@susankayequinn

I knew they would come for those books. I knew it. And that's only the beginning. (Although their greed may keep romance alive.)

I never used the affiliates program and never will. In fact, I stopped using Amazon ads this year (and yes, I see a loss of sales).

You can re-order links in Books2Read, and I have put my PayHip on top, followed by Bookshop org and Smashwords (which now pays 75% royalties), before I list Amazon.

Same on my website.

And I'm going "wide" with Print.

@Firlefanz @susankayequinn About ten years ago now (time flies), I did some research on costs, on how to set up an alternative to the POD system from Amazon, which leaves brutally little for authors or small publishers. In my opinion, this is holding back growth of small publishers more than so many other factors, because it's a complaint I heard over and over.

The TL;DR of it is, it doesn't seem impossible. The harder part is that the printers I spoke to were fearing an uberization of...

@Firlefanz @susankayequinn ... their services, i.e. where I provide a platform on which they compete, which ultimately drives down their price. I guess the experience with Amazon had burned them badly.

At the same time, mid-sized printers have invested heavily into POD-style printing solutions (TL;DR), so they are ready for this kind of thing, by and large.

I dropped that whole line of thought for a number of reasons back then, but I still feel it is missing. And more precisely, I think...

@Firlefanz @susankayequinn ... what is missing is a co-op style organization for this rather than a market-driven one.

Perhaps it is time to dig out my notes and have more serious conversations about this? 🤔

@jens

I definitely lean towards a co-op rather than market-driven. I would even be willing to share in the cost.

Indie Authors Unite! or something along those lines. 🙂

@susankayequinn