And yet, on April 7, the biggest retailer in the world, Amazon, sent an email to customers who own Kindle devices released in 2012 or earlier. They told users who have been hanging on to perfectly good (and in many ways, superior to new models) ereader devices that starting May 20, those devices will no longer be able to purchase, borrow, or download new books. If a device needs a factory reset for any reason after that date, it’s bricked permanently. It cannot be re-registered.

The outrage was swift and justified. If you didn’t know, you can’t make ebook purchases on the Kindle app on your phone or tablet. Why? Because Amazon doesn’t want to give a cut to the Apple/Google store. That’s part of the appeal of the Kindle: buying books right from the device.

But now, that functionality will be taken away, even though the devices themselves still work. Perfectly.

One owner on X wrote that his Kindle Fire 7, a gift from his wife over a decade ago, was one of his most treasured possessions. “It wasn’t hurting anyone. It just sat there and worked every time I asked.” Most were less polite.

Amazon’s consolation prize for bricking god knows how many perfectly good devices for no damn reason was to offer a 20 percent discount on a new Kindle. As one customer pointed out, a discount on something you hadn’t wanted to buy in the first place is not exactly a good deal.

And back to the hyperconsumerism issue, Amazon pulling this crap is especially rich given that the company co-founded The Climate Pledge in 2019, committing to net-zero carbon by 2040, and has made waste reduction and recyclability central to its public sustainability brand. Their sustainability page explicitly talks about programs for customers to repair, resell, recycle, and repurpose products, and they brag about an 85% landfill diversion rate.

Jeff Bezos personally created the Bezos Earth Fund with a $10 billion commitment, calling climate change “the biggest threat to our planet.”

All that talk about minimizing waste, and now the Restart Project, an electronics repair organization, estimates this decision could generate over 624 tons of e-waste.

But the waste, while cartoonishly hypocritical, is the secondary story. The primary story is the complete degradation of what the word “buy” means in 2026. And the answer, increasingly, is: nothing.

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It’s All Rented (And Without Renter Protections)

I did a video a while back talking about downloading the books in my Kindle library, a feature that is sadly no longer available. I talked about how when you purchase an ebook from Amazon, you’re not buying a book. You are licensing access to a file, stored on Amazon’s servers, readable on Amazon’s hardware or Amazon’s apps, for as long as Amazon decides to let you. The same is true of nearly every digital storefront you interact with. Apple, Google, Audible, PlayStation, Steam. The “Buy Now” button is the most successful piece of marketing copy ever written, because it describes a transaction that is not happening.

This is old news to anyone paying attention, but most people are not paying attention until the moment their stuff disappears. Ubisoft pulled that trigger in 2024 when it shut down servers for The Crew, a racing game people had paid full retail price for. The company delisted the game, revoked digital licenses, and closed the servers. A perfectly functional single-player experience became unplayable because the publisher decided it was done. California responded by passing AB 2426, which requires digital storefronts to disclose that customers receive a license, not ownership, when they click “buy.” Well I’ll be damned, California did something right instead of heinous.

Sony nearly pulled purchased Discovery Channel content from PlayStation libraries before caving under pressure. Google has a graveyard of killed services so large that someone built a website to catalog them. And now Amazon, the company that started as a bookstore, is remotely disabling the devices people read books on.

No matter what the product is, companies are setting it up so that they can take it back from you at any time, up to and including the physical devices you bought and keep in your home.

The 2004 Standard

I joke about wanting to go back to the late 90s, early 2000s, but I am increasingly serious about it. In 2004, you owned your music. You had that massive CD wallet you kept on the passenger seat, or if you had a fancy new model, you could plug in your iPod and listed to the MP3s you ripped yourself. Yes, you could actually listen to music without being connected to WiFi or 5G.

You owned your movies. DVDs. Physical discs that played when you pressed a button, regardless of whether the studio still liked you. You bought books at a store. The store could close and your book would still be on your nightstand.

The supposed convenience revolution of the last twenty years seemed exciting when all this new shit was rolling out.

“Omg a camera, an MP3 player, and a phone—all in the ONE device!”

“Wait, I can watch Netflix movies without waiting for a new DVD to arrive in my mailbox? Amazing!”

We hadn’t yet realized what was in those Terms of Service agreements we just blindly clicked through: You don’t own shit (and also we can spy on you).

