In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Regarding Amazon’s Latest Creep-Show Move
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“Instead of helping you look something up, the system is giving you its version of what that thing means. It decides what matters, what doesn’t, what’s central, and what can be glossed over. … Authors didn’t opt into this.” Kevin J. Duncan, Head of Content at Kindlepreneur (see the first item in Of Interest)
Regarding Amazon’s Latest Creep-Show Move
Ah, Amazon has provided me with one more chance to look within myself and ascertain my core motivation for writing short stories, novels, and nonfiction books.
I’ve always held that the writing itself—not the individual story or helpful nonfiction, not fame, and not money—is what truly matters. And now comes this test.
Amazon’s latest creep-show move regarding authors and copyright (see Of Interest) led me to send Dave Chesson (the Kindlepreneur) this email in response to the first article I linked to in Of Interest:
Hi Dave,
Thank you and Kevin J. Duncan for the article regarding Amazon’s new “Ask This Book” feature. As Kevin so plainly stated, authors currently have no recourse. Well, except the perhaps extreme reaction of “unpublishing” works they’ve uploaded to Amazon.
Of course, I will wait to see how this development unfolds, but I do not like that I don’t have the option to opt out. I’m not wild about suppositories.
If Amazon decides to keep this feature as-is, I WILL ‘unpublish’ every publication I currently have listed with Amazon: That consists of
-
- 123 novels plus several omnibus collections of novels,
- around 20 nonfiction titles,
- around 30 short story collections, and
- around 300 short stories.
Why?
Because this matter comes down to the personal integrity of the author and the integrity of the author’s work.
I labor under zero misconceptions that this will do any sort of harm to Amazon, but I will not do business with shady actors regardless of their size, and this co-opting of my copyright renders Amazon shady at best. Integrity, dignity, and copyright matter far more to me than money.
Harvey
Dave Chesson is the Kindlepreneur, but he isn’t Amazon itself, and to my knowledge he doesn’t represent them in any way.
So I will also strive to find a way to wade through the algorithms and automated responses and make Amazon itself aware of my displeasure with this new copyright infringement. And if they don’t back off, I will pull my titles.
Again, not that I believe a threat from one battery-depleted lightning bug hovering over a field with a billion other, far more brightly lit lightning bugs will do the slightest bit of good.
Only the big players—the truly big names in writing and publishing—wield any influence at all, and I seriously doubt we’ll see any of them speaking up against Amazon, much less pulling titles.
All the basic foundational concepts that roil underneath the crust of money and algorithms simply don’t matter to most (if any) of those ‘big’ individuals and corporations.
For them, especially in our current topsy turvy world, integrity, decency, and common sense are silly, antiquated concepts that belong to the long-ago past.
More’s the pity.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
What Amazon’s ‘Ask This Book’ Feature Means for Authors Be sure to read the FAQs toward the end of the article.
Kindle’s New Gen AI-Powered “Ask This Book” Feature Raises Rights Concerns (from Writers Beware)
Authors Guild Raises Concerns About Kindle’s New “Ask This Book” AI Feature (from Authors Guild)
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 590
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 590
Writing of
Day 1…… XXXX words. To date………… XXXXX
Fiction for January………………………… XXXX
Fiction for 2026…………………………… XXXX
Nonfiction for January.…………………… 13600
Nonfiction for 2026………………..……… 13600
2026 consumable words………………… 13600
2026 Novels to Date……………………… 0
2026 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2026 Short Stories to Date……………… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 123
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29