For science fiction and fantasy authors, winning a Hugo Award signifies the pinnacle of achievement in the genre, a distinction historically bestowed upon literary giants such as Isaac Asimov, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Ray Bradbury. However, recent controversies involving allegations of bias, censorship, and manipulation in the voting process have tarnished the Hugo Awards’ credibility.

Today, Ginger discusses the storied history of the Hugo Awards, tracing their evolution from their inception in 1953 through the genre’s golden ages, and confronting the present-day challenges that threaten their esteemed status. He examines the complex dynamics within the Hugo Awards and the debates these controversies have ignited among authors and fans, and considers the potential for the Hugos to reclaim their role as the definitive standard of excellence in science fiction and fantasy literature.

Author’s Note, June 2024.

Hi there! Ginger here. Back in March, I wrote an article entitled “Can the Hugo Awards Recover Their Credibility?” referencing the controversy surrounding the nominations for the 2023 Hugo Awards, which were awarded to winning writers at the 2023 Worldcon in Chengdu, China.

Months later, it was pointed out that there were some factual errors in that article, such as my claim that the 2023 Woldcon was the second to be held in Chengdu (when in fact it was the second Worldcon to be held in Asia – in 2022 the Con was held in Chicago, Illinois.) Several readers, including Hugo Award winners and nominees, and members of the Worldcon committee themselves, pointed out these errors while criticizing the article itself.

And, of course, no writer should make stupid mistakes like that when writing an article! I have no problem being held accountable for errors I’ve made. However, in re-reading the article I’d written, I realized that perhaps there was a bigger issue than just those mistakes. 

I’d blithely written an article highlighting the controversies surrounding the Hugo Awards both in 2023 and in 2015 and asked the question “can the awards recover their credibility?” In doing so, I inadvertently (carelessly? cruelly? thoughtlessly?) attacked the credibility of everybody who’d ever won a Hugo Award – especially in the controversial 2023 award debacle.

It was careless, lazy, and not representative of who I try to be as a writer. I’d lost sight of who I write these articles for – writers – and tried to “report” on a news story instead. Not only did I do a bad job of that by incorporating errors, but I feel now that the tone, subject, and theme of the article were also incongruent with the sort of article I want to write.

I imagined for a second how I’d feel if I’d been recognized for a Hugo Award following a lifetime of hard work and dedication to my craft, and then had some random ginger kid with a British accent dismiss the significance of that with a wave of their hand – and in an article that contained factual errors, no less!

So, instead of just ignoring the criticism, or trying to retroactively fix the errors to pretend that they didn’t happen, I wanted to take responsibility for the tone of my article and revisit it. After all, I’ve mentioned many times how important science fiction and fantasy was to me growing up, and how influential many Hugo Award winners have been to my writing, and my enjoyment of books as a whole. The Hugo Awards deserve better, and so do the writers who took the time to read and comment on my article.

So, what are the Hugo Awards?

Before you can talk about the controversies surrounding the Hugo Awards, you have to know what they are – and I’ve always kind of described them as “the Oscars of science fiction.” 

Way back in 1953, at the 11th Worldcon in Philadelphia, seven awards were given out by the organizers of the convention recognizing excellence in seven different categories of science fiction and fantasy. The original toastmaster was Isaac Asimov, no less – and the winner of the inaugural award for Best Novel was Alfred Bester, for his novel The Demolished Man – a murder mystery originally serialized in Galaxy Society Fiction.

There’d been no original plans to repeat the awards, but they were reinstated for the 1955 Worldcon in Cleveland, Ohio, and have taken place every year since. In 1961, the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS)  was formed to oversee each Worldcon committee, and the rules of the award were finalized in their constitution.

Since then, the scope and scale of the Hugo Awards has done nothing but grow. Today, despite the controversies I’m about to write about, they’re pretty much universally recognized as THE global award in science fiction and fantasy writing (with the similarly famous Nebula Awards reserved for science fiction and fantasy published in the United States.)

The Los Angeles Times described the Hugo Awards as “the highest honor bestowed in science fiction and fantasy writing.” Author Jo Walton, who literally wrote the book on the history of the Hugo Awards, described them as the only science fiction award “that actually affect the sales of a book.”

So, they’re a pretty big deal – and you only need to glance at a roster of previous winners to see why that might be. Robert A. Heinlein, considered “dean of science fiction writers,” beat out Isaac Asimov to win in 1956 for Double Star, then beat Kurt Vonnegut to take the same prize in 1960 for Starship Troopers, and then won the award two more times after that! 

Other winners include Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert, Ursula K. Le Guin, Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov himself (eventually.) That’s like a “who’s who” of the most influential science fiction and fantasy writers of the 20th century. The trend continued in the 21st century, with winners including J. K. Rowling (she who will not be named) and Neil Gaiman, and nominees including Iain M. Banks and George R. R. Martin.

The history of Hugo Award winners is like a history of the best in science fiction and fantasy writing, and that’s why being included as a winner or nominee is so important. There’s really no more significant award to win – and even to be nominated is to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the greatest science fiction and fantasy writers of the last century.

And that’s the part I’d missed out in my last take on the subject. I questioned the current credibility of the Hugo Awards without even recognizing just how credible (incredibly credible, perhaps) the award had been in the past. 

The Hugo Awards is IT, people – there is no higher honor in science fiction or fantasy writing. That’s why the organizers, winners, and fans of the award are so protective of it – and why the recent controversies surrounding the awards hurt them so much. To even be nominated for an award is a HUGE deal for a writer – and not something that can easily be dismissed.

It’s all very well for me to write an article questioning the credibility of the awards – but let’s face it: In doing so, I’m no different than the person sitting on the couch eating Cheetos complaining that the Academy Awards are “over” because of falling audience figures.

Ask any actor nominated for an Oscar if they feel the same way and they’d probably say “hell, no.” The Academy Awards are still as relevant as ever to actors, directors, and motion picture professionals, and writers and authors of science fiction and fantasy would no doubt say the same of the Hugo Awards (and they’d be right.)

But where did this criticism originate? Why is the “credibility” of the Hugo Awards under attack? And just what kind of controversy have they become embroiled in? 

That’s a whole different story – and one that originated with a group of Internet trolls who described themselves as The Sad Puppies back in 2015.

The First Controversy

If anybody has ever tried to organize an awards ceremony, you know there are challenges. I run a very small one for fans of James Bond every year, and it’s amazing to what lengths some people will do to get themselves up on the podium – even though there’s no actual prize.

The Hugo Awards are victim to the same challenges, and in 2015 a group of disgruntled science fiction writers decided to take advantage of the inherent vulnerabilities of the voting process in order to get authors and writers they’d chosen into the nomination process. They called themselves the “sad puppies” and used voting blocs to skew the results of the voting process in favor of writers they felt weren’t “niche, academic, or overtly leftist.” The criticism was that the Hugo Awards had become an “affirmative action award” that favored minority writers 

In 2016, this group tried the same tactic again – this time dominating five categories and ensuring that “their” nominees were the only ones listed. These nominees included gay erotica author Chuck Tingle for his short story Space Raptor Butt Invasion, which gives some indication of the level of maturity and sophistication with which these trolls operated. 

The controversy forced WSFS to ratify a whole new set of rules to govern the nomination and voting process, but by then the damage was done. Critics of the award pointed to 2017 nominees like Stix Hiscock (for his novelette “Alien Stripper Boned from Behind by the T-Rex”) as evidence that the slate of nominees and even the winners themselves could be decided by less-than-democratic methods.

As far as I can see, the real damage this incident did was to force a question mark above the nomination of any author or book that certain groups disapproved of. George R. R. Martin, a Hugo Award nominee himself, wrote: “Call it block voting. Call it ballot stuffing. Call it gaming the system. There’s truth to all of those characterizations. You can’t call it cheating, though. It was all within the rules. But many things can be legal, and still bad … and this is one of those, from where I sit. I think the Sad Puppies have broken the Hugo awards, and I am not sure they can ever be repaired.”

The Second Controversy

However, as my twenty-year-old pick-up truck proves, something doesn’t stop just because it needs to be repaired – and following the changes to the nomination process, the Hugo Awards continued to be awarded at Worldcon in Helsinki, San Jose, Ireland, and New Zealand (albeit virtually, due to COVID 19.) 

In fact, George R. R. Martin was toastmaster for the 2020 Awards – proving that even if he didn’t believe the Hugo Awards could be repaired, he still believed in them enough to participate!

But in 2023, the second big controversy hit the awards – and this time, it was surrounding influence on the nomination process alleged to come from a very different source than right-wing Internet trolls:

The Chinese government.

In 2023, Worldcon was held in Chengdu, China, for the first time (not the second time, as I’d incorrectly stated in my original article. It was, however, only the second time the 80-year-old convention had ever been held in Asia.)

Fans of the Hugo Awards raised red flags when several notable writers were mysteriously absent from the slate of award nominees – including veteran Hugo nominee Neil Gaiman, R.F. Kuang, and Xiran Jay Zhao. Each of these authors had received enough votes to be nominated for major categories. However, officials for the Chengdu Worldcon declared them “ineligible”. 

Perhaps not-so-coincidentally, these authors were known for their outspoken criticism of the Chinese government, especially the government’s alleged genocide against the Uyghur people. Leaked emails later revealed that officials from Chengdu Worldcon had taken the decision to remove these authors from the nominations process in order to appease the Chinese government.

This led to another controversy – one perhaps even louder than the 2015 “sad puppies” debacle. Once again, the actions of a few people had thrown the credibility of the entire award into question – but this time, it was people from within the organization accused of wrongdoing, not external bad actors. Both the director of Worldcon Intellectual Property and the chair of the Board of Directors resigned over the controversy, and the organizers of the 2024 Worldcon vowed to ensure transparency and accountability from everybody involved in the awards moving forward.

The Aftermath

There’s no doubt that the impact of these controversies has hurt both Worldcon and the credibility of the Hugo Awards. The fact that external bad actors managed to influence the slate of nominees in 2015 and 2016 was bad enough, but it was made even worse when bad actors from within the organization also used their power and influence to exclude authors from their rightful place among the nominees in 2023.

That being said, there was an important point I’d missed out in in my original article which was perhaps even more important than the factual details I’d got wrong: 

The show must go on…

…and it does.

In 2024, the 82nd Worldcon will hold the 81st Hugo Awards ceremony in Glasgow, Scotland – and a couple of years of controversy can’t possibly erase the significance of eight decades of excellence in science fiction and fantasy writing.

Nominations for Space Raptor Butt Invasion and Alien Stripper Boned from Behind by the T-Rex notwithstanding, the Hugo Awards still remains THE global award for science fiction and fantasy writing. To be nominated for an award is an incredible testament to the quality and influence of an author’s work – and to actually win one is a crowning achievement for any writer.

Perhaps Neil Gaiman was unfairly excluded from the 2023 slate of nominees. Perhaps Space Raptor Butt Invasion unfairly nudged out nominating a book that some might consider a better example of excellence in science fiction and fantasy. However, one thing remains clear: Those that won, and almost all who were nominated, deserved this honor because of their dedication to the craft of writing and their excellence in executing a story.

The credibility of the Hugo Awards might have taken a ding or two along the way, but it remains the world’s most important award in science fiction and fantasy writing; and I’m sorry if I didn’t properly acknowledge that in my original article. Every single award winner and nominee (even Chuck Tingle and Stix Hiscock) should be justifiably proud of the recognition they’ve received; and those of us who love and support the awards should view their success as nothing less than an inspiration.

2024 will be the 81st Hugo Award ceremony. I hope to witness the 100th one, and beyond.

Ginger (Roland)

THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE WITH CORRECTIONS IS BELOW:

If you’re a fan of science fiction or fantasy, you’ve undoubtedly heard of The Hugo Awards. 

Presented at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) each year, the Hugos are highly regarded within the science fiction and fantasy community, and for decades have served as a benchmark of quality and innovation in a genre that often pushes the boundaries of fiction and literature.

Spanning both decades and subgenres of science fiction and fantasy, some of the most notable Hugo Award winners include Isaac Asimov for his groundbreaking Foundation series, Ursula K. Le Guin for the Earthsea cycle, Frank Herbert for the epic Dune, N.K. Jemisin for her groundbreaking Broken Earth trilogy, Neil Gaiman for his imaginative Sandman graphic novels, and Margaret Atwood for her dystopian masterpiece The Handmaid’s Tale. 

However, over the course of the last few years, not all has been well at the Hugos – and a fresh scandal that broke this January is shining yet another unflattering light on an award that has already weathered accusations of rule-bending and ballot stuffing.

This leads to an inevitable and unfortunate question: Can the Hugo Awards recover their credibility?

The History of the Hugo Awards

The Hugo Awards were named after Hugo Gernsback (1884-1967) who pioneered the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. Held in Philadelphia in 1953 at the 11th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), the first Hugo Awards were never actually intended to be an annual event. The organizers hoped other Worldcons would follow suit, but the awards were initially just a one-off celebration.

At the ceremony, there were no official presenters; the awards were simply announced and the winners approached the stage to collect their trophies. The first Hugo trophies were rocketships made of plastic and wood, a far cry from the more elaborate statuettes awarded today.

In the years that followed, the Hugo Awards became one of the most prestigious accolades for authors of science fiction and fantasy, with many winners beginning their careers after winning one of the coveted statues. 

In 1956, Robert A. Heinlein won Best Novel for Double Star and this undoubtedly helped him earn his later reputation as the “Dean of Science Fiction.” In 1965, Frank Herbert won Best Novel for Dune, the first installment in a saga that continues to be held in high regard today, and was recently re-adapted for cinema. 

Other winners include the iconic Ursula K. Le Guin, George R.R. Martin, and J.K. Rowling – practically a “who’s who” of the finest fantasy and sci-fi writers of the modern age. With names like these among the winners, it’s not surprising that until recently, winners of the Hugo were considered the pinnacle writers of their genre. 

Today, the Hugo Awards continue to be held annually at Worldcon, which takes place in a different city every year. In 2023, the awards were held in Chengdu, China.

However, there was controversy surrounding the official winners for the 2023 awards. This was due to concerns about potential Chinese government influence on award selection and censorship of nominated works – throwing the legitimacy of the winners into question.

That would be problematic enough if it wasn’t for the fact that the Hugos have already encountered these kind of accusations, way back in 2015, when another controversy led to questions about how legitimate the winners of the awards were.

The Sad Puppies Controversy

The cracks in the veneer of the highly-regarded Hugos appeared in 2013, in something called the Sad Puppies Controversy. This was a protest by a group of science fiction and fantasy fans and authors who felt the Hugo Awards were neglecting works by straight, white, male creators and prioritizing diversity and “political correctness” over quality.

The initial spark came in 2013 when openly conservative fantasy and science fiction author Larry Correia complained that the awards nominations for that year prioritized the books and stories of female and minority authors, who he claimed were nominated more for their political beliefs than the quality of their writing. 

“The nominations are kinda controlled by certain little cliques,” he claimed in a 2015 podcast. “These little politically motivated cliques nominate all their friends and get all their people on there based on the politics of the person, not the quality of the work.”

In protest, he decoded the nominations and voting process for the awards and used a “voting bloc” of his fans to try and force the nomination of his novel Monster Hunter Legion instead.

He called this campaign “Sad Puppies” in reference to the famous SPCA ads in which singer Sarah McLachlan appeals to viewers to donate to the famous American animal shelters, with her message interspersed by images of sad and lonely dogs and cats. This is how he viewed the more diverse nominations from that year – which he dismissed as “boring message-fics” that shunned good, original writing in favor of promoting a left-wing political agenda.

His campaign continued in 2014 and 2015, along with another voting bloc campaign organized by Vox Day, which was called Rabid Puppies. Together, these campaigns were successful in stacking the 2015 Hugo Awards nominations with books that they felt better represented their vision of what good science fiction and fantasy looks like. Unfortunately, their vision did not align with many of the traditional supporters of the Hugos – many of whom complained that the existing voting system was inadequate to protect against organized voting campaigns. 

Ultimately, the campaign backfired. Many voters rebelled, and in protest, a record number of categories ended with “No Award” instead of recognizing nominees being supported by the Sad Puppies or Rabid Puppies. While the Sad Puppies campaign claimed this as a victory, highlighting the supposed bias, it ultimately seriously damaged the Hugo Awards reputation.

In response, the Hugos implemented a key change to their nomination process starting in 2017 – Ranked Choice Voting. This system replaced the previous nomination system where voters could simply nominate as many works as they wanted in each category. With ranked-choice voting, voters rank their choices in order of preference. This makes it harder for a small, organized group to dominate the nominations with a single slate of works by discouraging bloc voting. However, by then, the damage had already been done.

The Chinese Voting Scandal

In the years that have passed since, the organizers have worked hard to rebuild the reputation of the Hugo Awards as the world’s premiere accolade for science fiction and fantasy writing, and haven’t been entirely unsuccessful.

However, all that hard work got thrown into question during the most recent awards.

The controversy arose this January, after the awards ceremony, when the final voting data for the 2023 Hugos was released. It revealed that several works, including R.F. Kuang’s critically acclaimed novel Babel and Xiran Jay Zhao’s Iron Widow had received enough votes to be nominated for major categories. 

However, officials at the Chengdu Worldcon, who were responsible for administering the Hugo Awards that year, declared these works “ineligible”. No explanation was provided for the disqualification, raising concerns about transparency and potential censorship. The only statement made was a since-deleted Facebook post by Director of the World Science Fiction Society, Dave McCarty, who simply wrote:

“After reviewing the Constitution and the rules we must follow, the administration team determined those works/persons were not eligible.”

This is noteworthy because both Kuang and Zhao were both born in China, and have spoken openly in opposition to the Chinese government, especially regarding the issue of the Chinese genocide against the Uyghur people. It led many people to consider whether their exclusion from the awards was a result of political pressure from China.

The revelation sparked immediate outrage within the science fiction and fantasy community, with fans and authors questioning the legitimacy of the awards and accusing Worldcon of censorship. On January 30, Worldcon Intellectual Property, the nonprofit which organizes the Hugo Awards, announced the resignation of Dave McCarty and World Science Fiction Society board chair Kevin Standlee – but other than that, has made few official statements regarding the controversy. This has failed to appease concerned fans, and has once again thrown the legitimacy of the Hugos into question.

What is the future of the Hugo Awards?

Although mired in controversy, the Hugos cling to the motto of “the show must go on” and plans for the 2024 ceremony are already well under way. Nominations for the 2024 awards closed in January, and the nominated works will be revealed in the spring.

