With mixed emotions I am announcing that the Kindle version of Homeschooling for College Credit will go out of print on September 5th, 2022. It will not be renewed or republished, but will remain available on Amazon until then.
When I wrote Homeschooling for College Credit, my one and only objective was to share the content with as many people as possible. In the years since, I’ve come to understand the “business” side of things a bit better and realize how my objective made me naïve to a process that was clearly over my head.
Without whining, I want to tell you why. I’ll be honest to say that my relationship with Amazon has been a blessing and a curse – mostly blessing. It’s a blessing because they provide all aspects of book publication and distribution. The author literally does nothing (for distribution) once the book is published. But, that convenience comes at a cost. For me, especially in 2012 when I first wrote Homeschooling for College Credit, I had no audience and so I was vulnerable to situations I wouldn’t be vulnerable to today.
- Earning a royalty was so far fetched, that I happily agreed to give Amazon 65% of sales. I also didn’t care that I had to give up my rights to the book. In fact, every time I earned a $3 royalty I was overwhelmed with gratitude.
- Offering my book in paperback AND eBook format felt so important to me, that I happily signed over the full rights to my Kindle edition. (P.S. Amazon could sue me if I published my own book electronically. Isn’t that nice?)
For a popular and published author, those deals wouldn’t have been given the time of day, but for someone “just trying to get the word out” in 2012, those deals were perfectly reasonable. Because….
Amazon handled everything, and they protected authors from being plagiarized. Kindle versions were supposed to be formatted (by Amazon) in a way that prevented people from copying and reselling the content. In fact, years ago I published a few workbooks that all shared the same first chapter. Amazon flagged this immediately and I had to explain that I was the author. So, perhaps it used to be the case that they monitored and policed their books, but it is no longer the case. I have been sent 8 versions of my book that were stolen (digitally) and then republished as original paperbacks by fake authors. How this wasn’t caught is beyond me.
(Yes, I’ve gone through Amazon’s formal process for situations like this, but they’ve failed to remove the fakes – remember, they get 65% of THOSE royalties too.)
Now, 10 years later, I have decided that my website does the job that I need it to do. It delivers content to you (for free) and in real time. My Facebook community is robust and growing. The members here are altruistic and helpful. I’ve decided that I don’t need the $3 payment from Amazon, and even though they probably won’t even notice, I’m telling Amazon “no” and pulling my Kindle from distribution. …just as soon as my contract with them is up: September 5, 2022. For what it’s worth, future books, if I write them, will not be available on Kindle.
CHANGES AND TIMELINE
Effective immediately, Homeschooling for College Credit (paperback) will continue to be available on Amazon.com, but only to mailing addresses in the United States. (I’m sorry, I know that will inconvenience some of you.)
The last day to buy Homeschooling for College Credit (Kindle) is through September 5, 2022. At that time it will be deleted.
