If 2023 was me dipping my toes into the lake of “trying new publishing things,” then 2024 is me diving into the deep end.

I chose indie publishing for freedom, and yet I’ve found that I have unnecessarily shackled myself to an ideology. I kept my books in Kindle Unlimited/KDP Select because that was “where the readers are” and what was supposed to make the “most sense” from a money point of view, too. But Amazon slashed KU payouts and there is just a constant low rumbling threat that they will do so again. IngramSpark decided to force upon authors a larger wholesaler discount and their shenanigans with returns have made it a risk for authors to accept returns, which in turn leads to indie bookstores not wanting to carry our books.

I threw off the shackles of traditional publishing, thinking I was embracing creative control. And yet I then locked myself down in a cell with Amazon and IngramSpark and believed that this was “the only way.”

But then Campfire added monetized stories and I also found Ream Stories. Some part of me was still determined to define “success” as an indie publisher as Amazon Rankings or Bestseller List. But isn’t that the kind of ideology that I wanted to escape when I decided against traditional publishing?