I am constantly getting email about the price of my books, even though I never price a book above 2.99 and am enrolled in Kindle Unlimited so as many readers who want to can read my books for free through the KU program. Here's something most readers don't know: I take a 40% royalty hit being Kindle Unlimited and because I'm an Amazon Exclusive author I will never make USA or NYT bestsellers list. But I think the Amazon Exclusive Program offers me the best opportunity to be affordable for my readers and to attract new readers. I'm not complaining about the model. I love it. It's the business model I've selected.
Every 90 days I get a choice of a free download period or a 99cent Kindle Countdown. I utilize them every quarter. I want my readers to be able to read my work in the most affordable way for them. That's partly why this weekend made me so very sad.
I started to notice when I was in Indy for the birth of my first grandchild that I was getting more email on my new release The Girl of Tokens and Tears than I had sold books in the first two weeks of release. I thought it was strange since on release weekend I had thousands of hits on my website of readers looking for the second Half Shell Book. Amazon uploaded my book slowly and the email, where is your book, Susan, was constant.
So I went Oh Crap this book has been pirated. And sure enough I checked and found my new release everywhere. What was infuriating is that some of the pirates had my book up and available before Amazon did, which meant these copies came from someone on my blog tour who gets an Advance Read Copy. I only give out 10 ARCS per release. I downloaded and checked the version and sure enough, it was an ARC. I can tell because the ARCs went out before the final upload and some subtle changes were made in the story not in the ARCs. Some of the sites had the gall to put a download counter on my pirate page. Thousands of people have download and read my new book which is great, and yet, I've received royalties on only a fraction of that, which is not so good.
So please, respect my work and my efforts if you enjoy my books. Don't download from a pirate site. You see we have 5 children and 1 grandchild, and I don't care who you are or what your have it's getting darn difficult to help your adult children and Jeez they need help in this economy more than my generation ever did. So, every year I start a business to teach my children the value of hard work. One year I started a consumer internet site referral service. That paid for part of my daughter's tuition at OSU and her graduation trip to Europe. I have an environmental newsletter I send out quarterly. That pays for my daughter at Sacramento State University.
And the book line...well this is for my grandson baby Hugs. It's bought nursery furniture, put a small down payment on a house, and covered the cost of me traveling from California to Indiana to be with him. And I'm hoping someday it will amount to something that will help put him through college. I want my girls to inherit from me the belief that all things are achievable if you work hard. We don't give them checks. We build them businesses, business we hope someday they will run, and try to instill the value of hard work. The businesses are small but the lesson is big and valuable.
All the things I do, even my professional enterprises, are things of the heart and lessons I hope to teach our daughters. The lesson I don't want them to learn is that hard work doesn't matter because someone will pirate it and you'll work your butt off and earn nothing. So please, don't download my books from a pirate site. And if you are the person putting my ARCs on these sites shame on you!
As ever, I wish you Peace.
Oh and for a limited time my Affair Without End Series is 99cents! The final book releases this March.(Book 2 is already at 99cents, but I'm still waiting for the price drop on Book 1 One Last Kiss. But it will happen today...sometime....)
Every 90 days I get a choice of a free download period or a 99cent Kindle Countdown. I utilize them every quarter. I want my readers to be able to read my work in the most affordable way for them. That's partly why this weekend made me so very sad.
I started to notice when I was in Indy for the birth of my first grandchild that I was getting more email on my new release The Girl of Tokens and Tears than I had sold books in the first two weeks of release. I thought it was strange since on release weekend I had thousands of hits on my website of readers looking for the second Half Shell Book. Amazon uploaded my book slowly and the email, where is your book, Susan, was constant.
So I went Oh Crap this book has been pirated. And sure enough I checked and found my new release everywhere. What was infuriating is that some of the pirates had my book up and available before Amazon did, which meant these copies came from someone on my blog tour who gets an Advance Read Copy. I only give out 10 ARCS per release. I downloaded and checked the version and sure enough, it was an ARC. I can tell because the ARCs went out before the final upload and some subtle changes were made in the story not in the ARCs. Some of the sites had the gall to put a download counter on my pirate page. Thousands of people have download and read my new book which is great, and yet, I've received royalties on only a fraction of that, which is not so good.
So please, respect my work and my efforts if you enjoy my books. Don't download from a pirate site. You see we have 5 children and 1 grandchild, and I don't care who you are or what your have it's getting darn difficult to help your adult children and Jeez they need help in this economy more than my generation ever did. So, every year I start a business to teach my children the value of hard work. One year I started a consumer internet site referral service. That paid for part of my daughter's tuition at OSU and her graduation trip to Europe. I have an environmental newsletter I send out quarterly. That pays for my daughter at Sacramento State University.
And the book line...well this is for my grandson baby Hugs. It's bought nursery furniture, put a small down payment on a house, and covered the cost of me traveling from California to Indiana to be with him. And I'm hoping someday it will amount to something that will help put him through college. I want my girls to inherit from me the belief that all things are achievable if you work hard. We don't give them checks. We build them businesses, business we hope someday they will run, and try to instill the value of hard work. The businesses are small but the lesson is big and valuable.
All the things I do, even my professional enterprises, are things of the heart and lessons I hope to teach our daughters. The lesson I don't want them to learn is that hard work doesn't matter because someone will pirate it and you'll work your butt off and earn nothing. So please, don't download my books from a pirate site. And if you are the person putting my ARCs on these sites shame on you!
As ever, I wish you Peace.
Oh and for a limited time my Affair Without End Series is 99cents! The final book releases this March.(Book 2 is already at 99cents, but I'm still waiting for the price drop on Book 1 One Last Kiss. But it will happen today...sometime....)
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