Brandon Varnell
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Good News. Bad News. Man Made God 003
🕑 Added 2020-12-08 15:20:36 +0000 UTCDear Patrons,
I bring two pieces of good news.
First, Man Made God 003 is now available on Amazon. The paperback and kindle editions are not yet linked, so I'll add two separate links for each one.
The second piece of good news is that Amazon Kindle has restored my author account, so you can now buy my books on Kindle again. This is consequently why I was able to publish Man Made God 003.
Before I begin with anything else, I want to thank everyone for supporting me during this time. This situation was extremely stressful, and while Amazon did reinstate my account, it has caused me to consider a lot. It has also caused me to realize something.
I no longer trust Amazon.
Back in 2014 when I first began publishing, Amazon KU was a marvel of innovation in the marketing industry. While every other retailer was going the traditional publishing route, they made it easy for self-published authors like me to publish books. It wouldn’t be a lie to say that Amazon Kindle is the entire reason myself and many other authors have been able to do what we love for a living.
Not only has Amazon been great for authors, but it’s great for readers too. Avid readers who are maybe under a budget are able to pay just $10 a month for the right to read as many books as they can fit on their kindle. In return, authors are paid by the number of pages read by KU readers. This was a great way for readers to enjoy countless stories. I know many people who have read upwards of 1,000 books last year alone.
But something has changed.
Perhaps Amazon has become too large to support itself, or maybe they are extremely understaffed because of COVID. Whatever the case is, Amazon Kindle no longer feels like a safe place for authors to exclusively publish their work.
Amazon has become almost entirely automated. Everything from traffic clicks to purchases overtime are being kept track of by algorithms. It was one such algorithm that caused my account to become terminated.
A search bot.
When a work of fiction is published on Amazon, they have a search bot scour the web to see if this content is being offered anywhere else online. When I republished A Most Unlikely Hero volumes 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 with some updated content, Amazon’s search bot discovered that someone had uploaded pirated versions of my work online, decided I didn’t own the content of my own books, and terminated my account. The entire process was automated.
The lack of human touch is concerning for many reasons. First, a human would have never made the mistake of assuming I didn’t own the copyright to my own books because a website was pirating my content. More than that, it shows me how little Amazon cares about its authors. The fact that they would let something like this happen means it doesn’t matter to them that my livelihood was nearly destroyed, or that I’ve been a loyal KDP Select Author for over six years. I’m just a number to them.
Sorry for being so long-winded.
I’m sure you’re wondering what all this means.
Because I no longer trust Amazon and feel like my livelihood is in danger by remaining exclusively with Amazon Kindle, I am planning to expand my distribution to other platforms like iTunes, Kobo, Nook… I’d really love to have my books go into Bookwalker Global. I think they’d do well on a platform made for manga and light novels.
I’ve already undone the enrollment for all my books next term on KDP. What this means is that once the terms for my books ends, you won’t be able to read them on KU.
This decision was not an easy one for me to make. It was quite possibly the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make. I know there are many people who read books through KU only. I’d like to apologize to everyone who relies on KU for their reading. I never wanted to do this, but I feel like I can’t rely on Amazon to not do something like this again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times and, well, you get the idea. This is the second time Amazon has done something like this. They suspended my account the first time, terminated my account this time, and I don’t want to risk having this happen a third time. It could be my last.
That’s why I hope you’ll understand why I’m doing this. I know it’s a huge change, but I’d like to ask for your support going forward.
Saying all this, I don’t know how I’m going to publish my books yet. I’m looking into several options and will be sure to let you know what I’ll be doing once I know that myself. I’ve got a few ideas, but whether they pan out is another thing entirely.
Anyway, this was a very long message. I’m sorry it was so heavy and hope you’ll forgive me.
If you’d like to read my works while they are still on Kindle Unlimited, please click on the link below:
Brandon Varnell’s Amazon Page.
Thank you for reading this message and supporting me all this time. You’re all unbelievably awesome.