Worldcon itself is going to be held in Glasgow, in the United Kingdom, in August of this year – and some significant changes have been announced to reassure fans and authors that the process will be transparent and legitimate. Firstly, Glasgow Worldcon has committed to publishing the reasons for any books or stories being disqualified by April 2024 – giving plenty of time for fans and authors to react if they feel the disqualifications are unfair.

Likewise, full voting results and explanations for any administrative decisions will be made public directly after the ceremony, hopefully preventing controversy erupting months after the awards themselves, as occurred in 2023.

But it’s going to take people a long time to forget the results of the 2023 Hugo Awards and that means the similar controversy of the Sad Puppies campaign suddenly doesn’t seem to have taken place quite so long ago. The legitimacy of the Hugos has definitely taken a big hit, and it’s uncertain whether the awards will ever again be considered the pinnacle of science fiction and fantasy writing.

But only time will tell – and as a passionate fan of science fiction, I’ll be taking a special interest in seeing how the awards play out in the future. I want the Hugo Awards to recover from these controversies – the question is whether they can in an era that seems to make censorship and voter manipulation so easy and effective.

What are your thoughts about the Hugo Awards controversies? Do you think the awards can recover their reputation? I’d love to read your thoughts in the comment section below.

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This December, Amazon invited a number of self-published authors to beta-test Virtual Voice – a service that promises to make the production and distribution of audiobooks as easy, seamless, and accessible as Kindle Direct Publishing was for authors of the written word. However, many audiobook producers and voice actors are upset at this platform – arguing that it will devastate their business model, and ultimately diminish the quality of audiobooks being offered to the public.

Today, Ginger takes a look at this service and why, while not the first of its kind, it is likely to become the most dominant. He also examines what it means to the industry, both from the perspective of authors as well as from the perspective of the human narrators and audiobook producers that it is poised to displace.

Amazon revolutionized the publishing industry on November 19, 2007 with the launch of the Kindle, an e-reader designed to provide readers with a digital alternative to traditional books. 

The Kindle’s introduction marked a significant turning point in the publishing industry, suddenly making it easier and more affordable for readers to instantly access a vast library of digital content than it ever had been before.

It also transformed publishing for would-be authors, presenting a novel new platform for writers to publish and sell their work which didn’t involve acquiring a literary agent first.

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) allowed any author from anywhere to publish and distribute their books directly to Kindle users, circumventing the traditional publishing route entirely. These books then appeared right alongside traditionally published books on Amazon’s digital bookshelves, democratizing the once tightly-controlled publishing process and empowering countless aspiring authors to bring their stories to a global audience.

As you can imagine, this quickly disrupted the established norms of the industry, and in the years that have followed, its impact on the publishing landscape has been profound. According to Amazon’s 2020 data, over 1.7 million authors worldwide have self-published through KDP, contributing to the creation of more than 3.4 million Kindle books. This has led to a significant increase in the volume of available content, challenging traditional publishing models while at the same time broadening the literary landscape for eager readers. 

Independent authors, once marginalized by traditional publishing gatekeepers, found a viable platform in KDP for sharing their stories directly with readers. Many have since gone on to become incredibly successful as a result – like Frieda McFadden, who I wrote about just last week.

Today, the ranks of New York Times best-sellers are filled with self-published titles from authors like McFadden – something which would have been unthinkable less than two decades ago.

However, the rise of Kindle Direct Publishing and the subsequent success of self-published authors sparked a very negative reaction from traditional publishers. Many expressed skepticism and concern about the changing dynamics of the industry. Established publishers initially viewed self-publishing with a degree of apprehension, questioning the quality control and editorial standards of works brought to market through platforms like KDP. In a 2014 interview with The Guardian, literary agent Andrew Lownie remarked on the skepticism within the traditional publishing industry, stating: “Traditional publishers like to think that they are the gatekeepers of literary excellence.” 

But that’s clearly no longer the case. The success stories of self-published authors, many of whom have achieved significant sales and acclaim, has permanently challenged the notion that traditional publishers are the sole arbiters of literary merit. In fact, since 2007, most traditional publishers have reluctantly adapted many of the publishing strategies of self-published authors into their own process, and begun signing many successful self-published authors into their roster of writers. They’re struggling to survive while thousands of self-published authors are thriving. 

That explains why the tension between traditional and self-publishing models persists – and demonstrates how Amazon are about to throw even more gasoline onto that fire with the beta launch of their latest industry-disrupting service: Virtual Voice.

What is Virtual Voice?

Virtual Voice is a brand new self-publishing service that might end up being even more disruptive to the industry than Kindle Direct Publishing. It’s a self-service platform that enables KDP authors to quickly and easily produce an audiobook version of their already-published eBook that uses virtual voice narration rather than a real, live, human voice artist. 

With this speech-to-text technology, authors will now be able to effortlessly transform an eBook into an audiobook from the comfort of their home computer in just a few simple steps.

First, however, let’s be clear that Amazon isn’t quite pioneering or innovating too much here, as Google launched a very similar service last year. However, if you had no idea that Google’s service existed, you’re not alone. It seems like very few authors are aware of it, just as very few authors pay much attention to the Google Play bookstore in the first place.

The real gamechanger here is that the technology is now being adopted into a service by Amazon, the undisputed heavyweight of the self-publishing industry. By integrating this self-service audiobook creation platform into KDP, Amazon is virtually assuring their dominance in this space from the get-go.

With Virtual Voice, authors start by selecting one of their qualifying eBooks from their KDP dashboard. Then, they can explore various virtual voices and choose the one they want to “read” their book. The platform also allows you to preview and customize the audiobook as you edit it. 

Once done, authors can set a preferred list price ranging from $3.99 to $14.99, from which they’ll receive a 40% royalty once published. 

Each audiobook will go live within 72 hours of clicking the “Publish” button – reaching audiences wherever Audible titles are sold. Audiobooks produced through KDP, specifically from eBooks in KDP Select, will be featured in the Audible Plus catalog and qualify for a share of the KDP Select Global Fund in addition to any regular purchases or royalties – opening up a brand new revenue stream for authors without any of the initial upfront costs of professional audiobook production.

(Although, if preferred, KDP authors can also continue to collaborate with professional narrators and voice talents through ACX – although this still comes with much longer wait times and requires royalty sharing or an outright fee to the voice talent.)

For those who listen to audiobooks, the arrival of Virtual Voice will be seamless to the existing customer experience. Audible users will be able to easily discover and enjoy audiobooks featuring virtual voices, and audiobooks created with Virtual Voice will be clearly marked to avoid any confusion with traditional, human-narrated audiobooks. Customers will be able to listen to samples prior to purchase, just like with any other audiobook, and decide for themselves whether they want to give this new technology a chance.

Finally, just like with traditionally published audiobooks, Virtual Voice books will be available using Audible Credits, making them extremely accessible to subscribers.

The genius behind Amazon’s offering is that it fits seamlessly into their existing infrastructure – meaning the impact of Virtual Voice will become apparent extremely quickly. The real question, therefore, is whether this technology will ultimately be a good thing, or a bad thing.

The Potential Impact of Virtual Voice

In technological terms, virtual voice narration has always been an inevitability, and it’s perhaps unsurprising that Amazon ended up being one of the pioneers behind providing this technology to authors – just like they were with the introduction of Kindle Direct Publishing in 2007.

Virtual Voice is poised to revolutionize the audiobook industry, potentially leading to a significant surge in the production of audiobooks by KDP authors. Currently, only 4% of titles self-published through KDP have audiobook versions, highlighting the untapped potential that Virtual Voice brings to the table. This is because it previously took a significant financial investment to produce an audiobook of the quality required for publishing on Audible – with authors paying several thousand dollars to produce a single book, or having to split their royalties directly with narrators. 

But now, hundreds of thousands of authors will gain the ability to produce audiobooks without any of that investment – understandably raising concerns among traditional voice talents and audiobook producers who view Virtual Voice as a threat not just to their livelihoods, but also the artistic nuances they bring to narration.

While Amazon emphasizes that all audiobooks created using Virtual Voice will be clearly labeled, allowing customers to discern between human-narrated and synthetic-narrated content, some voice talents and audiobook producers are understandably likely to harbor reservations. Concerns around the potential devaluation of the craft and the unique qualities that human narrators bring to storytelling are certainly warranted. 

Traditional narrators and producers are also right in worrying that Virtual Voice could result in a saturation of the market with machine-generated narration, impacting the perceived value and quality of audiobooks as a whole. 

Additionally, if authors begin to turn to the convenience and cost-effectiveness of services like Virtual Voice, it will obviously lead to loss of job opportunities for human narrators. This shift poses a challenge to the industry to find a balance that accommodates technological advancements while preserving the artistic integrity and employment opportunities for voice talents in the audiobook landscape. We are already seeing similar things happening in other aspects of publishing, such as with the rise of AI generated images and their affect on cover designers and digital artists.

Conclusion

If Virtual Voice takes off, it will likely end up leading to one of the biggest changes to the publishing landscape to have occurred this decade – but it might be another decade before we truly understand what impact it will have. I’ve experimented with the technology already and found it useless for the majority of my books, since they have two or more narrators (currently Virtual Voice only allows a single digital narrator for your entire book.) However, I did try it with one of my non-fiction books and while I didn’t ultimately publish it, the quality of the narration was much, much better than I’d imagined it would be.

Strange new times lie ahead. What do you think Virtual Voice (or other, similar services) means for authors and the industry? We’d love to hear your opinion. Don’t be shy about leaving a comment below!

