I actually thought my last post was impossible, that 7000 copies of my books could not have been downloaded within a period of ten days during a failed Kickstarter Campaign on Light of The White Bear. So I wrote to Amazon and have just had this: “I’ve checked and see that you’ve scheduled a free promotion between March 26 to March 31 for your Kindle e-book, ‘The Sight and Fell.’ I see that there were 5228 (includes all marketplaces) Free units sold in during this period.” The figure that in fact nearly reaches 8000 free books downloaded is made up by the ‘sales’ of The Sight and Fell individually too, on their own promotions the week before. IT’S TRUE THEN!
Then I was advised I must stay positive and it is not a wise idea to call my fans ‘inveterate scumbags‘. To be pedantic I didn’t call my readers and fans inveterate scumbags, I do not know who they are, and most especially not the ones I have come to know trying Kickstarter. The people who I know have read and love my novels I find warm, passionate, kind and highly intelligent. The scumbag bit was housed as a question and aimed at readers here, a blog, Phoenix readers, who will read, just as again the visitor figures shot up last night, benefit from free promotions but give nothing back. Even in supermarkets they say the majority of people are honest when they employ those automatic readers and pay. I know a free promotion was my choice, but I did ask people to try and give something back at Kickstarter. Since I put those free promotions into a film, under advice, and over 700 watched that, it is probably where the news most circulated.
I think I would rather give up writing though, which in terms of story I have effectively anyhow, than not be allowed to speak about the awfulness of the culture these days, the plight of writers and artists, the lack of concern at the top, it seems among readers too, and what it is doing both to individuals and society. I think I can be remarkably positive, considering I am losing my home, had my career destroyed by people I loved, to be told by a major editor and my former partner, reaching to the very heights of her ‘philosophy’ that “life is unfair, Dave“, saw honesty and free speech mutilated inside Abrams in New York and perjury openly committed in the Supreme Court too. We do not live in a culture of truth and freedom, although indeed it varies around the world, we live in a culture of cynicism and back room power, where the ‘sales front’ that includes the Shop front window of the internet is even more of a sacred cow. It’s just sad, that’s all, but you get the ‘government’ you deserve, when people do nothing.
David Clement-Davies
Phoenix Ark's Blog 