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Runaways is a YA dark fantasy adventure about Hannah Teagan adventuring in faerieland to save her younger sister from the Pied Piper. If this sounds interesting to you, I've got character intros up on my website, and you can read the first three chapters completely for free by signing up for my mailing list!

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Hnngh. The Audible "hack" is making the rounds again, with people claiming you can use your Audible credit to listen to a book and then return it "for free." While I am the first among many to say "fuck Amazon and we should gullotine Jeff Bezos," I need you all to know it's not Amazon refunding you.

It's the authors.

They take that out of our royalties. And that's after they take 80% of our royalties on sales we do make.

(Note: Also, do not assume that your credit is worth the price listing that Amazon shows. Amazon does not pay us the cost of the listing. ((WHICH THEY PICK, we cannot set our own prices on audiobooks and then that forces us to use the Amazon price for the rest of the market!!)) What we get is 20% of the credit's value, so my book might appear on Audible for $20-30. However, if you received an Amazon credit for one of those $4.99 deals, I'd get 20% of $4.99. Yes, it's fucked, it's all fucked. Yes, other audio retailers do the exact same thing. This is one of the reasons authors don't make half as much money as people think they do.)

This became such a big issue that they had to make it impossible to return books after a certain point without talking to a customer service representative, because people were using Kindle/Audible and Amazon's return policy "like a library," and some authors (myself included) were getting royalty checks that showed negative income.

At this point, I don't even know if the Audible "hack" still works (Amazon has made changes to protect authors from this kind of thing at a glacial pace), but I need you to know it's not Amazon that's refunding you. This isn't a fun little "fuck Amazon" thing. The way Amazon has it set up, it's directly fucking the authors over.

So, yeah. Obviously, if you download something and can't get into it, or if something pops up on the author's side that makes you not want to support them anymore, yeah, process that return. Yeet the bitch. But please don't use it "like a library."

It's really harrowing to see your predicted income based on sales and then find out you're getting one-tenth of that because of refunds. And it's not even because people didn't like your book. They're just using the wrong place like a library and fucking over your algorithm as well, because once you get too many returns, you stop getting promoted.

Try using a library. You can access places like @queerliblib for FREE provided you have a US library account that you've hooked up to Libby. It's a little bit of work, but once you've got a card number, you're golden.

Just, y'know, throwing it out there because I don't think people realize this is how it works. You're not taking something back to Walmart, and Walmart is eating the refund before dumping the item in the garbage. Amazon takes the refund, turns to the author, and takes it off our plates.

Note: this does not affect Kindle Unlimited. Flip through the end pages to give the author maximum pages read, and then return that bad boy so the author can get paid. But also, please, maybe think about switching to a Kobo+ account instead. It offers the same subscription-based membership without demanding exclusivity, so authors aren't locked into just Amazon the way they are with KU. (Royalty rates are roughly the same, but it's a better deal in terms of allowing broader market access.)

This has been a rambling and exhausted PSA from your local peddler of weres.

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what's that one thing where they asked how ripely from alien was so realistic and believable as a female character in scifi for once and they were like "well we just took the dude from the original script and made him a girl and changed nothing else. it works bc men and women are the same?" and people were like "woah no way" and then didn't learn anything from that for 20 years

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Three reasons why I decided to self publish my debut YA fantasy novel, and some factors that might help you decide whether to traditionally publish or self publish your story!

Runaways follows the Teagan sisters' adventures in faerieland. When Cecelia goes missing on the night before Halloween, her older sister Hannah stomps into the woods behind their house to rescue her from the Pied Piper. But secrets await in the woods Hannah only knows legends about the threats that stalk their family. Will she be able to rescue her sister before it's too late?

Learn more here!

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Always the writer, never the reader.

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Not to sound mushy, but stories about two lonely characters from vastly different worlds finding solace with each other always appeal to me

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if you don't know how to end a written work you should be able to just let the words fade out like an 80s song and not resolve anything for the reader

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love the library. there's no risk. you can take out a book and go "wow this sucks" and just give it back. and when you do that you're still making the library's Number Go Up so you'll be able to roll the dice on even more books. all for the low low price of free/you already paid for it with your tax money so you might as well use it

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non-writers will never understand the mental illness of writing an entire conversation in your head while doing dishes and then forgetting every word the second you open a blank doc

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it's so hardcover –> we're so paperback

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*feels myself slipping* oh I NEED to write a fucked-up story

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Writers: It’s okay to take a break.

Just a friendly reminder that it’s okay to take a break from writing. For a day. For a month. For however long you want to. Just because you aren’t physically writing doesn’t mean you’re not a writer. Resting is part of the process, too. So is meandering, living life, letting ideas flow through you while you take a long bath. Go have experiences so that you have something to write about. Get your heart broken. Rub your face on the grass. Sleep. If you hate yourself if you aren’t writing or being overtly “productive,” the question to ask is not, “How can I force myself to write more so that I feel better about myself?” but “How can I love myself no matter what?” and “How can I respect my process, which involves periods of not wanting to or not being able to write?” You don’t have to DO anything to be worthy, lovable, and awesome. It’s okay to take break.

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rule number one don't tell anyone anything ever

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When youve been a writer for long enough, commas become more of a spiritual practice than a grammatical one.

Could I explain the actual rules of how they’re used? Absolutely not.

Do I rely on sensing a tremor in the force to tell me where to use them? Yes and this has never failed me even once.