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While some authors publish wide across multiple online storefronts, there are a great many others that are exclusive to Amazon due to their KDP Select enrollment terms. As part of that enrollment, their books are available to readers with a Kindle Unlimited (KU) subscription, and the authors are paid per pages read from a common pool of money. But as KU Page Reads hit their lowest payout ever this past July, those same authors may be asking themselves “Is Kindle Unlimited worth it in 2023?” 

That’s exactly the question that Ginger is looking to answer this week, as he examines the pros and cons of remaining in KU as the main benefit to authors continues to fall, month over month. There may not be a single answer that applies to everyone, but knowing the facts can help make an informed decision for anyone still on the fence, or simply deciding whether it’s time to make a change.

In July 2023, Kindle Direct Publishing’s payout rate for KENP page reads reached its lowest level ever – just $0.003989. That’s over 30% less than the highest payout recorded, in October 2015.

This precipitous drop in royalties has many authors asking a very familiar question: Is keeping your books in Kindle Unlimited even worth it any longer? In this article, I’ll cover the pros and cons of remaining part of Kindle Select as it stands in September 2023.

Wait – how does Kindle Unlimited pay authors again?

When an author self-publishes a book using the Kindle Direct Publishing platform, one of the most important questions they’ll have to ask themselves is whether or not to tick the box that makes their book part of Kindle Select – allowing Amazon shoppers with a Kindle Unlimited subscription to download and read their book “for free.”

The book won’t actually be “free” of course. The reader’s monthly Kindle Unlimited fee gets added to the KDP Global Fund, and Amazon pays authors a percentage of that fund each month based on how much of their eligible books have been read. So essentially, the KDP Global Fund is a pool of all the Kindle Unlimited subscription payments (minus Amazon’s cut, of course) divided among all the billions of pages read that month. 

In July 2023, for example, the KDP Global Fund was $49.5 million dollars. With a per-page payout of $0.003989, that means Kindle Unlimited subscribers read approximately 12.4 billion pages that month.

Amazon provides a few benefits for making your books part of Kindle Unlimited. For a start, there’s access to that global pool of funds each month. For certain authors in certain niches – romance, for example – this is a huge opportunity, and many romance authors make 50% of their monthly revenue, or more, through KDP Select page reads.

Additionally, Amazon provides the opportunity to give your book away for free for 5 days every subscription period – a once-powerful marketing tool that I’ve previously argued has lost its effectiveness. You can alternatively take advantage of a Kindle Countdown Deal, which offers your book at a steadily-decreasing discount, urging readers to buy it before the deal runs out.

Finally, there’s the additional organic marketing and visibility that Amazon gives to books that are part of Kindle Unlimited; maximizing reader awareness amid all the paid-for advertising spots on Amazon’s homepages.

But there’s a condition attached. To take advantage of all the benefits of KDP Select, the eBooks that you make part of Kindle Unlimited have to remain exclusive to Amazon for that 90-day period – you can’t have them for sale through Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, or any other retailer.

I’m one of many authors who thinks there are benefits to remaining part of Kindle Unlimited, so all my books are available via KU through the Amazon platform – and only that platform.

However, there’s a very vocal group of authors who believe authors should “go wide for the win” and many of them are earning the kind of royalties that prove the merits of that approach. 

Craig and I even discussed this opinion at length with the owner of the influential “Wide for the Win” Facebook group, Erin Wright, in one of the earliest episodes of the Fully Booked podcast (and a couple of times after that, as well).

But given the changing landscape of self-publishing, it’s not a black and white question to answer. Changes in the industry offer both new challenges and new opportunities for authors choosing to go wide, or remain part of Kindle Unlimited. Here are some of the biggest changes I’ve come aware of recently.

Pros

There’s one fact about keeping your books part of Kindle Unlimited that the “Wide for the Win” crowd often ignores, and that’s the amount of money involved. 

In July 2023, the KDP Global Fund was $49.5 million dollars – the highest it’s ever been. In 2022, Amazon paid authors over $522 million in royalties. It’s clear that there’s still a ton of opportunity in Kindle Unlimited for authors who write in a genre that’s popular in KU and know how to reach readers with Kindle Unlimited subscriptions.

As of September 2023, there’s another massive advantage to keeping your books part of Kindle Unlimited – the fact that Google and Apple charge such exorbitant fees for transactions on their mobile platforms that Amazon have removed the ability to buy Kindle ebooks on the Amazon app.

Over 97% of Facebook users access the platform on their mobile device, which has made advertising eBooks incredibly difficult. Each click you pay for drives a user to your book’s product page on Amazon – but often, they can’t buy the book! There’s no simple solution to this problem except for making your book part of Kindle Unlimited, since for these readers, clicking on the “Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited” button is the only guaranteed way to earn revenue from your advertising budget right now (at least in that scenario)!

These advantages compound one of the other plus-points for being part of KDP Select – simplicity. Publishing wide – especially if you want to make money – involves a lot more work than putting all your eggs in the Amazon basket. Many authors who’ve found success with Kindle Unlimited value the time and mental effort they save by only having to sell on the Amazon platform – something that outweighs a lot of the revenue they might otherwise be making by selling on platforms like Apple Books and Smashwords.

Cons

Of course, nothing is won without sacrifice – and as of September 2023, there are several opportunities authors have to sacrifice in order to keep their books in Kindle Unlimited.

The first and most significant is the opportunity to sell your books on platforms beyond just Amazon. As of writing this, the biggest platform authors are missing out on is Apple books.

In the United States, more than 57% of mobile users are on the iPhone platform – which comes with Apple Books baked into the operating system. Authors who drive their ads to Apple books rather than Amazon overcome the major hurdle holding writers back right now – the inability to buy eBooks on mobile devices.

Similarly, there are a lot of authors experimenting with selling their eBooks directly to readers, using their own website and a transaction platform like Shopify. Once again, you can’t use this approach if your books are in Kindle Unlimited as they have to be exclusive to Amazon for each 90-day subscription period – but for those selling “wide” it’s an opportunity to bypass the roadblock that Google and Apple have created for those of us previously limited to selling on Amazon.

A third disadvantage of remaining in Kindle Unlimited is just how much revenues have dropped in recent months – and how that drop shows no sign of reversing. July 2023 might have had the lowest per-page payout in the history of Kindle Unlimited, but it was merely the lowest payout yet. For over a year now, page read payouts have been shrinking incrementally and the influx of AI-generated garbage being allowed onto the Kindle platform is driving that decline even faster. 

Writing a book hasn’t become any easier since 2015 – yet in 2023 authors are being paid 30% less for them through Kindle Unlimited.

These factors combine to make a pretty compelling argument against remaining in Kindle Unlimited – but it’s still far from a no-brainer for most authors.

Conclusion

While I’ve outlined where we stand in terms of Kindle Unlimited in September 2023, like everything with a date attached to it, the situation is bound to change.

Amazon remains committed to the Kindle Unlimited subscription program and the fact that July 2023 was the biggest month ever for the KDP Global Fund suggests that KU subscribers are similarly committed. Whatever happens, Kindle Unlimited will continue to grow – and if Amazon is able to crack down on abusive users and AI generated books, that means opportunities for authors who keep their books in KU might also grow. 

But it’s very far from certain – and authors looking to build a sustainable publishing business that isn’t reliant on the whims of tech giants are continuing to lean more heavily towards publishing wide, or direct-selling to their readers.

For the moment, I’m going to stick with KU – but I’d love to know your thoughts about where you think the future of digital publishing will take us. Are you going to keep your books in Kindle Unlimited? Or has Amazon already lost the opportunity to keep your books exclusive? Let us know in the comments section below!

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With the rising number of low quality AI-generated books flooding the digital bookshelves, there is already cause for concern about how this affects authors and customers alike. This is especially true for those books that are part of the Kindle Unlimited program. 

Many authors are suspicious of the sheer number of these titles, often with poor covers and questionable content, that have somehow made it onto the bestseller lists. It is believed that many of these books are being artificially pumped up via click farms that are downloading and “reading” the books, not only pushing out more legitimate books from the top charts, but also taking an unfair share of the KU money pool.

So what, if anything, is Amazon doing about it?

According to some sources, AI-generated books are flooding Amazon’s best-seller lists and causing concerns for both authors and readers enrolled in Kindle Unlimited.

When it comes to self-publishing your books on Amazon’s Kindle platform, there are generally only two ways to make significant amounts of money – either through direct book sales, or through Kindle Unlimited Page Reads.

For years, many have argued that you should “go wide for the win” and try to focus on book sales – leveraging not just Amazon, but also other online publishers like Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and Apple Books. You can even listen to an entire episode of our Fully Booked podcast dedicated to this topic!

However, because Google and Apple have made it impossible for Amazon to sell books directly on their Kindle app, the counter-argument about focusing on Kindle Unlimited subscribers has gained a lot of traction lately. With KU, authors get paid for every page a Kindle Unlimited subscriber reads of their books – which can add up to a significant amount over time.

Crucially, Kindle Unlimited subscribers can still “buy” books on the Android or Apple versions of the Amazon or Kindle App, which means it’s a much more effective way of acquiring new readers if they’re tuning in via their mobile device. For authors using Facebook ads, targeting Kindle Unlimited subscribers rather than book buyers can often be the difference between an advertising campaign making a profit and suffering a loss.

But just as we’ve seen several times during the history of Kindle Unlimited, it looks like unscrupulous people have also noticed this trend and are trying to exploit it – and this time, they’re leveraging the power of Artificial Intelligence to do so.

