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Just a few thoughts on what happens when a story ends.

This essay is copyright 2011 by Paul Elard Cooley performed by the author, and is protected under a creative commons, attribute, non-commercial, no derivatives 3.5 license. Music by Nine Inch Nails from their album, the Slip. Please visit their site.

This has been a presentation of shadowpublications.com, where we don't believe in happy endings.

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Henry Miller. VC. Andrews. Stephen King. The Bible. Greek Mythology. Upanishads. Torrah. Quran...

What the hell do these authors and books have in common? Scenes of rape, incest, beastiality, or underage sex. That's right, folks. Books like Tropic of Cancer, The Library Policeman, Flowers in the Attic, etc all fit into these categories. Since Edward the vampire gets busy with a little high schooler, one can CERTAINLY claim Twilight would also fit the underage sex criteria.

So what?

Well, should these books be available on Smashwords, they must be pulled. Why? Because PayPal says so.

PayPal, the most popular electronic payment system for small merchants, individuals, and etc, has decided to launch an all out assault on Smashwords. Any books that contain "rape for tittilation," under age incest, under age sex, or beastiality must be pulled from Smashwords, or PayPal will cease offering the independent e-book market its services.

Smashwords essentially uses PayPal as its financial institution. Charges for ebooks are made through PayPal. Payments to authors are made via PayPal. Without PayPal, Smashwords ceases to be a business and yet another independent merchant is crushed, leaving us authors and readers fewer and fewer places to purchase and sell ebooks.

When I say "rape, beastiality, incest, and underage sex," many folks have a visceral reaction. In fact, you probably should. The ideas of those four categories is anathema. Well, mostly.

The concepts are taboo, but they are part of the human experience. Did you enjoy reading/watching The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo? Would the heroine's personality be the same without the rape by her so-called guardian? Wasn't that an integral part of displaying just how much shit she'd been through and why she has no trust in men?

What about VC Andrew's tale about children trapped in an attic by their grandmother? Flowers in the Attic was an extremely visceral tale that displayed family dysfunction and righteous holiness gone insane.

These things happen. They are part of our world. I personally don't want to read a book about a guy fucking a chicken, but what if I told that story as a joke? What if a character relates a story like that during, say, a Fiend's tale? Perhaps Tony Downs has a patient who engaged in such an act. Can I talk about it, include this, without PayPal demanding my book be pulled from Smashwords?

I believe in freedom of speech. I also believe that merchants have the freedom to choose whom they do business with.

However, PayPal claims it's not pressing Smashwords because of any moral problems. Instead, they are babbling something insane about possible legal ramifications if their services are used to purchase these items that contain this material. In fact, the head shill over at PayPal has made the claim that these ebooks often contain illustrations (which is false) and that the illustrations are what the problem is.

WHAT??

Okay, fine, so the guy's a douchebag. However, he's not an equal opportunity douchebag. PayPal does a LOT of business with, wait for it, Barnes and Noble. You'll notice that in this rant I haven't once mentioned PayPal pressuring B&N to drop books that contain rape, beastiality, incest, or underage sex. Why? Because they haven't done it.

Instead, they've chosen the independents, like Smashwords, Diesel, Kobo, and etc. PayPal isn't demanding those of us with PayPal credit cards refrain from purchasing "smut" or "sex toys" with the plastic. They haven't denied us the ability to do so.

So what gives?

That's the question, folks. What does indeed give?

PayPal can't properly explain the reasoning for their new "policy" of censorship and sudden moral outrage. They've blamed the credit companies for the pressure, claiming that VISA, MasterCard, AMEX, and etc are the ones demanding they stop servicing erotica outlets such as Smashwords. However, VISA has put out a statement saying they have nothing to do with any of this and they cannot cease payment services for legal content. In addition, they say they are unaware of any SmashWords content that fits into the illegal category.

In addition, PayPal has not ceased servicing outlets that sell sex toys, "adult" videos and dead-tree books. So while PayPal wants to somehow blame other institutions for the pressure, it makes no sense that they would continue to service these other businesses, if, in fact, they really are concerned about being used to sell illegal content.

Now, here's where I don my tinfoil hat and engage in serious conspiracy theories. In other words, I know I'm full of shit now and you should too. But think about it anyway.

The first theory is this: it's all the Amazonasaurus' fault. PayPal is not a proper payment method for Amazon at the moment. I believe this mainly stems from some kind of love/hate relationship between Amazon and Ebay. But, what if, what if Ebay is trying to make some kind of back room deal to get in on Amazon's wealth by promising the destruction of its tiny foes? Since much of the fiction on Smashwords is, in fact, erotica, they could in one fell swoop destroy a lucrative market that Amazon can't seem to, pardon the pun, penetrate.

