The Self-Published Life

I’m often asked how it’s going with writing, and what people really want to know is, how are book sales?
They’re good, thank you. How can they be anything but good when you have no expectations? My conservative goals have always just been to maybe make my money back on the editing/cover art/file conversion expenses that go along with creating a professional-looking eBook. And in the case of My Sepsis Story, I want to put the word sepsis in people’s heads. So on all counts, I’ve met my targets and then some.

Earlier this week, The Naked Truth was pulled from Amazon after their marketing team discovered that I had breached my agreement with them. Although I had set the price at $2.99 on both Amazon and Chapters, somewhere along the way Chapters adjusted the price to $2.97. Yes, that .02 difference was enough for Amazon to call me out and accuse me of deliberately selling the book cheaper elsewhere. They took The Naked Truth off their market until I made things right. That required going into the bowels of Amazon online and lowering the cost to $2.95. Now Chapters is .02 more expensive. Bargain hunters, take note!

These are the little, weird things that crop up when you’re self-published. I get emails with questions about the books as well as inquiries about how to purchase the audio version of The Naked Truth. Then when I tell people it’s $10, there’s a 50/50 chance they’ll disappear. One man was quite indignant because he had already paid $2.99 for the eBook and felt the audiobook should be free! I never like to disappoint a customer but I have and I will. Original work has value and it’s not greedy to say so. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t talk my local variety store out of a chocolate bar just because I already bought one. And it wouldn’t cross my mind to try.

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