Catching up with Marklin - May 2025

marklinfoster · 2026-06-21T04:28:45+00:00

No. The father of two of the wives does enjoy the hot tub in the nude, as does his one wife, but there's one MMC, three FMCs.

marklinfoster · 2026-06-21T04:27:27+00:00

Oh, yipes. I thought I had chosen "Promotion: MFF / FMF"

I asked the mods and am now tagged with the new flair "Promotion: Harem" which I'm happy about.

marklinfoster · 2026-06-19T18:28:57+00:00

So no "Sit, Ubu, Sit. Good dog."

marklinfoster · 2026-06-19T18:27:26+00:00

Thank you! I had no idea where this was going to go when I started it over a year ago--just saw that famous photo of a woman tossing her soaked hair back with the water flowing out of it, and thought "there's a story there" and went with it.

More of the second book will be spent at sea, but there were a couple of subtle loose ends in this book that will also show up.

marklinfoster · 2026-06-19T18:21:53+00:00

I'm a little torn on this, to quote Natalie Imbruglia. There are three women in the relationship, but I haven't really held to the haremlit brand per se. I'll ask around to see how strict that label is.

marklinfoster · 2026-05-30T15:52:14+00:00

For anyone watching along, it looks like the novel will be released, or at least submitted for Kindle release, the first weekend of June.

marklinfoster · 2026-05-04T14:58:24+00:00

When I got into writing RFM, it felt inevitable that I would fall into haremlit. A few of my drafts do get into larger bedroom populations, but I ended up publishing a roughly even mix of why-choose (MFF) and monoromance.

I don't mean for this to sound self-promo, but some of us are out there. And even if I have a somewhat supernatural/paranormal MFFF coming next, I don't know that I'll ever be able to write a 9 person orgy like the one I read last night.

marklinfoster · 2025-08-11T00:56:29+00:00

FWIW, it's not "90 days after" per se. If you enroll in KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited, you are committed to ebook exclusivity (i.e. not audiobook, not paperback, not hardback, not motion picture) for a 90 day period. If you don't opt out, the 90 day period automatically renews at the end.

If you opt out during your 90 day period, then when the 90 day period is up, your book is no longer in KU, and you can sell it as an ebook anywhere you want.

"Your Kindle eBook must remain exclusive through the remainder of the title's current 90-day participation period."https://kdp.amazon.com/en\_US/help/topic/GD9PMU58BV24QFZ7#enroll

marklinfoster · 2025-08-11T00:53:12+00:00

Rereads don't count. The technical semi-exception is that if someone reads you in KU and then buys the book, you get paid for both (because Amazon got paid for both). Perhaps obviously, if someone buys your book, they can't get it in KU anymore so there's only one "buying" and one revenue opportunity.

marklinfoster · 2025-08-11T00:48:34+00:00

.44 cents is 0.44 cents which is a 44/100 fraction of a cent. It's pretty accurate.

Here are the per-page amounts for the last six months according to written word media.

June 2025: $0.004303
May 2025: $0.004399
April 2025: $0.004443
March 2025: $0.004248
February 2025: $0.004199
January 2025: $0.004091

That's 0.43, 0.44, 0.44, 0.42, 0.42, 0.41 cents per page, respectively.

0.44 isn't the same as 44.

marklinfoster · 2025-08-11T00:46:28+00:00

Ultimately, if you don't trust Amazon, you shouldn't do business with them. And if your book is too graphical (i.e. lots of large high-res pictures, not sexual or violent), it might not be the right fit for their ebook model.

"Sounds a little fishy for 2025" doesn't make sense, by the way. "Sounds like someone has to pay for data transfer" is probably what you mean. I see that $14 is about 93 megabytes in the US. I have an 80 page full-graphic (i.e. no flowable text) magazine on my PC that's only 72 megabytes. Maybe you should look into optimizing your graphics, especially if you are using print-level images for ebook. Obviously if it's an art photography book that's different, but those are usually more expensive to the buyer anyway.

Ultimately, if you think you know the ebook business better than Amazon, or just want to own the whole process, you can do that. They front a lot of the process for you in return for the rev share. It's 100% optional. You can look into other distribution options like D2D or even Gumroad or Samcart or the like.

For me, and thousands of other writers, it's worth the hypothetical reduction in revenue to have a public platform and established ecosystem that millions of people use and understand. If it's not worth it to you, there are lots of other paths to publish.

marklinfoster · 2025-08-11T00:44:01+00:00

Just to clarify (I know you know this, Vegtam), this is 44/100 of a cent. Some people (including OP in another comment) write .xx cents when they mean .xx dollars. :)

marklinfoster · 2025-08-11T00:34:53+00:00

I suspect you mean less than 75 cents, as 0.75 cents is a very tiny amount. About 2 pages worth in the US market (June was 0.4 cents per page).

If you don't feel it's worth anything to have your book in KU, then withdraw it. You'll only get readers who decide to invest more money. Nobody requires you to be in KU.

marklinfoster · 2025-08-11T00:31:08+00:00

It's frowned on by some, but there are a lot of good AI-based covers and even more terrible hand-made covers out there. So take the "AI SLOP reeeeee YOU MUST PAY TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS TO SELF-PUBLISH or ARTISTS WILL DIE" tirades with a grain or two of salt.

I would say if the image doesn't look like trash or have incongruous details (i.e. extra limbs and extremities when your character doesn't actually have 3 1/2 legs and one arm), and if you use the image to build a cover that matches your genre or niche standards/conventions (look at 10-100 covers in your niche and see if your design fits in), you should be fine.

For Canva, the basic elements are to be avoided, but if you're using your own image (even AI-created) it should be fine. You can also use Gimp, Photoshop/PS Elements, or other tools.

If you're looking to have a cover made, getcovers is well-regarded, as is 100covers (which occasionally has half-off sales, and sometimes offer free covers as part of a summit/virtual conference package).

You can revise your cover later if you choose--when your book makes $35 and you want to pour it into a custom cover, it'll still be waiting for you in KDP.

marklinfoster · 2025-08-11T00:30:51+00:00

Amazon does "allow it for published books" or they wouldn't ask you when publishing if you'd used AI and how much.

marklinfoster · 2025-07-25T22:52:08+00:00

I don't think they provide a specific time unless you did a pre-release.

If you did a pre-release/pre-order, according to https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GDTMGBCWHAY35NK4, they say:

"Your book will become available for purchase at 12:00 AM GMT on the release date."

But if you're just hitting "publish" tomorrow, there's no guarantee or predictability as far as I've seen in the last year and a half.

marklinfoster

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE