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rldavennor.com

I DO NOT CARE if it’s temporary. Any interruption, however ‘temporary,’ is still an absolutely devastating hit to me and millions of small businesses and creators. We should never, ever have been collateral in the government’s dick measuring contest.

Above all, how and when someone chooses to come out is THEIR choice.

Please, please stop.

And speaking of safety, authors who choose to show their face especially might face real, incredibly dangerous risks if they were to come out or even BE out. Maybe their family and friends don’t know, and maybe they need to keep it that way.

Folks, it is NEVER okay to out/question/demand the sexuality or gender identity of someone writing queer books. This is wildly inappropriate and harmful.

Bisexual people exist. MANY trans people are potentially about to go stealth, likely because they have no other choice for their own safety.

News flash, I AM QUEER and grew up in a conservative, religious family. I DO know what it means to ‘really believe and participate in a faith tradition while being queer.’

My experience might be different than yours—that doesn’t mean it’s not my experience.

Dropping such an insane amount of money is one thing—BUT, if we had a better chance at making that investment back, faster, you would see a LOT more books in audio.

Don’t blame authors or narrators. Blame Amazon.

Trust me—authors want to make their books as accessible as possible, and we know this is the only way some people can read at all. Just please, please be kind when an author informs you there is no audio for their book.

Amazon keeps the other 75%. They did not pay a DIME to produce these books.

I know this predatory behavior has been pointed out by dozens of smarter authors before me—I just wanted to verify its truth, and inform readers of the immense, IMMENSE financial barrier there is to produce audiobooks.

I did pay for production, not royalty share. I employed 4 different narrators and their rates were between $200-300 PFH. I am not exclusive to Audible/Amazon (because I wanted to own the rights to the thing I PAID to produce) and as a result, I get 25% of my audio royalties.

Less than $100. My longest book earns me $3.51 per sale.

(This is not a commentary on narration costs. Narrators deserve to be paid. This is a commentary both on Amazon’s predation, and readers who complain that indie books don’t have audio.)

You’d think it would be the opposite, because we as authors aren’t in competition with each other, but more people than you’d realize get real toxic REAL fast when you have something they know they never will.

11) The projected loss of income in month ONE is $100 million. That’s not nothing. Our businesses are not nothing.

I don’t know what to do. But wanted to at least tell my story.

10) I know not everyone is as deeply affected as I’m about to be by the US TT ban. I’m not saying you should panic buy my books. They’re not going anywhere and neither am I vanishing from the internet.

I AM saying this seems like an overstep by the government on BOTH sides of the political aisle.