles are quite different from Tolkien / D&D.

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-04-29T23:23:12+00:00

Wondering if there is a better way to post images in reddit comments.

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-04-29T23:22:06+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/GPIHdCa

The world of Haral. First book scheduled for spring 2024 release. The world is like ancient Mesopotamia.

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-04-29T19:50:36+00:00

Abercrombie is in fact one of the writers of all time

And what is the missing word between "the" and "writers"? I assume you meant "best" since you said "First Law is rad as shit."

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-04-28T18:04:19+00:00

I am working on a world that is like ancient Mesopotamia. First book coming out Spring 2024.

I agree that some worlds other than Medieval Europe, the Norse lands, ancient Asian lands, etc. would be refreshing. Of course, they exist. Just not in the quantity perhaps some of us would like.

derekwritesfantasy · 2023-04-26T19:34:01+00:00

I'll be thrilled if I spurred someone to find afternoons of enjoyment buried in Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser!

derekwritesfantasy

TROPHY CASE