The Rise of the AI-Generated Book

At the end of June, Australian indie author Catherine Bilson made a worrying observation. When reviewing Amazon’s bestseller lists in the Teen & Young Adult categories, she noticed that they were flooded with books that had very obviously been generated using AI – with generic covers created using Kindle’s cover creator, and plots and prose that were barely intelligible. Just 19 of the Top 100 books appeared to be written and published by an actual human being.

What made this especially concerning was the fact that these AI-generated books were clearly generating a ton of clicks and page reads – enough to get them in the top spots on some of the most hotly-contested bestseller lists, and earn whoever published them tens of thousands of dollars via Kindle Unlimited page reads.

This was a slap in the face for genuine authors for two reasons. Not only were these AI-generated books crowding out real books by real authors – but the fact that they were doing so through Kindle Unlimited page reads meant that they were also stealing the lion’s share of the monthly Kindle Unlimited page read fund – essentially stealing money that should have been shared among other, more deserving authors!

Catherine and other authors were horrified by this discovery – and by the fact that Amazon had allowed it to happen in the first place! Considering so many authors have recently been complaining about Amazon banning their books because pirated versions existed, it seems mind-boggling that Jeff Bezos’ behemoth would dedicate so much time to punishing legitimate authors while ignoring this kind of massive abuse happening right on their own platform.

But what is causing this problem? And what is the solution?

Click-farms and AI-Content

We’ve written about the dilemma posed by AI-written books before, but in this instance the fault can’t be laid exclusively at the doorstep of AI platforms like ChatGPT. It’s actually a combination of sketchy tactics that allowed unscrupulous people to exploit Kindle Unlimited this way – pairing effortlessly-generated junk content with massive click farms that artificially “read” these books and rack up those absurd (yet valuable) KU page reads.

“Click farming” involves bots automatically clicking through books on Kindle Unlimited, generating royalties for the publishers (I won’t call them authors) based on the number of pages read. Within a very short space of time, these click farms can artificially “read” dozens or hundreds of these AI-generated books and Amazon isn’t immediately aware that fraud is being committed. It’s a problem that’s existed for a while, but the impact of click farming is now being amplified because of the ease in which AI-generated “junk” books can be published.

Yes, Amazon finds out about these things eventually – sometimes only thanks to authors like Catherine Bilson making them aware of the problem – but even though Amazon removed these AI books from the bestseller lists after the issue was raised, the books are still available for purchase on the platform, and even more AI-generated books are rapidly appearing to replace them.

So, what can authors do to protect themselves from this abuse? And what steps can Amazon take to eliminate the problem?

It’s time for Amazon to get serious about AI-generated content

As of writing this, Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform still doesn’t require publishers to disclose whether the content of their eBook was created using Artificial Intelligence, and that’s one major part of the problem.

An argument could be made that it’s not fair to ban AI-generated content entirely from the platform, but something does need to be done to ensure unscrupulous people aren’t abusing the system – and ironically, Amazon might have such systems in place already.

I linked to a news story from February up above, in which authors were complaining that Amazon was removing their books from the Kindle Unlimited platform because pirated versions existed for “free” on the Internet. Amazon discovered this by searching the Internet for copy and content that authors had published on Kindle Unlimited; so, clearly they have powerful tools for scanning and searching the deepest nooks and crannies of the Internet.

If Amazon used these same tools to seek out AI-generated content on their own platform, perhaps that would help them turn the tide of spammy AI-generated books.

If so, Amazon also needs to be as draconian with the publishers of abusive AI-generated content as they are with regular, human authors. Part of the problem is that the AI-generated books which hit the bestseller lists remain available for sale even after Amazon identified and rectified the problem. Shouldn’t abusive publishers face the same penalties as human authors, such as losing their publishing accounts entirely? I’d argue this is a second vital step in the process – cutting the legs out from abusive publishers before they can repeat their crime.

Conclusion

While we can discuss what is and isn’t the best approach for dealing with this problem, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: Amazon’s handling of this issue is being closely observed by authors and readers who rely on the company taking rapid and necessary steps to protect human-created works and maintain the trust of its audience; and we can only pray that Amazon is up to that challenge.

It’s problems like this that can make or break a self-service publishing platform, so the problem needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.

What do you think the solution might be? And how do you feel about whether or not Amazon should allow AI-generated books to be published in the first place? We’d love to know your opinion, so don’t be shy about sharing it in the comment section below.

In the meantime, be on the lookout for more stories like this. I fear this is just the tip of the iceberg – and that the arrival of AI might create a lot more problems before platforms like Amazon come up with definitive and effective solutions.

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If you’re a self-published author relying on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform, you need to be aware of a recent change that can significantly impact your book’s visibility. The publishing giant has revised its category selection process, limiting authors to just three KDP book categories instead of the previous ten. While this simplifies the process and addresses abuse, it also raises concerns about your book getting lost among the vast sea of titles.

As Ginger describes in his analysis below, there are a variety of implications to these changes and potential ways you may be impacted. Authors that don’t take action soon may find their existing books recategorized automatically, and leaving something that crucial to an algorithm or poorly trained rep is unlikely to do your career any favors. By proactively fixing them yourself, you’ll ensure you are placed in the best categories possible for your book, leading to maximum discoverability and giving you the best chance of success.

In June, Amazon quietly rolled out a huge change to the way self-published authors choose and select the categories they want their books to be listed in.

Since its inception, Kindle Direct Publishing has allowed self-published authors to select two general categories for their books to appear in – largely the “big buckets” like romance, thriller, and suspense. These are categories described as BISAC categories (which stands for Book Industry Standards And Communications) and are the globally accepted categories used by booksellers worldwide to categorize their books.

Amazon, however, adopted a much more comprehensive list of KDP book categories, and for years have secretly let authors actually choose up to ten of these categories for their books to appear in – something of a “cheat code” which allowed clever writers the opportunity to pick and choose categories that were easier to score a high rank in. We’ve written a number of blog posts about that here.

This used to be one of the most powerful and effective ways to get your book noticed without having to spend a large amount of money on advertising. While it’s pretty difficult to get your book ranked in the Top 100 sellers for a BISAC category like Romance (around 3,000 sales in a single day) it was actually pretty achievable to get your book ranked in a more obscure Amazon-only category (like Asian Myth & Legend, which required just 210 daily sales to earn the coveted #1 Best Seller flair which would appear wherever your book was displayed.)

In fact, a whole industry practically popped up around this, with courses and tools designed to help authors figure out which KDP book categories were “hottest” and then a process for asking Amazon to add books to those particular categories.

Dave Chesson, founder of Kindlepreneur and creator of Publisher Rocket, is one of the most knowledgeable experts on the subject (we even interviewed him about it here) and in a recent email to his subscribers, he warned everyone about the new change which is neatly summed up by the line: “You now only get three chances to make an impact.”

What do these changes mean to you?

The first and most fundamental difference this is going to make for your self-publishing process is simplicity. Instead of selecting two BISAC categories and then having to email Amazon directly to get them to add or change up to 10 Amazon-specific categories, now you directly choose from those more extended KDP book categories right there on the KDP Dashboard, when you’re adding or editing your book details.

But simple doesn’t always mean better, does it?

The second difference is the more impactful one, and that is that you can now only be listed in three categories, as opposed to ten, and that fills a lot of us authors with concern that our books will disappear among all the millions of other titles on Amazon vying for ranking positions in those same categories.

However, that might not necessarily be a bad thing. Earlier, I mentioned above how a book in the Asian Myth & Legend category would only need 210 daily sales to earn a #1 spot – and score the coveted #1 Best Seller ribbon that revs up your Click-Through-Rate in advertising and marketing.

Until recently, the book that held that spot was none other than The Princess Bride, William Goldman’s iconic fantasy adventure that inspired not just a timeless movie starring Fred Savage and Peter Falk, but also a “family friendly” cut of Deadpool 2 called Once Upon a Deadpool that stared Fred Savage as well.

Great book. Great movies. But nothing to do with Asian Myth & Legend.

The downside of Amazon’s previous 10-category system is that a not-insignificant number of authors and publishers literally tried to “game” the system by selecting inappropriate categories for their books simply because they knew they’d be able to rank higher in those categories than the appropriate ones. With so many categories available, this was an unpoliceable system for Amazon and I believe preventing it is one of the main reasons for this new shift to three categories.

In fact, as part of this change, Amazon have even added a disclaimer to their Help topic on this subject which reads: “We reserve the right to change the categories of a book at any time to ensure a positive customer experience. The categories you add and the categories shown online may not always match. Your book may be added to additional or different categories to improve the customer experience.”

So, yes, while this change does make an impact to authors who’ve deliberately tried to maximize the number of categories their books are featured in, the ones who’ll be hurt by it most are going to be the authors who are using the category system disingenuously (and I won’t waste too many tears on them!)

I mean, it hurts other authors too – I loved having my books featured in specialist categories like Sea Adventures – but Amazon always chases after the best “customer experience” they can deliver, and the only safe and consistent way to “game” the system has always been to actually play the game the way Amazon intended (something we learned during the first iteration of Kindle Unlimited, and in the battle against “book stuffers.”)

What should authors do?

If you head to the Details page of any of your books in the KDP Dashboard, you’ll immediately see that the options for adding categories have changed. Your book might well have retained the two original categories that you selected, but now there’s a third one you can add – plus this message:

Categories update: You can now choose three categories that match Amazon store categories. If you make changes, all your existing categories will be removed and this action cannot be undone. Your new categories will not go into effect until you submit and publish your book.

