An Addendum, a Call to Arms, and Also, WTF, Scribd?

All right, so in my previous post, I came out swinging at Hugh Howey.

I want to make something clear: I do not endorse, condone, or encourage the harassment of anyone. Especially not another author.

Hugh said some messed up things. He was smug, condescending, and rude. I don't know why. Maybe he's forgotten where he came from. It happens.

Everyone makes mistakes. And if he stops acting like a jerk, I'll be happy to forgive him for it. The point of my previous blog post was to let you guys know what was going on and to call Hugh out since he's always been a huge part of the indie publishing community. I don't hate him. But I do think he's being wildly dishonest with us, and an elitist, to boot.

Now, let's move on to other things: Happy Independence Day!

And for some authors, happy independence from Scribd day?

Earlier this month, I got an e-mail from Draft2Digital. For those of you who don't know, D2D is a digital publishing and distribution service. A one-stop shop for indies, if you will. Want to publish to multiple platforms but don't want to go through the hassle of making an account with each of them? You're in luck! D2D takes care of that on your behalf. Upload the files, send 'em out, and bam—you're done.

I'm a perfectionist and micro-manager, so largely, I didn't use this service. The only title I have on there is The Magic Mirror because otherwise, Amazon wouldn't price-match it to free (this is another issue I have with them, but let's table that for now).

Usually the e-mails I get from D2D aren't anything I need to worry about. Maybe they're letting me know I once again made nothing from a free title this month. Or it's a privacy policy update. No big deal.

This one, though...

“As we all know, the concept of a subscription service for books is extremely new. There are several models on the market now for effectively monetizing subscriptions, and none of them exactly matches what we’re used to from traditional sales royalties. As the market experiments with different approaches, there are bound to be some missteps and false starts along the way. In fact, we should expect this business model to evolve even more in the near future.

Scribd took a significant risk putting in place a model that paid authors the same amount as a retail model for each book read by a subscriber. As we all know, romance readers tend to be incredibly avid readers. In trying to cater to this voracious readership while under this progressive payment model, Scribd has put itself in a difficult place. In a bid to better balance these operating expenses, Scribd is immediately slashing the volume of romance novels in its subscription service.

If you are receiving this email, then you are a Draft2Digital author who has published books in the romance genre to Scribd. This means that some or all of your romance novels are likely going to be delisted from their service today. (Books that are priced at free will not be removed.)

While a large number of romance novels will be removed from Scribd, it isn’t all of them. We aren’t privy to the exact guidelines Scribd is using to decide which romance novels will remain, and it’s our understanding that they remain in flux at Scribd. However, over the coming days, we will be working closely with Scribd to resolve the exact criteria and share them with you so that you’ll have the opportunity to restore all of your titles to the service.

Please Note: If you write in other genres, understand that those books will not be affected by this policy change.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and assure you that we are working with Scribd to explore alternative solutions to this challenging problem, always searching for new terms that could restore our full catalog to their service.

Believe me, this situation is just as difficult for Draft2Digital as it is for you. We also stand to lose a significant portion of our revenue due to this change. More importantly, we regret that we couldn’t give our authors more notice, but unfortunately we were informed quite late in Scribd’s decision-making process. It has been our highest priority throughout these discussions to preserve as many of your books in the service as possible, and we will continue to pursue that goal going forward.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us.”

— Kris Austin, CEO of Draft2Digital

In case you need me to sum up, basically what happened is this:

Scribd adopted a similar subscription model to Amazon's Kindle Unlimited.Scribd didn't realize that romance authors were so prolific or successful.Scribd realized romance was selling faster than any other genre, thus necessitating a very high payout to romance authors.Scribd decided this was unfair to other authors (and themselves—who knew they'd actually have to pay these people?) and completely removed the entire romance genre from its program.

So, when I say, "WTF, Scribd?" that's what I mean: that once again, erotica and romance authors are getting hit hard by a company's desire to "redistribute earnings" in the name of "fairness."

