It only took about five years, but I finally got the Kindle edition of my first novel, Without Bloodshed, taken down. Amazon still lists secondhand print editions of my 2013 novel, but that’s fine. Even if I could get them to take down the secondhand paperback listing, there’d be no point. It’s not like any author gets paid for sales of used copies because the First Sale Doctrine is still a thing.
However, getting the Kindle edition taken down is a small victory for me. It got orphaned when Curiosity Quills Press folded in early 2019 and ghosted all of the authors they had under contract. I was one of them; the contract for Silent Clarion didn’t expire until late 2020.
Oddly enough, however, while Amazon had removed their listing for Silent Clarion they left up the one for Without Bloodshed. Perhaps because that had gotten a print edition and secondhand copies were in circulation. Whatever the reason, it meant that from January 2019 until a couple of hours ago today, somebody could have bought the Kindle edition of my first novel and I would not have gotten so much as a cent in royalties.
I have no idea how much Amazon owes me for sales of Without Bloodshed since January 2019. I doubt it was much; the last royalty check I had gotten from Curiosity Quills Press in December 2018 was a little over $15. That was barely enough for a six-pack of beer and a pizza at the time, and even then I would have had to settle for a pack of Bud Light and a store-brand frozen pizza from a chain supermarket.
However, though I had filed several requests to have the listing taken down and included evidence that I was the copyright-holder, Amazon proved unresponsive. However, I found out yesterday that one of Curiosity Quills Press’ founders had created a Mastodon account, so I replied to Eugene Teplitsky’s introduction and asked him to transfer the Amazon listing to me if he still had access.
I wasn’t particularly polite in making my demand. I had, for starters, included the Writer Beware article about Curiosity Quills Press. I’m not particularly proud of how I handled the interaction, but I’ve held a grudge against my former publisher for a while because of how they handled their shutdown. I think they fucked over a lot of authors in the process.
However, Teplitsky had dealt fairly with me at the last. Once I gave him my KDP account ID (I had to sign up for KDP he attempted to get the listing transferred. When that failed, he filed an infringement notice. Within the hour, Amazon removed the Kindle edition of Without Bloodshed. Now the only remnants of my involvement with Curiosity Quills Press are the Kindle editions of a couple of anthologies: Primetime and Chronology, which respectively include my stories, “The Milgram Battery” and “Limited Liability”.
Now I face a decision. Should I attempt to self-publish on Amazon or through some other outlet? If so, should I put aside Spiral Architect to prepare new editions of Without Bloodshed and Silent Clarion? Perhaps a collection of my shorter works as well? If I did so, I would need an editor and a cover artist because I can’t trust AI for the former and refuse on principle to use AI for the latter.
However, principle is a costly privilege. Professional human editing and art would cost me hundreds if not thousands of dollars per book with no guarantee that I would break even, let alone turn a profit. Worse, it would complicate my annual tax preparation whether I made money on my writing or not because I’d be running a small business on top of my day job.
I’m not sure it’s worthwhile. I’m not sure I even want to do commercial publishing again. I think I might prefer to just write and publish my fiction on my own website. Will anybody read it? Probably not, but why should I care? This is not my side hustle. I’m writing for myself, first and last and always, because literature ain’t Burger King and if you want the story told your way you’ve got to write it yourself.
Besides, I’m one of those men who would literally rather write bad science fantasy than go to therapy. It’s cheaper, more fun, and instead of feeling like an experimental test subject I get to play God without actually hurting anybody.
Nevertheless, the thought of an independently-published “tenth anniversary edition” of Without Bloodshed is not without its attraction. However, if I wanted to get it out by November 2023 I’ve left things rather late, so fuck it. If I’m going to do a new edition of my first novel (and I’m not saying I will) then I damned well want to do it right because it’s damnably rare to get a second chance to make a first impression.