Is that possible? Is it? It does sound insane even to me.

I think this one scares me even more, however.

Perhaps this really is some kind of moral crusade. A myopic moral crusade, perhaps, but one just the same. As with any form of censorship, one has to always ask the same question: where do we stop?

Today, it's books including rape, incest, beastiality, and underage sex. Tomorrow? Larry Kramer's "Faggots" is pulled from the shelves. After that? Brett Easton Ellis' "American Psycho." Clive Barker's "The Hellbound Heart."

Where. Does. It. End?

And that's the real problem here. No one knows.

If this is a financially motivated crusade of insanity, my fellow readers, we have a choice. If you believe in independent media, do me a favor: send PayPal some serious hate mail. If you can, kill your account.

Yup, I said CANCEL YOUR ACCOUNT!

Crazy, I know. What's worse? I'm a hypocrite. I have a PayPal credit card with an outstanding balance. At present, I can't kill my account until it's paid off. And I don't have an alternative at the moment. So I can't rid myself of them. Not yet, anyway.

I'm looking into alternatives such as Dwolla and Wepay. Hopefully I'll be able to find a mechanism that isn't at risk from douchebags in their high castles trying to dictate what we consumers can and can't buy, and what artists can and can't sell. Maybe you should be too.

To PayPal I say: fuck you.

To Smashwords I say: keep up the good fight.

If you don't agree with the censorship policies of PayPal and Ebay, let them know about it. Please. The only power we consumers have is the power of our wallets. And as GoDaddy discovered during the SOPA bill fight, it's a mighty big power. So, power to the readers, fiendlings.

Now, I'm off to buy some smut masquerading as literature. That's right, I'm going to get an Aramaic translation of the Old Testament.
 

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A while ago, I released an essay about "The Dreaded Amazonasaurus." Since then, KDP Select has not only gone live, but many of my fellow authors have capitalized greatly on its "benefits."

If you've forgotten, KDP Select is the new program that Amazon has instituted for authors. Basically it amounts to this: give Amazon exclusivity on your ebooks, and they help you market your wares by making them available in the vaunted lending library. But, of course, exclusive means you shut out smashwords.com, diesel, BN, iBooks, etc.

I made the decision to keep myself out of this madness, preferring instead of maintain some of my ideals. One of my ideals is fair competition. KDP Select, my friends, is anything but. Regardless, I have noticed an interesting trend. As KDP Select grows in popularity, my sales on Amazon.com have dwindled.

Why? Can't say. As far as I can tell, my books still show up in the same searches and etc. However, they do show up LOWER in the search results than they used to. Is Amazon.com fiddling with their search algorithm to favor books by authors that have enrolled? Yes, it sounds like a conspiracy theory and perhaps it is. I

haven't had much luck on the sales front with BN.com, yet I'm now selling more there than on Amazon. This is both troubling and perplexing since the majority of my writing income (pathetic as it is) was attributable to my Amazon sales. Tomorrow, February 14th, I'm releasing Garaaga's Children: Lovers on all the e-book outlets. If you're an Amazon customer, get it there. If you're a BN customer, get it there. I don't really care, so long as you let me know what you think of the story.

If I get enough sales tomorrow, perhaps we'll see an uptick in my search results for the other books. Maybe not. I'm a pretty tiny fish in a HUGE pond, but I figure if 20 or 30 of you purchase a copy of Lovers, I should be able to see some kind of impact in the metrics. But we'll see. Again, maybe my conspiracy theory is utter bollocks and I'm just paranoid.

I bash Amazon for its recent predatory policies and perhaps that's unfair. But you, the reader, need to know what's going on in the business of books. You'll continue using your Kindle, continue purchasing from the monster, and that's okay. If you like them, continue using them. It's your choice.

But I'd love to hear your thoughts on the recent changes. Do you think they're good for you? For the author? For the industry? What will a world with Amazon as the sole e-book outlet look like?

I shudder to imagine it.

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Were you listening? Did you hear it? The snap and crunch of digital teeth... The rumbling roar of a giant, market eating monster? Did you hear the screams and cries of small, upstart lifeforms as they quivered in fear?

ROAR!!!

The Amazonasaurus. The wrathful, menacing, carnivorous giant decided it's had enough of the small-time animals like Diesel Books, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble. They were nipping at its heels by providing ebooks for its platform without the dreaded "amazon" tax.

The amazonasaurus, a massive, bloated creature that requires more and more of the food chain to survive, decided to evolve. Rather than being content to live side by side with the other creatures, ignoring their occasional nips from its massively stocked island, the creature declared war on all those that would dare threaten its gluttony.

This new psychological evolution of the Amazonasaurus is called "KDP Select." Now those of who you who aren't in the writing biz have probably never heard of it, unless you've been paying attention to some of the conversations on twitter, facebook, and the like.