Why are we being punished for writing what readers love? Who the hell knows. My guess, based on what I've seen on various forums, is that authors of other genres are complaining. A lot of people dog romance and erotica as genres for several reasons, one of which (that should come as no surprise to anyone) is that women dominate the field. These are really the only genres where writing with a female pen name is encouraged. For fantasy and sci-fi especially, female authors are often encouraged to use male nom-de-plumes to avoid getting snubbed by male readers.

So, largely, the bias is pure and utter sexism. Simple as that. Sort of like how horror is considered a "male genre" even though it was literally invented by women (Mary Shelley, notably). Same for science-fiction novels, which were pioneered by... you guessed it... women.

But now we look at romance and erotica as lesser-than. Stupid. Superficial. We roll our eyes and smugly grin and say it's not real literature (as though the A Song of Ice and Fire series is). Women authors are considered flighty and shallow and incapable of telling real stories. And when the genre does well, we chalk it up to "stupid women readers."

This is absurd for so many reasons, but I'll list just one for now: pretty much any medium you consume that isn't a Michael Bay film has a romantic element to it, even if it's just an undercurrent. The romance options in Mass Effect are exploited just as much by male players as they are by females. Japanese dating sims are extremely popular. Brandon Sanderson plays with romance in his very popular fantasy novels. And when a writer doesn't do romance or sex well, they're often made fun of for it.

So if we're ready to value writing romance and erotic scenes as requiring some modicum of talent, why can't we extend that thinking to... oh, I don't know... an entire genre that requires that talent to be successful?

Mostly, because it's written predominantly by women. And sadly, there is still a stigma attached to being a woman, being a woman who writes, and especially being a woman who writes erotica and romance.

But I digress. The point is that I'm seeing a real problem with these subscription-based programs, and it is this: other authors whinging that their work isn't holding up against romance and erotica.

This is the problem I had with Hugh Howey. And this is what I'd like to address.

Writing is hard fucking work. It is back-breaking. Soul-crushing. No matter what genre you are writing it, it takes a certain level of skill. Talent. Practice and research. And as indie authors, we don't have anyone paying out advances or looking out for us. We don't have promo teams. We don't have in-house editors. We spend time and money to educate ourselves, to hire editors, cover designers, and much more. Our struggle is unique. Even in 2015, we are still fighting to be seen as real authors.

So why the fuck are we turning against each other? Why are we replicating the same elitist hierarchy that exists in the traditional publishing industry? We are the most vulnerable authors in the entire industry, people. We need to stick together. Stick up for one another.

We have enough enemies already. We need to make ourselves allies.

We are the only ones who can stop what is happening to us. We are the only ones who can demand better of our publishing partners. We cannot do that if we're looking down our noses at certain genres. We cannot do that if we consider a certain subset of authors who work just as hard as we do "non-deserving outliers."

We have to be brothers and sisters. We have to bargain for our collective interests. It is Amazon's and Scribd's wet dream that we keep up the infighting and don't stand as one on this, because then they never have to address the greater issue: paying authors rightly, fairly, and treating them as legitimate artists who will not be taken advantage of.

The only way that works is if we join hands and stop pretending there isn't enough money to benefit us all. If your work is not popular, it's not because other writers have stolen something from you. It is because you need to work on something. Marketing. Writing. Editing. Perhaps you need to do a little market research and jump on trends when they're fresh and lucrative. Perhaps you might even have to write a little erotica or romance to fund your more precious works.

In short, you have to give readers what they want.

And tearing other authors down or slashing their profits is not the way to do it.

Because you know what? Someday, that subset of authors could be you. Once these companies see it's okay to do to one group, you can be sure they'll do it to the next.

And by that time, you'll have alienated everyone around you. You'll have no one to speak up on your behalf anymore.

This, not my last post, is a call to arms. It's a call for authors to stop dogging each other and focus on the big picture: how can we thrive in a system that can readily and easily take advantage of us?

Stand together. Embrace the spirit of Independence Day.

Let's make this a fantastic job for everyone.