Obviously, the first thing you can do is select that third category! The drop-down list you’re presented with includes all the regular BISAC categories as well as the KDP specific ones, and all you need to do is select a third one.

However, when you do so, it will take your book out of all the previous categories you’d selected beyond the original two. If you’ve spent the time adding up to eight additional categories, all that work will now be lost.

But before you complain, be aware that this will be happening regardless. Just today I checked the categories for the best selling book in my catalogue using Publisher Rocket and four of the categories I’d previously chosen had already been removed, with other authors reporting the same. It’s not likely to be long before only those three categories remain.

So, whether you take action or not, this will impact your books – and the advantage you have in taking action now is some control over that impact. If you just leave everything alone, Amazon will default your books into the two categories it thinks they belong in (and if you know anything about Amazon’s algorithms, you might know that these will probably not be the categories you want.)

So, it’s worth heading over to the KDP Dashboard and making these updates now. Hopefully this simplification will work in the favor of authors who focus on writing the best books they can; but like with everything else Amazon does, it might take some getting used to.

Conclusion

What do you make of these changes to Amazon’s category selection process? Do you think it will help or hurt self-published authors? Let us know in the comments section below – and don’t be afraid to share your real-life experiences with this change, so we can report on the actual impact in the near future!

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Like it or not, Artificial Intelligence is here to stay, but how does it impact authors? Can it really be used as a replacement to write books, and if so, should companies like Amazon be moving to ban AI-authors from their KDP platform?  With such a new and rapidly changing technology, there are often more questions than answers, especially when that technology seems to threaten jobs.

To help make sense of it all, Ginger is looking at the current state of Artificial Intelligence and how it applies to writing. Is it time for publishing companies to try and put a stop to it, or is it already too late? And more importantly, do authors really have anything to worry about?

It may still be in its infancy, but Artificial Intelligence is already changing the very nature of the world around us. It seems like we hear new examples of this daily, such as when IBM announced they were planning to replace 7,800 jobs with AI and automation in coming years, or when the UK’s British Telecom declared that they were planning to replace more than 10,000 jobs with new technology powered by AI.

For those in the creative fields, AI has proven to be something of a double-edged sword. Services like ChatGPT have been an incredible help for generating social media posts and suggesting taglines and titles. However, more and more self-published authors are concerned that AI-generated content could be about to replace books written by human beings.

It’s not a conspiracy theory, either. In February of this year, over 200 self-published ebooks listed ChatGPT as one of the authors – and it’s suspected that countless more were submitted that had been penned by AI-authors, but published under a real person’s name.

Given how highly competitive self publishing on Amazon has already become, many authors are concerned that their books will be overshadowed by titles generated by AI – and real writing will become obsolete.

The danger of AI writing

Elon Musk, one of the original founders of OpenAI was recently quoted saying: “AI is more dangerous than, say, mismanaged aircraft design or production maintenance or bad car production, in the sense that it has the potential — however small one may regard that probability, but it is non-trivial — it has the potential of civilization destruction.”

For those of us who’ve watched the Terminator movies, or remember HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, this might seem like an ominous message. If artificial intelligence is the equivalent of Pandora’s Box, it’s already been opened and is already wreaking havoc across the world.

In terms of publishing, though, it’s still uncertain how big the impact of AI-written content will be.

Yes, there were 200 titles published using AI in February of this year alone – but it’s also worth pointing out that very few of them made much of an impact on the marketplace. Reuters reported on one author named Frank White, who published a 119-page novella written by artificial intelligence called Galactic Pimp. The book took him mere seconds to produce – but with a 2.3 rating on just three reviews, it’s arguable whether or not even those few seconds were productively spent.

The fact is that long-form content produced by AI-authors is still nowhere near as engaging, entertaining, or human as content written by real people – and readers are aware of that! In one of the book’s one-star reviews, Watchman writes that Galactic Pimp features: “…characters whose every action seems tinny and flat, as well as a plot that is at once ridiculous and predictable.”

So, given that AI-generated books are still unsatisfying for readers, it’s arguable that the influx of AI-content isn’t really going to impact self-published authors that much – especially since Amazon has already embedded advertising so extensively into their platform that books published without any marketing behind them are generally invisible.

But will that always be the case? As artificial intelligence becomes more and more sophisticated, should authors be concerned that the future of literature will be in robotic hands?

Should Amazon ban books written by AI-authors?

Understandably, as AI language models like ChatGPT become more advanced, questions have arisen regarding their impact on self-publishing – and whether platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing should ban titles written by AI.

There’s no doubt that AI-written titles undermine the authenticity and humanity that readers cherish in their books, and that publishing AI-generated content might continue to flood the market with low-quality and derivative titles. There’s also a concern about how these books fit into the legal context of self-publishing and intellectual property rights, with some fearing plagiarism and many questioning whether existing copyright laws can even be applied to AI generated work.

But at the moment Amazon has no rules regarding the publishing of AI-generated content, and no means to uphold such a rule even if it did exist. The more sophisticated AI-authors become, the more difficult it also becomes to pinpoint content written by programs like ChatGPT – which ultimately means that any limitations set by Amazon might be unenforceable.

But there are people arguing that the best response to the rise of AI is to embrace the technology, not spurn it – since the limitations of AI might mean it never gets to the point at which authors need to be in fear for their jobs.

The limitations of Artificial Intelligence

I’d argue that no matter how “good” artificial intelligence becomes, it’s never going to replace human beings when it comes to the production of meaningful, well-written, and (most importantly) commercially-successful fiction.

There’s evidence to support this belief, too. Recently GPT-3, the fourth version of ChatGPT, was used to complete several exams – including the Uniform Bar Exam, Law School Admission Test (LSAT), Graduate Record Examinations (GRE), and the Advanced Placement (AP) exams.

For the most part, the ChatGPT-engineered exams scored incredibly high. AI basically aced the LSATS and GRE. However, it failed both English language and English Literature exams – strongly suggesting that the cognitive complexity needed to contextualize and generate the written word is one that remains outside of its abilities; and perhaps always will be. (And in case you’re wondering, GPT-4 didn’t do much better on similar exams.)

After all, the most effective writing is that which generates an emotional response – and when it’s written by a computer program that cannot feel emotions, writing can’t help but feel inherently flat and unemotional. Reading AI-generated books like Galactic Pimp is fun precisely because of how weird, obscure, and inhuman the text is – and I’m not sure that’s likely to change any time soon!

Yes, there are authors finding success with AI by using tools like Novel AI (which we covered in a recent podcast) but these are essentially all tools. They can help authors write faster and more fluently, but the work they produce still needs that human direction to be engaging.

And writing a book remains only part of the battle. Given the prevalence of advertising on Amazon, and the oversaturation of self-published titles on the platform, it’s become clear that successful authors know how to write books that engage and make them visible to potential audiences through advertising and marketing.

For AI-written books to pose any real threat to authors, they’d have to be marketed just as aggressively – and there’s no quick and easy artificial intelligence tool created to do that (at least not yet.)

Plus, the secret to a successful book is for it to be good – and even if they were marketed effectively, books written by AI still aren’t the kind of thing that readers eagerly engage with. Lee Child and EL James don’t need to worry about their books being dethroned by AI-created content anytime soon because few people are reading complete AI-written content for anything other than amusement value.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m aware that things can change. However, I truly believe that AI will usher in a brighter future for aspiring authors and creators, and not the other way around. There are still so many ways to be successful in this industry, so rather than worry about AI-authors replacing us, we flesh and blood authors should instead be using the technology to help us work faster or more efficiently.

Do you agree? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below – and keep an eye on the blog, because we’ll definitely have more content about AI to come in the very near future.

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Despite the rise of self-published authors, traditional publishers still hold significant influence, particularly in reaching school-aged readers and supplying books to libraries and bookstores. In some cases, that’s actually a good thing, as we’re currently seeing unfold in Florida.

There is a legal battle getting underway in the southern state, between Penguin Random House (one of the “big five” traditional publishers), and a local school district that implemented a “book ban” that resulted in the removal of numerous titles from the library system. As Ginger explains, the outcome of this case can have far reaching ramifications regarding not only free speech and the power of books, but towards safeguarding our intellectual freedom as a whole.

Many of the posts you’ll find on this blog talk about how traditional publishing is on the ropes, and how independent and self-published authors are becoming more and more of a dominant part of the industry.

However, tradpub is very far from dead – and two areas in which their sway in undeniable is in reaching the school-aged market for new books, and providing printed copies for libraries and bookstores. Even as self-publishing pioneers like Mark Dawson find their books in mainstream stores, traditional publishers still have enough in the scholastic market to demand that books get censored even without their author’s permission.

And sometimes, all that power and influence can be used for good! As seems to be the case in Florida, where Penguin Random House – one of the massively powerful “big five” traditional publishers – are suing a Florida school district after a local “book ban” saw dozens of titles removed from its library system.

The Battle for Our Books

Recently, laws have been passed in Florida and other states that target gender-affirming care for minors, drag shows, who can use which public restrooms, and even discussion of the use of pronouns in schools.

Emboldened by these laws, conservative groups have taken the opportunity to challenge access to hundreds of books in school and public library systems across the country – most of which have to do with LGBTQA+ issues, or discussions of racism and social justice. Between July and December of 2022, there were 874 different books subject to a ban from their local library system – and the rate of these challenges showed no sign of slowing down.

