Hey gang. While I am hard at work on my next downloadable fic, there’s a bit of business I would like to address.
A year ago when I entered the world of paid downloads, a friend recommended Gumroad as a platform. It seemed very much on the up-and-up, offered favorable rates, and was easy to use. I happily included it as an option for those who wanted to read my stories but did not have an Amazon Kindle — something I’m sympathetic to as I have an overall negative feeling toward Amazon as a company, while recognizing them as far and away the industry leader and best platform for my work. Gumroad sales were never that big but they were consistent in their way and it was harmless to keep it as a feature.
This past weekend I saw something on Twitter that made me want to change that.
Now, it’s the 21st century, and I basically assume that every platform you can use is going to have some darkness to it, whether it’s funding insurgents or exploiting NFTs, or what. You have to pick and choose what to turn a blind eye to and what will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Without getting into too much detail, I’ve seen some allegations about Gumroad (via tweets that have now been deleted — foolish me for not screencapping) that make me uncomfortable with continuing my usage of it. I have unpublished all of my works for the time being while I determine how to proceed.
If anyone out there has strong feelings about this platform, positively or negatively, please let me know, here in the comments or on Twitter at @LiamSladeTF.
This unfortunately causes one considerable wrinkle in my plans. In the back of the original edition of KRISTI’S MOM, I had included a promotional offer for a discount on the forthcoming KRISTI’S MOM AUTHOR’S EDITION which would include expanded material. I now have to rethink my entire approach to this, but I would still like to proceed with this project later in the year. I’ll let you know what I decide.
In the meantime, thank you all for supporting my work and I hope you’re interested to see what I have comign up next.
Be kind,
Liam