It really is a scandal. Are readers here just a bunch of inveterate scumbags who have no honour and what or who do you actually care about, apart from getting something for free? I exclude the passionate friends and readers helping and backing two Kickstarter projects. But the fact is that when I ran a Free books promotions to support the Light of The White Bear project, with the generosity and passion I have always given here in poetry, essays and ideas at Phoenix, OVER 7000 COPIES OF THE SIGHT, FELL AND THE CO-EDITION were downloaded from Amazon! Delighted that those books and stories live and circulate, but I asked you to give back too, to support a Kickstarter project, with whatever you could afford and hardly saw the Back This Project button being pressed or the stats shooting up! The value of those books, in fact donating just 99p per book, could well have taken Light of The White Bear into the black and made a publishing kickstarter project succeed. I am angry for my backers too.
Is that how you live, how you find your pride, in our something-for-nothing world and do you care about how authors survive or work? I have told you about a monumental publishing battle, about being betrayed by an editor I loved in New York, and a so called best friend in London too, that struck at all the values in my stories. I have told you about fighting back, resisting an attack on free speech, held in the chains of contracts in New York, and even fighting proven perjury in the New York Supreme Court last year. But how do you respond, you lurk about loving only the sad story and then pounce in to get your free goodies and return nothing but you own lack of shame! It may be coming from word of mouth around Amazon, it may be those semi-criminal pirate elements who hope to profit, in our awful internet culture, but is the same culture of greed and opportunism that will swallow the planet and cares about little. Well, since my anger is now like a flame, YOU might start feeling a little ashamed, good readers, do something real for a change and come in and support DRAGON IN THE POST now and writers and artists at Kickstarter too by GOING THERE AND BACKING THE PROJECT
David Clement-Davies
PA PRESS
Phoenix Ark's Blog 