In an effort to starve out its competitors, the Amazonasaurus created a program for authors that guaranteed them access to the Kindle Owners Lending Library. This means their books will show up as select choices in that library, thus giving indie authors, and even mainstream authors, more exposure. It's a marketing dream, if the Amazonasaurus is to be believed.

What does the author have to do to participate? Guarantee the Amazonasaurus an exclusive right to the title for 90 days. This means no books to smashwords, none to Diesel, and especially none for B&N. For 90 days, the Amazonasaurus will "market" your books to the masses and all you have to do is guarantee only those who shop the Amazonasaurus will be able to find it.

In some ways, this is a trap for us authors. If you read the KDP Select fine print, when your 90 days is up in the program, it automatically renews. In other words, you'll have to log in to their console and forcefully end your participation. And if you change your mind? Unpublish your book to get out of the contract? The Amazonasaurus reserves the right to kick you off its store. For forever.

So it's a Faustian bargain, dear authors, or one made with Tony Soprano. You don't get a way out, because the Amazonasaurus puts its jaws right over your head like the dreaded sword of damacles.

So what if you do all this and still make no money? Well, that's your fucking problem. You have spent 90 days fucking your customer base with no guarantee of return. Nothing. If you were making $30.00 per month (meager, but very realistic) on royalties from ALL your ebook outlets, your monthly royalties may dwindle to nothing. Again, there's no guarantee of anything.

If I were to be conspiracy-minded, here's what I think will actually happen. The Amazonasaurus is going to grossly INFLATE the royalties for authors in KDP Select. Why? Very simple. If indie authors who are used to making $30 a month suddenly make $60 a month for that 90 days, then the idea of opting out of KDP Select is foolish from a practical perspective. Very foolish. The Amazonasaurus then starves the other outlets by paying its authors for doing nothing more than refusing to let their books into those markets.

Thus, Smashwords, Diesel, and even the terribly klunky awful secondary powerhouse known as B&N, fold, which, of course, leaves the Amazonasaurus control of the island once and for all. In other words, the Amazonasaurus has a monopoly on the ebook market.

If I were to engage in serious paranoia, I would suggest that the Amazonasaurus will pull all of its non Kindle-Fire-centric apps from the various app stores. This means you could no longer read your kindle books on your iPad, iPhone, or Android device. Thus, you are forced to purchase one of their hardware offerings. Yes, truly paranoid, I know. But it's the kind of shit large corporations do. It just is.

So what's my standing? Well, I need the money. I really need the exposure. But, as cynical as I am, I'm also a bit of an idealist. Fuck 'em, is what I say. I refuse to let the Amazonasaurus dictate where I sell my wares. From a practical standpoint, there's no real guarantee this is going to do anything for me other than further limit my exposure to new readers.

I'm boycotting KDP Select and the Amazonasaurus' Faustian bargain. I'm not going to give my fellow authors shit if they choose to participate--that's their business, not mine. I own a kindle and I doubt I'm going to purchase another book for it from the Amazonasaurus. Instead, I'll purchase from one of the other outlets, and then convert the book to kindle format. I'm a geek. I know how to do this crap.

The Fiendmistress has often joked that Amazon is the Walmart of the internet. Now, more than ever, I think she's right. So, Amazon, go roar and scare and do all the other things you do. Go be the giant that tries to devour everything in the foodchain. Just remember--monopolies are illegal. And you too may one day be an endangered species...
 

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What does the word "demon" mean? For those of us brought up in a Christian household, going to church and such, the word probably conjures up visions of a fork-tailed, fork-tongued, red menace know as Satan, or Beelzebub, or some other creature from our collective unconscious. Or perhaps it drags up images we've all seen in horror movies.

But what does the word "mean?"

A demon can mean many things to many different cultures. The Jinn from Mesopotomian/Arab folklore means an evil spirit that is bound to earth and is very pissed about it. The Jinn trick humans, play with people like a cat toying with a roach, and then squash them like the mortal refuse they are. But are they demons?

The original Greek etymology of the word daemon didn't have a connotation of evil ascribed to it. That was co-opted, because any spirit not from heaven had to be evil. Dante's Divine Comedy further muddied the waters by presenting a view of hell that contained all sorts of miscreant and troublesome spirits that existed to torment people in the firey place. 

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My good friend John Mierau invited me to submit an essay for his blog. It's a nice little piece on genres.

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This essay is copyright 2011 by Paul Elard Cooley performed by the author, and is protected under a creative commons, attribute, non-commercial, no derivatives 3.5 license. Music by Nine Inch Nails from their album, the Slip. Please visit their site.

This has been a presentation of shadowpublications.com, where we don't believe in happy endings.

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