Scorpion-Readers and the Writers Being Stung (Podcast Episode 2)

 

Episode 02 - Scorpion-Readers and the Writers Being Stung

Transcript and links:

A scorpion asked a busy beaver for a ride across the river. The beaver complied, and that time it was fine. Other scorpions heard about the deal and arrived for a lift across the river. The beaver began spending more time giving lifts to scorpions than he did building his dam… so he asked the scorpions to each carry a small twig to help with the dam building. And for a while that was fine. One day one scorpion took offense at the request and halfway across the river he dropped his twig and stung the beaver.

“Why did you do that?” cried the beaver with his last few breaths. “You’ve killed me for no reason. The other scorpions now have no one to help them across the river. And what about you? You’re going to drown.”

“Don’t care,” said the scorpion. “I’ll just float here until another beaver comes along.”

[Music]

Author, how shall I harm thee? Let me count the ways.

Piracy, copyright theft, and plagiarism. Hurtful reviews and personal attacks. Second-hand books. Bookstore returns. Now, reader returns on fully-read ebooks and audiobooks.

Welcome back to the Blood-Red Pencil podcast. I’m Elle Carter Neal.

Today I want to veer off the topic of editing and talk about a trend that is picking up amongst readers, especially on TikTok. And, you might have guessed it, it’s the community allegedly posting videos to teach and encourage each other to use Amazon’s returns policy to read books for free. Now, sure, if you accidentally hit the One-Click button and didn’t mean to buy something, by all means reverse the purchase. I had to do this myself when my then-toddler got hold of my Kindle and started poking all the shiny buttons. That happened once. With a book I never intended to buy and did not read. And I reversed the purchase within about a minute. I can also understand returning a book if you find that it is a dodgy publication filled with nonsense and repeated paragraphs, with just the sample being good enough to entice a reader. Or a book that you’ve discovered is actually a pirated version or a mash-up cut-and-paste of another author’s text. Maybe even a book that so deeply offends your soul that you want to wash your brain out after sampling it.

But what’s happening now, in increasing numbers, is readers buying an ebook through Amazon, reading it, enjoying it, and then stinging the author by (allegedly) returning it via Amazon’s generous no-questions return policy. It is vitally important to realise that these returns don’t affect Amazon at all, especially as part of the subscription model. Amazon allegedly reverses the royalties paid to the author, deducting them from any new royalties due or even resulting in a negative account balance. So if you were doing this thinking you were sticking it to big old Amazon… no.

This trend began with audiobooks on Audible, also owned by Amazon. Same deal. Listeners would subscribe to Audible, use their credit to listen to an audiobook, but then return it when done, and select another book. It might well be a misunderstanding on the part of some listeners – because books in your Audible account are labelled as “Library”, and, allegedly, Audible even suggests that you might want to “Return” or “Exchange” a title, without explaining that this is not, in fact, an actual library, like Overdrive or BorrowBox, for example, where these books have been bought and licenced by libraries for the purpose of lending to their patrons. Without explaining that this is like buying a ticket to a theatre show, attending the performance, then coming back months later expecting to swap your old ticket for a different production. It’s like the theatre then demanding a refund of the first performers’ cut of the ticket sales and giving that to the actors of the second production… until the next time you want to watch a show without paying again. Guess who can’t afford to continue fronting up the costs to put on a theatre production anymore. It’s not a business model anyone can sustain. Except Amazon.

The Alliance for Independent Authors has been lobbying Amazon/Audible to change their no-questions-asked returns policy since 2020, allegedly after a glitch revealed returns data previously hidden from authors, and several authors including Josh Erikson and Susan May investigated and highlighted what was going on. Aside from the dishonesty and unfairness, the big issue with returning books you’ve read or listened to is the impact on the author’s livelihood. For indie authors, in particular, the royalties received have probably already been spent – on paying editors, illustrators, book cover designers, advertising for the next book, perhaps thinking that the first book has been successful enough to warrant a little extra spend on the second. Or maybe those royalties are all that stand between the author and whether or not they have enough to eat that month. Suddenly a whole bunch of returns come in and the author finds that royalties from a year ago have been deducted and they are in the red. You can imagine. I hope you can imagine. As I said, your favourite authors can only produce a limited amount of stories at a financial loss before they have to stop and give up. And that’s a tragedy. Some creatives have to create to live – it’s oxygen. And if they financially cannot afford to make art anymore, they will suffocate.

Please help us get the word out that this has to stop. It’s not okay to game the system, even if the system allegedly encourages it or provides the option as a perk of a subscription. If you cannot afford to buy books, then borrow them from the library – there are benefits to authors from their books being in the library system. Request that your library buy the books you want to read. There are also millions of authors giving away their books for free in order to build their fan base. Read those, if you need free books. If you get hooked on the series after the free book, and now you’re supposed to pay for the rest but you can’t, consider contacting the author offering to help promote their books on your social media platforms in exchange for a few more free books. Join NetGalley and build your reputation as a reviewer. Use your TikTok account for a good cause instead of joining in the sting. Just carry your twig if you want to ride the story stream.

[Music]

In other news: [Giveaway now closed] Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for The Ultimate Writer’s Toolkit, over at Writers Helping Writers. This giveaway closes on Friday the 13th of May. It’s a Rafflecopter draw, so scroll down the blog post at Writers Helping Writers and find the Rafflecopter widget. Create a log in using your email address or Facebook account, and then you’ll see various options for collecting entries such as commenting, sharing on Twitter, following the contributors on Twitter, etc.

Mysti Berry is joining us on the 17th of May to share how she edits for voice to ensure that she doesn’t lose the flavour of each author's unique world view and writing style. Thanks to Ann Parker for arranging this post with Mysti.

And don’t miss Linda Lane’s post coming up on the 19th. It’s a deeply personal essay about how world events impact on our ability to dip into the well to continue writing. I know we all relate.

In case you did miss some of our previous posts: Diana Hurwitz shared an excellent breakdown of exactly what you should include in a query letter to a literary agent, and why and how to do this. Maryann Miller wrote about the thrill of her first sale and how she turned her observations and experiences into a humorous entry for the newspaper column she was writing at the time.

Dani Greer posted an update on her Kindle Vella adventure, which is going extremely well. Dani is now venturing into the world of TikTok to promote her stories.

That’s it from me for this month. The links for all the posts mentioned today are in the show notes, along with the transcript of today’s episode. Thank you for joining me. I’m Elle Carter Neal, and I’ll be back next month with more editing wisdom from the Blood-Red Pencil.

Elle Carter Neal is the author of the middle grade fantasy The Convoluted Key (first in the Draconian Rules series), the picture book I Own All the Blue, and teen science-fantasy novel Madison Lane and the Wand of Rasputin (first in the Grounded series). She is the editor of Angela Brazil's 1910 book The Nicest Girl in the School. Elle is based in Melbourne, Australia. Find her at ElleCarterNeal.com.

Photo by Amanda Meryle Photography

 

P.S. Please excuse the bird that decided to squawk outside my window while I was recording!