Thoughts So Far on Steemit from a Self-Pub Author

I'd intended to post the remainder of my short story, Dry Spell but when I saw the bot tag my post in the comments (linking back to where this story was originally published) it seemed to be saying YOU ARE STEEMING WRONG!

I create a fair amount of content and share it across five or six social media platforms. If I were to create original content for each, I'd likely never publish another book. Of course no currency exists for those other platforms. Likes, retweets, +1s, etc. etc. are all positive reinforcers with no tangible backing.

So you'll have to excuse my mistakes while I continue to bumble around here. If you want to read the conclusion of Dry Spell simply go to my site here: https://russlinton.com/2014/10/24/dry-spell-free-fiction-from-russ-linton/

Eventually I'll figure out the best way to do all this. For now, let me explain yet another reason I find this Steemit idea so damn attractive. I can do it in one word. Amazon.

As an author I find my future tied to this single point on the internet more and more everyday. Their ratings system, their algorithms - it's all most self publishers talk about. It's true - every self published author owes a bit of gratitude to Amazon's dogged pursuit of digital books and their willingness to confront the gatekeepers.

However, they shouldn't ever compromise their art for the sake of Amazon's bottom line.

There's currently a trend among the self published to write more, write faster, and flood the market with as many new releases as possible. The reasoning is sound. You never lose the "buzz" and you always keep your audience engaged. However, the motivation is indirectly tied to the way Amazon's algorithm declares the winners.

This algorithm is an inscrutable mix of computer logic and wizardry which is subject to countless conspiracy theories. However, it can be garaunteed that it's main purpose is to reward one above all others. Again, the one word answer: Amazon.

I'm not being harsh here. They're a giant corporation and they need lots and lots of money to keep the wheels turning. But they have gotten so big, they tend to grind up authors in their works.

Not a week goes by that some tweak to the system isn't made or some method of compensation curtailed. Arbitrary limits are set on prices, on who can or can't leave reviews, or on how the "rankings" function. While authors focus on pleasing them, fewer and fewer seem to care about writing as a craft.

Lately, the self pub sci-fi and fantasy sections on Amazon have been drifting more toward fan fiction than literature. And I want to be clear - I don't think there is a problem with fan fiction. If enough people want to read it, the creator should be rewarded. However, fan fiction by nature is usually free. Amazon has, rather ingeniously, found ways to cash in.

Part of this is through their Kindle Unlimited subscription. A reader pays a low, set fee and they can read as much as they like. This encourages authors to sign exclusivity agreements so their work is included in the list of titles users can read for free. It also encourages them to produce page after age after page in a continual stream. Authors are then paid by the pages read. (Typically this amount is in fractions of a US cent.) The speed, the uninterrupted flow that is fan fiction lends itself well to this.

The system of rewards should sound familiar. In essence, it's similar to a Steemit upvote every time somebody reads a page. The really HUGE difference being there isn't a shared, distributed architecture underlying it all. There's just Amazon.

At some point though, the readers will see Amazon has become a middle man for something they could have easily found themselves. And as platforms like Steemit catch on, the readers will realize they can take part on the rewards for curation, for participation - all the shiny things.

As for authors it can't be denied that Amazon provides a big boost for discovery. How much is it truly worth? 65% to 30% of the royalties from a book sale? A constantly variable pool of funds for "page reads" subject to the whims of a voracious corporation? And how much effort should an author expect to put into actually being seen on Amazon's overcrowded shelf space?

I'm seeing an overall trend of less and less return for the investment of word count, time spent marketing, and production costs. And there's no public ledger to tell me exactly where all of that goes. Steemit, for me, is the future of content monetization. All we need is for more readers and more authors to take note.