Or, at least, it didn’t until authors, publishers, and free speech advocates started fighting back. Their first battleground is the Escambia County School District in Pensacola, Florida – where over 100 books have been placed under restricted access, or removed from libraries altogether.

PEN America, a nonprofit organization that works to defend and celebrate free expression in the United States and worldwide, have joined forces with Penguin Random House and five of the authors whose books were banned in order to challenge the restrictions – arguing that the ban violates the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights – which prohibits “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”

What’s significant about this is that Penguin Random House bring to this fight what individual authors or parents are unable to – high-priced lawyers. That’s why this challenge is being taken right to the District Court of the Northern District of Florida, and will be heard in front of a jury, rather than a judge. Depending on the verdict, this ruling could set a precedent that would impact every book challenge in America.

What are we fighting for?

At the heart of the battle for our books is the issue of access. Because of the First Amendment, it’s practically impossible to ban a book from sale from an online or physical bookstore (although there have been many attempts to do so!)

However, school and public libraries are tax-payer funded, and therefore conservative groups argue that they shouldn’t be allowed to provide access to books that are “pornographic, violent or inappropriate.” They have produced lists of books which they believe fit that description, and have been demanding that they are restricted or removed from libraries to “protect” readers.

When a book is challenged this way, the procedure demands that the matter be put before a committee which ultimately decides whether or not to uphold the ban. However, in the case of the Escambia County School District, the verdict of these individual committees was ignored and the Board Members elected to unilaterally ban the challenged books.

Because the Board comprises just a few members, many of whom also have conservatives agendas, it was clearly very easy for the conservative groups to influence them into supporting the book bans. It was also the reason challenging the bans was so difficult – because individual parents or authors would be appealing to the very Board which approved the unilateral bans.

But with the financial support of Penguin Random House, PEN America and the co-signed authors are able to bring the matter in front of a much higher authority – the Court of the Northern District of Florida. It will also be down to twelve jury-selected strangers to ultimately decide the issue, rather than members of a local school board.

And should this case succeed, it will set a powerful precedent. While the verdict will only effect the Escambia County School District, it will likely set a precedent upheld by other court systems across the United States; cutting the legs out of many of the other attempts to ban books.

It’s also got a strong shot at success. Over 40 years ago, Supreme Court Justice William Brennan Jr. issued an opinion in the similar 1982 Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico case, in which he declared: “Local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books”.

With a Supreme Court ruling in their favor, PEN America and Penguin Random House have a strong case that will hopefully put a halt to this current wave of book bans.

Why is it so important?

In our age of social media, it’s perhaps reassuring that books remain on the front lines of the cultural battleground. In a tradition that’s lasted centuries, those in power are threatened by the ideas of those who aren’t – and despite digital alternatives, books remain the best way to give people access to those ideas.

Which is why the battle to prevent books being pulled from the shelves of libraries is so important. For thousands of schoolkids, the books they have free access to through their school or library systems are their only chance to read new and challenging ideas and concepts.

You can’t block the IP address of a book. It can’t run out of batteries, or be deleted off the Internet. Paper and ink are immutable; and the ideas contained within them have inspired everything from revolutions to regime change. They are literally the last line of intellectual defense; and that’s why we must fight so much to ensure everybody can access the treasures they contain.

And while PEN America and Penguin Random House will hopefully triumph in this latest battle, it’s a war that continues to rage. Those who wish to control us will always start by trying to ban books – because, as Sarah J. Maas said in her novel Throne of Glass, “libraries are full of ideas – perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.”

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This May, Amazon announced the first Kindle Unlimited price increase since it’s inception, taking subscriptions from $9.99 a month to $11.99. What does this change mean, and will self-published authors benefit or be harmed?

To answer these questions, Ginger delves into three key factors he believes led to this move. From the plateauing of KU subscriptions to Amazon’s strategic maneuvering against app transaction blockades, he explores what this means for your earnings and the competition within the program. 

Having already disrupted the entire publishing industry in 2007 with the invention of the Kindle and the self-service Kindle Direct Publishing platform, Amazon took another swing at traditional publishing in 2014 with the launch of Kindle Unlimited.

A monthly subscription service, Kindle Unlimited (KU) was essentially “Netflix for ebooks.” Subscribers are able to download unlimited books from the Kindle Unlimited library for one monthly fee, while authors who opt into the program get paid a share of the monthly subscription fund for each page of their books that get read.

Whether or not putting your books into Kindle Unlimited is a good idea has remained a hotly debated topic for years. Successful authors like Erin Wright argue that self-published authors should go “wide for the win” and reject exclusivity to Amazon. However, many authors (including myself) find they get the majority of their income from Kindle page reads, and have all their books enrolled in Kindle Select.

To muddy those waters even more, Amazon announced this May that they were increasing the price of a Kindle Unlimited subscription from $9.99 a month to $11.99 a month – leading many to wonder what this would mean for self-published authors (and, more importantly, their earnings.)

Here’s are three things I believe this move indicates:

1. Kindle Unlimited subscriptions have plateaued

Authors who select to share their books with Kindle Unlimited subscribers get paid for every page of their books that get read – normally around $0.005. That might not sound like much, but for a 400 page book those page reads add up to around $2.00 – which isn’t far off what you’d make in royalties from an individual book sale priced at $2.99.

The amount varies, though – because it’s all calculated after the fact. Amazon first pools a percentage of the Kindle Unlimited subscription fee into what they call the KDP Select Global Fund. Then, each month’s fund is divided by the number of pages read to calculate the final payout per individual page. The more subscribers there are to the program, the more authors can hope to get paid.

However, it’s starting to look like the number of subscribers to the Kindle Unlimited program has plateaued. While the KDP Select Global Fund was $46.1 million in March 2023 – up from $44.6 million in February – that may be a spike rather than a trend. Since July of 2022 the fund has remained pretty level at around $45 million, levelling off what had been slow and continuous growth since 2014.

What this means is that the way Amazon can squeeze more revenue out of a static subscriber base is to charge them more – hoping that the price hike won’t scare too many customers away. I think it’s fair to assume they’ll retain most of them. In Amazon’s defense, this is the first rate hike since the program began in 2014.

2. Amazon are using KU to circumvent the Google and Apple transaction blockade

We’ve already written about the roadblock Apple and Google have created for those of us trying to advertise books online. To quickly recap: The two major phone systems providers in the United States charge a 30% fee on all app transactions made using their devices – including purchases made with the Amazon app from the iTunes or Google Play store.

This means Amazon struggled to make a profit on most of the self-published ebooks sold on its mobile platform – forcing the company to eventually remove the ability to buy them from the Amazon app entirely.

(Yes, you read that right. In fact, if you haven’t seen it for yourself, go check. You simply can’t buy most ebooks on the Amazon app, whether you have it installed on your Apple or Android phone. It’s an utterly ridiculous situation, and it’s self-published authors who are impacted the most.)

One of the worst ways this impacts self-published authors is by reducing the effectiveness of their paid advertising. The majority of Facebook users browse on their phones, so by eliminating the ability to buy ebooks on the Amazon app, it prevents the majority of traffic you send to Amazon from clicking the neat little Buy Now button on your product page. I’ve seen a massive drop in ebook sales myself, even though my advertising spend remains steady, and anecdotally I’ve heard many authors report the same.

However, mobile users can still borrow books on Kindle Unlimited through the Amazon app – meaning that there is still a way to secure new readers despite the embargo on book sales. By raising the price of Kindle Unlimited, I believe Amazon are hoping they’ll be able to give authors a way to maintain their income level by using KU borrows to make up for the revenue they’ve lost in direct ebook sales – thereby giving them a reason to keep their books in KU and off the digital bookshelves of rival platforms.

And so far, I’d say it’s working. Using Attribution Tags, I can see that I make 49% of my income from Kindle Unlimited page reads. In fact, they’re one of the major reasons my advertising is consistently profitable. This price hike to the price of Kindle Unlimited will hopefully help it remain so.

3. Competition on Kindle Unlimited might be getting fiercer

When Kindle Unlimited launched in 2014, there were 600,000 books included as part of the program. Today, that figure exceeds 1.5 million – and it’s rising rapidly. Sadly, Amazon’s self publishing program has always attracted grifters, and today the combination of ‘low content’ books and AI-written books means that the digital bookshelves are heaving with more and more titles for yours to get lost between.

As a result, many authors have complained about the average monthly payout from the Kindle Select Fund getting smaller, and smaller, and smaller.

Despite leveling off at upwards of $45 million each month, the average payout per-page-read for authors has struggled to top $0.005 for a long time, and part of that has to be because of the sheer amount of competition, each demanding their slice of the page read pie.

So, assuming that Amazon will direct at least some of the revenue from the Kindle Unlimited price hike toward authors (and sadly, that is just an assumption) it means that the payout per page read might be kept at a reasonable rate through the increased revenue balancing out the increased competition.

However, who knows if this will be sustainable.

That being said, authors in KU shouldn’t be too despondent. The advantage of the digital bookshelves being flooded with low content and AI written books means that the good books in KU stand out even more – as long as you can get your potential readers to see them!

So, as long as you can focus on producing high quality, well produced books – and you can market them effectively – this price hike might work to your advantage. Grifters and low-effort publishers never end up outwitting Amazon’s algorithms forever, so as long as you align yourself with Amazon’s purpose of creating the best customer experience possible, you could hopefully see more of this new influx of money heading towards your books sales rather than theirs.