I have been rebuilding my ownership recently. My life is too noisy with too much crap screaming for my attention, my money, and the mental energy to scroll through endless options. So I have returned to physical books (working my way through my existing ebooks that I bought and never read). I buy DVDs again, starting with the complete series of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. We have a used physical media store nearby and I’m looking forward to browsing.

I have downloaded every audiobook and ebook I previously “purchased” through digital platforms, and going forward, I will only buy DRM-free digital products. I know I own them because I hold the file. It doesn’t matter if there’s internet and no one can snatch back the book I bought, even if the author/publisher runs afoul of Amazon’s good graces.

I canceled Hulu and Disney Plus this week. I never thought I would do that. But the content libraries shrink while the prices climb, and I realized I was paying a monthly fee for the privilege of watching the same four animated movies whenever I was feeling down, as well as Family Guy reruns to fall asleep too.

Not exactly a good consumer decision.

I also got a library card last week. I haven’t had one in well over a decade. But going in that place and just smelling the books was truly soul healing.

We were never meant to spend our lives staring at phones.

Finding The “Stuff” That’s Actually Yours

If this latest bullshit from Amazon has inspired you to leave the Kindle ecosystem, that doesn’t mean you have to give up e-ink reading. Several dedicated e-readers exist that aren’t tethered to any single storefront, and they read standard epub files out of the box.

Kobo, owned by Rakuten, supports epub natively, integrates directly with library borrowing through OverDrive, and features a customizable warm light. The Kobo Libra Colour is my preferred device and I’ve heard good things about the Kobo Clara BW. You can load any DRM-free epub or PDF onto them without conversion, without an account with any retailer, and without anyone’s permission. (You can also make purchases from the Kobo store. Just be advised this is a Candian business and everything is more expensive, and the books you “buy” will have DRM and thus you will not actually own them).

The Boox Palma 2 is a phone-sized e-reader that runs full Android and doesn’t lock you into any specific ecosystem. Because it runs Android, you can install any reading or audiobook app you want, including the ones listed below. It fits in a pocket and functions as a dedicated reading device without the attention-destroying features of a phone.

For those who prefer reading on their phone or tablet, you don’t need the Kindle app or Apple Books. Several independent epub reader apps exist for both iOS and Android that will read any DRM-free file you own. Moon+ Reader (Android) is highly customizable with gesture controls and annotation support. FBReader (iOS and Android) is clean and lightweight, supports epub and several other formats, and syncs bookmarks across devices. All of these apps let you import files from your device storage, cloud drives, or via wifi transfer. No storefront or account required. (As a note, Apple Books and Google Play Books also allow you to read epub files you upload to your device).

For audiobooks, the same principle applies. If you have downloaded your audiobook files as MP3 or M4B, you need a player, and that shouldn’t require a subscription. Bound (iOS) is my preferred player. It remembers your position, supports sleep timers, and imports via AirDrop or Files. Smart Audiobook Player (Android) is the go-to for Android users, letting you select folders, control playback speed, and track listening progress across multiple books. ListenBook (iOS) supports the widest range of audio formats and includes an equalizer for listeners who care about sound quality.

The infrastructure for a fully independent reading life already exists. We don’t have to live like this.

Prioritize Authors Who Actually Sell You Something

Like I said earlier, I will only ever buy DRM-free digital products going forward. The problem is that trad-pub authors don’t control their ebook files. They genuinely don’t have the right to sell you a DRM-free copy.

Independent authors do.

A recent Written Word Media survey found that 30 percent of indie authors are already selling direct to readers, and another 30 percent plan to start in 2026. Among authors earning over $10,000 per month, roughly half sell direct. This is the fastest-growing movement in publishing, and it exists because indie authors saw the same writing on the wall that you are seeing now.

When you buy an ebook directly from an indie author’s website, you get a file. An epub or a PDF and you can put it on any device you own, on multiple devices even. Nobody can take it back from you and unless you fall for one of those “IT support” scams, no one can brick your computer or tablet and force you to buy a new one. You bought a book. That means you own a book.

Tools like BookFunnel and Payhip make this process painless for authors and readers alike. Add to that, the author keeps more of the money. Everyone benefits except the middleman, and the middleman is the one who just sent you an email explaining why your perfectly functional reading device is about to stop working.

