First order of business; I’m not dead!
I know that the silence during August was not reassuring, but I needed a little time to do some reflecting and decide where to go next. So this is going to be different from my typical monthly goalsetting, in that I don’t have goals to set for this month, but some long-term changes that I want to chew on.
Secondly; I don’t like using Amazon, and I plan to do some platform switching.
Shadow Herald and everything I release after it will still be available, just in a different place. My current plan is to grab my W3 and pull Shadow Herald off of the platform by Jan 1st 2022. Then, I plan put my ebooks — and my newest developments — out on Itch.io.
The end result is gentler prices for you all, and peace of mind for me. It’s common knowledge that Amazon isn’t especially kind to its workers, nor good for the publishing industry, and if I’m publishing for the sheer joy of the process rather than to make a profit, then I want to feel as un-scummy as possible about where I’m hosting my work.
The biggest downside is that I can’t print paperbacks through Itch.io. That’s a hard blow, considering that I like designing physical books so much more than ebooks. However, I should be able to offer the PDF through Itch.io, and I’ll continue distributing through Barnes & Noble just in case people want physical copies. It’s a little awkward, and I’m not 100% sold on B&N either, but I’m comfortable with this tradeoff if it means that I never go through Amazon again.
Finally; The “newest developments”. I’ve rather suddenly learned that I love creating visual novels too! I don’t fully know what this medium change means for the blog, but I can’t say it’s unexpected. Part of the reason why I got into book design is because I like contributing more than just writing to a project. Visual novels allow for me to branch out and do more art, coding, and sound design, so it’s only natural that I would find the process so engaging.
Whether or not I ever write any articles about the process, I will probably add a tab at the top for browsing my visual novels, separate from my more typical books. This is another reason for my switch to Itch.io; it should allow me to host visual novels as well as my ebooks.
In any case, thanks for sticking with me while I work this out. Thank you, and have a lovely day.
J.L. Heeren 