Konrath Flip-Flops

It finally happened. I've pulled all of my ebooks off of Amazon.com.

I did this for several reasons.  I'll take them one at a time.

1. I was making $3000 a day. That involved a lot of accounting. Keeping track of money isn't one of my strong suits, and with so much money coming in, I was constantly confused and depressed. Plus, the taxes were significant.

It made sense that the only way to rid me of this burden of wealth was to get away from the cause of that wealth--Amazon.com.

2. Running your own empire is hard. I got tired of sitting on my throne, lording over all I'd accomplished. A smarter idea would be to let someone else lord over it, and take 75% of my income for doing so.

3. I never had any validation self-publishing. Sure, I've sold over a million ebooks and gotten thousands of great reviews, but how could I know my books were really any good unless I had some sort of gatekeeper tell me they were?

4. Amazon just acquired Goodreads. Anyone with half a brain knows what this means. Just look at Amazon's track record.

• Amazon constantly strives to improve the customer experience
• Amazon treats authors with respect
• Amazon pays authors well
• Amazon encourages reading

It's obvious to me, and to everyone else who is whining about this, that Amazon WANTS TO CONQUER THE WORLD AND REPLACE EVERYONE WITH A ROBOT DUPLICATE.

Naturally, I can't stand by and let this happen. Even though my robot duplicate may be able to fly and have cool laser beam eyes, I'm not going to be replaced by some machine. That's where I draw the line with my business partners.

So I did a lot of soul searching, and realized the answer to my problems was the very thing I'd been rallying against for so long.

I needed to make a lot less money, wanted to have less control over my career, and desperately craved having professionals pat me on the head and tell me I was worthy, all while being able to justify my hysterical antipathy toward Amazon.

In other words, I needed a legacy publisher.

I have begun the process of writing query letters to the Big 6.

Hopefully, by this time next year, I'll have a four-figure print deal. Keep your fingers crossed for me!