Thanks to readers, in the wake of All Romance Ebooks closing

I want to say a thank you to my readers. I’ve had several reach out to me, in the week since All Romance Ebooks closed, to tell me that they bought one of my books during October-Dec, when we authors are likely to see between 6% and 0% royalties from those sales. They’re sad that I don’t get their money, and want to help make it up to me somehow. <3 <3 <3

THANK YOU for buying the books. Please do not feel worried or responsible for the loss someone else caused. And for everyone who bought “Rejoice, Dammit” there – it was in the top 5 M/M when things crashed – that’s great. It helped people see my cover; it helped put my name up there. I left my books live on ARe on purpose – in those last 3 days with no royalties – so readers with ebucks could find some active purchases and get value for their already-spent money. I MEANT for you to buy them, in that time and place, if you had credits to spend.

Some people have said they’re going to review more. And I love that – yes – you can reward authors who won’t see the money by reviewing or discussing the books you enjoyed. “Rejoice, Dammit” has more Amazon reviews than some of my previous full novels, showing how people are chipping in that way. <3

But also don’t feel obligated. And don’t hesitate to post honest bad reviews, just because the money you paid in good faith won’t reach the author. We are all in this for the long haul, readers and writers. This loss hurts (some more than me) but the integrity of the community, the love of books, the mechanisms by which it all works, will go on, and adapt.

I am advising J. Scott Coatsworth on his for-profit project to set up a site for readers to find LGBTQ books with buy-links posted by the authors. To steer readers to the sites that pay more or safer royalties (like an author’s own Payhip) or to epub and pfd versions. I hope we will create a site useful to readers in their searches (because I used ARe for things like checking flame level on possible YA books, or checking word counts; Scott hopes to add features like that). And other sites are out there for finding free books, etc. Don’t forget that all the freebies from the Goodreads M/M Romance group that were for sale on ARe are on the M/M group’s own free download site in multiple formats, for instance.

(I would of course urge caution with new sites, particularly any taking money or offering to publish or sell-through to readers directly – I’m seeing a lot of opportunistic offers coming in to shell-shocked authors, with no security behind them. Don’t give money or the handling of money to anyone you don’t know well, without due research.)

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks. Thanks also to the readers supporting authors who are going to Patreon, or readers still buying when authors have to take books off a sale price, or readers not complaining about us making any other move to get livable income from the job we love. You guys are the best, and the great stories will continue to come out, and we'll write and read all the books.