And we begin!

Lesson 1: Everyone who says that 'Books are not dead' or 'People still read' or 'The ebook market is growing' is horribly confused. Yes, there are angles that still exist. Yes, there are celebrities making sales. Yes, people downselling 'forbidden knowledge' in PDF format are still earning a living. But here is the difference. Those people are not talking about 'Literary Fiction'. They are talking about money laundering, MLM schemes, celebrity hype trains and stock price shenanigans. Much like a private discord server, these are all walled gardens. The industry is not designed to provide any level of visibility or profit for outsiders. Even if you spent 150% of your profits white hat advertisements, you would never get to a point where you could be said to break even. These platforms are designed to exploit, not service. Their customer support is staffed by AI and their payouts department is staffed by professional gaslighters. This is what monopoly looks like.

As an example: I ran a test. I challenged ten affiliate marketers to sell ten copies of my book for a cash reward that dwarfed the price of the book. I then challenged ten different affiliate marketers to sell ten copies of this...



Guess which sold faster? Guess which sold more copies? Obviously the blank ebook sold better because it was funny. Marketplaces are based on supply and demand, and if there is no demand then everything has the same worthless value. Add in a joke and the joke performs better than the product.

Lesson 2: Advertising platforms are designed to scam.

Yep! Reddit, Google, Facebook, Apple, Bing, Amazon, X, Twitch, these places were not designed for you. They are not here for your money. They want the big name advertisers, not the common joe. Every dime spent is rated on a scale of where it came from and if it does not come from a fortune 500 company then it becomes worthless to these platforms. People often complain about the 'Bot to Genuine User' ratio on these ad platforms, but one thing they never wonder about is how many bots Coke and Pepsi receive impressions from. How much of their ad spend gets wasted? I bet it is not even close.

I spoke to an advertiser who mentioned that he never bids on an ad during a Thursday or a Friday. He says that the keyword competition becomes outrageous "because too many desperate authors are looking to throw away thousands of dollars the moment they get paid by their day jobs." Why does this feel like begging? Why does this feel like we are begging for visibility? Easy answer: It feels like that, because that is what it is.

Lesson 3: Their profits come from stock sales. Their entertainment comes from clients.

Draft2Digital takes 30%, Amazon takes 60%. In exchange for that, you get nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just the pleasure of doing business. If you sell something, thats great. You won't see any of it. The original idea was: if an author magically gets famous, they will have agreements lined up to shave off all of that revenue. But lets be real here, how many 'breakout authors' have there really been in the last few years?

Lesson 4: These are not walled gardens, they are graveyard fortresses.

I keep seeing people with the facebook app and every time I do, I ask them "You are on facebook?" and every single time they reply "Yeah, I just use the messenger." It reminds me that these platforms are dying, some are already quite dead. But that doesn't mean they will ever admit it. There is a guy on fiverr right now who has four million followers and he can give you a shoutout for $10. Sounds suspicious? Don't worry, his followers are all real... at least they used to be, once upon a time.

But lets not get too depressed about this. Because it is time to face certain realities and make some really hard decisions...



So, as many of you know, I wrote four novels. Fantasy, fleshed out, novels with artwork. Like a light novel but longer. They were distributed across all major platforms and received zero interest. Zero interest and zero traction. I quickly rushed to make an audiobook out of the first novel and decided to do something that few other audiobooks do, a full cast. All the characters get their own human, flesh and blood, voice actor. Not teenagers in a closet either, I wanted seasoned Shakespearean professionals. I figured that audiobooks would get more visibility than ebooks so I was betting everything on it. Yet now, as I have nearly completed the mastering of the first audiobook... my disillusionment has peaked.

So we are going to plan B.

I will publish this audiobook across all major platforms, sure, but I don't expect anything from them. Instead, I will distribute them for free across all major sites, Youtube, Rumble, Odysee, VK, Twitter, Facebook, everywhere, all at once. 100% free. And when the second one is produced and ready, I'll do the same with that one. And the same with the third. And the same with the fourth!!! I WANT VISIBILITY DAMN IT! LET THE MONEY BE DAMNED!!!

If these online marketplaces want to play games, then I will play their game. I will keep writing, keep spending ungodly amounts of money on production and build an organic audience with the one thing no capitalist corporation can stomach... communism.



And if, after 4 ebooks, 4 audiobooks and years of hard work, I can gain a sizable audience...

We can talk about monetization then. But only then.

I've noticed that people making it in the fiction market right now are:
1) nicheing down - - something like "zombie apocalypse" or "werewolf romance"
2) serializing the fuck out out of their work - - Zombie Novel - Book 1,2,3....and now they're on book 23, they're churning this shit out. The quality is about what you can expect, given the output, no Nabokovs or Flauberts here. Serialization is where a lot of money is made...sure you release book 1-3 for free, so that your readers can get invested in the characters. Then make a youtube channel where you drop hints about your next book and increase buying temperature.

The only thing that suffers here is product quality. But readers don't care. Once they're hooked on the character, the only thing they want to know is what happens next.

PS: I remember one author publishing his book, chapter by chapter, on youtube. To make this work you'll have to be really good at cliffhanger endings.

All the best for the journey.

Good luck. I’m an avid reader myself, and I’ve noticed the love for books and reading is quickly dwindling. I still use my library and have shelves of physical books (though most of my reading now is ebooks for convenience), but sadly, people just don’t seem to have the attention span anymore.

That said, you might have a real shot at monetizing your books even though you’re giving them away free. Push them out as podcasts and take advantage of syndications ( those bring surprisingly good high DA backlinks). I’d also put together a simple website for your books and slip in some affiliate offers for related tools like self-publishing softwarelike Scrivener, Grammarly, etc. Then make sure every free chapter you put on YouTube, social media, or podcasts links back to that site. That way your “free” books still generate visibility and potential revenue.

I think a lot of authors don’t realise the power of doing promotion away from Amazon. The publishing and hope doesn’t really work anymore.

To change a phrase Amazon helps those who help themselves.

Look at Sci Fi author Hugh Howey. Started on KDP and now has book and media deals.

Thanks guys! I really appreciate this. =D