I Left Amazon (at least for now)

Earlier this year, I unpublished my stories from Amazon. I thought about this for a long time. Simply put, I didn’t think this was the best way to go. I put up a few stories that had been previously published (and I had the rights now) and two stories that were original.

I made no sales.

In a way it was my fault. I didn’t market them well and I was more interested in writing new stories, rather than selling my old ones. I’m proud of myself for at least trying, but I need to rethink my strategy. Combine my lack of sales with my growing avoidance of big billionaire companies, and now you know why I pulled everything.

This doesn’t mean I will never publish again. My stories are still up on Substack (under my paid tier) and will remain there. I also want to look at publishing on other platforms.

Another reason I unpublished was that I needed ISBN numbers. For Amazon, I used the free ASN numbers, but those are only for Amazon. If I wanted to publish on other platforms (Kobo, iBooks, etc.) I need an ISBN. Then, I need to upload a new copy (a 2nd Edition) on to Amazon with the new number. So, those stories needed to come off the platform anyway.

I’m not in a rush to do this. In truth, I’m focusing this year on finishing my book and working on my collection. I don’t really want to focus on self-publishing. Right now, it’s not making me any money and not helping my career. I’d rather focus on trad publishing and writing new material. If I was making sales, I might want to keep them up, but that’s not happening.

So now I am working on reviewing a stack of my stories and putting together the collection. I’m also on draft three of my book. I’m not walking away from Amazon completely, but, for now, I’m putting that side of my writing life on hold, rethinking my self-pub strategy, and focusing on the new projects.

Hope everything is well.