Kindle Unlimited isn’t going anywhere…

Finally, if this increase to the price of a Kindle Unlimited subscription suggests anything, it’s that Amazon is remaining steadfast in its commitment to the program. While there’s still a lot to be said for the idea of going “wide for the win”, it’s never a bad idea to bet with the house – and since Amazon is doubling down by hiking the price of Kindle Unlimited, it might also work out very well for authors who decide to double down with the number of books they include in the program.

Do you agree? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below.

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Self-publishing has come a long way since its inception in 2007, or even when Ginger and I started with it a few years after that. The stigma of being self-published was thick back then, and while it hasn’t disappeared completely, there are signs that self-published authors and their books are finally starting to earn the same visibility and recognition as traditionally published titles. With more and more self-published authors earning a substantial income, it’s clear that the grip of traditional publishers on the industry is slipping.

This disruption has opened up a world of opportunities for independent authors, and has led Ginger to question whether 2023 will finally be the year of the self-published author. Whether it is or not, one thing is clear:

We’re not slowing down and there is still plenty of room for us to grow.

There’s no question that the invention of self-publishing has changed the publishing industry forever – or how amazing it is that it all happened in barely more than a decade. It was just 2007 when Amazon first launched Kindle Direct Publishing and allowed authors to publish their eBooks on the first and still most-influential online bookstore – and now it’s a $1.25 billion dollar industry that sees Amazon pay out more than $520 million directly to self-published authors rather than traditional publishing houses.

But until now, there’s always been a stigma about self-publishing. Despite global phenomena’s like The Martian by Andy Weir and Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James initially finding their way into bookstores as self-published titles, the highest accolades and greatest respect given to authors and their books has traditionally been reserved for those published by “The Big Five” houses – HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Hachette Livre, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster.

But I suspect that 2023 is the year in which that finally changes – and it’s because self-published books are now earning the kind of visibility normally reserved for tradpub titles.

The inclusion of Mark Dawson’s self-published The House in the Woods in this summer’s Richard & Judy Book Club was something we wrote about last week. Recognized as the “Oprah’s Book Club” of the UK, the Richard & Judy Book Club has generally only featured titles published by The Big Five publishers, and has often been acknowledged as a “kingmaker” for sending those titles skyrocketing into the bestseller lists in the UK.

But now a self-published author has had the audacity to join them!

First published in 2020, The House in the Woods is the first in a mystery and crime series by self-publishing phenomenon Mark Dawson, who has already seen his John Milton and Beatrix Rose series sell more than 4 million copies worldwide. By including his book among other more mainstream titles (and we’re talking really mainstream here – such as With a Mind to Kill, the last James Bond book by Anthony Horowitz, published by HarperCollins) it’s finally clear that consumers and readers are either willing to overlook the stigma of titles being self-published, or find them edited and marketed to such a high level of quality that there’s no longer any specific distinction between them and traditionally published books.

Speaking of James Bond, though, we also recently wrote about how the Estate of Ian Fleming had quietly decided to enter the realm of self-publishing themselves last year – creating Ian Fleming Publications to print all of Ian Fleming’s original books. I mentioned the opportunities this presented in that post, and apparently Ian Fleming’s family hadn’t been blind to the potential of their new brand, either.

This month, to coincide with the coronation of King Charles III, a brand-new James Bond novel called On His Majesty’s Secret Service was published by Ian Fleming Publications. Written by veteran Bond author Charlie Higson, it was conceived and published within a 2-month window – something only possible with the agility of self-publishing – and it quickly rocketed to #6 in the British bestseller ranks.

The fact that Ian Fleming Publications was able to pull off that achievement is a testament to how the modern publishing industry is now growing increasingly dominated by self-published and independently-published authors – and how the grip The Big Five used to have on publishing is slipping.

And the best part is how all of this benefits self-published authors – the very same authors who’ve often been rejected by The Big Five. Today, 30-34% of all ebooks sold are self-published, and 85% of the lucrative Kindle Unlimited market are published by an individual author through Kindle Direct Publishing. This is a trend that continues to grow – giving more and more authors the opportunity to earn money from the books they’ve poured their heart into writing.

Likewise, their earnings continue to grow. In a survey commissioned by the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) in the UK, the average income for self-published authors has risen 53% since 2021, and averages $12,749 a year – which is now more than the median average income of traditionally published authors! No wonder more and more authors (and, in the case of Ian Fleming, the estate of authors) are turning to self-publishing for their books.

If the earnings of self-published authors can increase by more than 50% in just one year, who knows where this industry disruption will lead – only that I believe 2023 will be the year in which the whole world acknowledges that the golden age of the independent author is now upon us – and that this year’s success is just the beginning.

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The Richard and Judy Book Club is more familiar to UK authors, but for those of us in the US or Canada, you can just think of it as the British equivalent to Oprah’s Book Club. Getting your book on their list can do wonders for your sales and career, but until now has always been reserved for works from the traditionally published world. That’s why it’s a big deal that their list recently included a book by Mark Dawson. While Dawson is a very well-known name in the self-publishing space, he’s still not backed by a big publisher, so it’s a big shift to see a book by someone like him be included. 

Slowly but surely, self-published authors and their books are becoming more mainstream, breaking through barriers that once only let trad pub books pass through. Hopefully the recent inclusion of Dawson’s book isn’t just a one-off aberration, but instead the start of a shift towards including more independent authors and their work.

With the invention of the Amazon Kindle, the publishing industry changed forever. Today, thousands of self-published authors are able to make a comfortable living through their books in a way that simply wouldn’t have been possible twenty years ago – and yet there’s still a stigma attached to self-published books that remains hard to shift.

But that is changing, as demonstrated by the inclusion of Mark Dawson’s The House in the Woods in Richard & Judy’s 2023 Summer Book Club.

Most British readers will be instantly familiar with the names Richard and Judy. Since 1988, husband and wife Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan have been staples of British television – hosting This Morning until 2001, and retaining a ubiquitous presence on televisions and in newspapers ever since. In 2004, they launched the Richard & Judy Book Club, modeled after Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club in the United States, and it’s become recognized as one of the ‘kingmakers’ of British literature. To have your book selected for their twice-yearly reading lists is practically a guarantee of success.

And this summer, a self-published author is joining these distinguished ranks. The legendary self-published author Mark Dawson is having The House in the Woods, the first in his Atticus Priest crime thrillers, featured alongside five other mainstream books as part of the Summer 2023 reading list.

This is a huge deal. A massive deal. It’s practically impossible to overstate what this means to self-publishing in particular and the publishing industry as a whole.

You just have to look at other books included in the summer reading list to see what I mean. For the sixth time, New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell is being featured with her latest novel The Family Remains, and even James Bond is getting into the action with Anthony Horowitz’s With a Mind to Kill. Yet these are all massively mainstream books, written by huge authors and supported by immense publishing houses. To see Mark Dawson’s book alongside these others is quite unprecedented.

You see, Mark Dawson is practically the poster-child for successful self publishing. He’s the mind behind the famous Self-Publishing 101 course that has helped thousands of authors (including this one) turn writing into a career, and he’s sold millions of books worldwide.

Yet, until now, the traditionalists have always snubbed their nose at the likes of Mark Dawson. There’s still a common impression that self-published books are somehow inferior to those that have made it through the gatekeepers of traditional publishers. It doesn’t matter that this impression has been proven false countless times – for many, only traditionally published books ‘count’.

But by its inclusion in the Richard & Judy book club, it’s clear The House in the Woods is challenging this narrative. With 8,748 ratings and an average 4.5 star ranking on Amazon, plus reviews in the Mail on Sunday and The Daily Telegraph, The House in the Woods has outperformed many traditionally published books in more than just gross book sales, and it’s hard to argue that it doesn’t deserve to be featured alongside books published the ‘proper’ way.

But is this an aberration, or a sign of the times? While it’s inarguable that Dawson’s books deserve to be featured alongside traditionally published titles, people are still questioning how it managed to get a coveted spot like the Richard & Judy Book Club in the first place. It’s known as a pretty exclusive club to be part of, and it certainly takes more than just raw book sales to earn that spot.

What went on behind the scenes? And is it fair to ask that question?

I think so. Author Mark Dawson has already been dinged quite badly for trying to manipulate his ranks on the Sunday Times bestseller list by purchasing 400 copies of his own book, so it’s clear he’s been trying to ‘play the game’ in a similar way to how traditional publishers have wheeled and dealed their way onto bestseller lists in the past.

I don’t think it’s fair to criticize Dawson too heavily for this (after all, traditional publishers have been doing it for years. In 2020, one of Donald Trump’s political committees spent $158,000 on his son-in-law’s memoir to ensure it hit the coveted #1 spot.) However, it is proof that there’s more required for your book to “make it” publicly than just selling a lot of copies.

But I think Dawson’s inclusion in the Richard & Judy Book Club shows that this might slowly be changing. By achieving these incredible milestones with his self-published books, Dawson is demonstrating not just “how the sausage is made” in terms of accolades normally reserved for traditionally published books – but also that self-published books deserve the same respect as those published by Penguin, Harper, or Simon & Schuster.

Dawson has always been a pioneer and a leader among self-published writers. I think this will be another important milestone in his self-publishing journey, and one that will empower many other writers who follow in his footsteps.

Traditional publishing remains a slowly dying industry, and Richard and Judy just hammered one more nail into it’s coffin.

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