If you care about owning the books you pay for, buy from authors who sell direct. They are the only ones in the supply chain who can actually give you what Amazon pretends to sell.

I’ve published eight novels. Some are good. Some are okay. One was a cynical cash grab that I’ve since unpublished, and I’m going to tell you about that too, because I’ve built a whole brand around telling other authors to be honest about their work, and it would be deeply embarrassing to not go first.

Here they are, ranked from worst to best. If you’ve never read my fiction, this is your reading guide. If you have, this is my public apology.

8. The …

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Here’s the thing: they weren’t going to go anyway.

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I thought the indie author community would care.

Almost nobody touched it (outside my normal viewers). The reasons were more interesting than the video itself.

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I keep it short because I don’t do political content and I don’t care what the drive-by commenter thinks of me in general or of my “politics” specifically. I put politics in quotes because what drives me isn’t really about elected officials or anything that ends up on a ballot. It’s freedom. And paradoxically, it’s about the firm boundaries that make freedom possible.

I’m known for being highly rebellious. Disagreeable, even. I lash out aggressively if someone speaks out of turn to me. I despise tyrants, big and small, and it makes me sick watching people censor themselves and fall over themselves to avoid drawing ire from the mob. I care about people running their businesses the way they want and not h…

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Last week, a lady I have never spoken to or heard of was driven off of Twitter. Her crime?

Author Jordan Lee noticed that literary agents weren’t interested in the kinds of books she was writing. Specifically, because she is white, straight, and female. And her characters are all straight. She didn’t spell this out, but I assume her MCs are white as well.

Well of course, the wokescolds, though out of power in general, are still very much in control in trad pub, and they weren’t going to allow Jordan to notice these things.

If you thought that the majority of odious cancel pigs moved over to Bluesky, you’d be wrong. Oh, they went for a while, but they came back. They always come back. And they shared Jordan’s post far and wide, demanding their pound of flesh.

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The screeching at Jordan wasn’t enough. They also piled onto an agent, Shannon Snow at Creative Media Agency (CMA), who had asked to read Jordan’s full manuscript as she considered representing her. She then rescinded that offer due to the pile-on.

Even though Shannon fell over herself apologizing, insisting she didn’t mean to request a full from a BIGOT, the cancel pigs continued to take shots at her.

Now if you’re not in the query trenches yourself, you might be confused. Why isn’t Jordan allowed to notice that agents are saying (in writing for all to see) that they don’t want straight or white stories? Why is it wrong to then conclude that her work is being sidelined because she is both straight and white?

Because they hate you. They hate you for your “privilege” which is a neat way to say they hate you for your race. They hate you for who you love. And most gallingly, they hate you for not suffering from a devastating mental illness (which is what transgenderism is).

Her identity as a “marginalized” female didn’t count in the face of her whiteness, lack of same-sex attraction, and lack of body dysmorphic mental illness. (cis is a slur they use for normal people, those who are not afflicted with transgender mental illness).

Now Jordan has done what most people do when they are the victim of a Twitter dog pile. She deleted her Twitter account. She couldn’t take the heat. Nor could she bring herself to tell these cancel pigs to fuck off. She’s probably afraid of being lumped in with “those people.”

But here’s the thing. To Jordan and everyone like her, you don’t have to vote Republican to walk away from an industry and people who hate you. You don’t have to join a new brand or a new club. You don’t have to wear a hat or wave a flag or take your shirt off and paint slogans on your tits.

Though that last one might accelerate your follower growth.

You only have to seek out people who like what you’re writing and market to them. Talk to them. Engage with them. That’s the community you should be invested in: the one that gets excited about the worlds you create and gets excited for your success.

The way to do that is marketing. Through networking, social media, paid ads. Long form and short form. Video and print. There are a lot of ways to do it. And NONE of them involve putting up with lunatic writers who think they own you.

I have an interview with marketer Nick Pecone coming out later today (Noon central US time). If you want to create on your own terms but are intimidated by moving forward without a publisher, you might want to give it a watch.

And if you find yourself being “canceled,” remember you don’t have to consent to it. You don’t have to accept the premise of their argument. You certainly don’t need to nuke your account. GIve them the finger and keep moving. If you won’t stand up for you work, who else will?

It didn’t feel like there was a point.

Running an editing business, I know the odds better than most. Over 4 million books were published in 2022 alone. That's 11,000 new titles hitting the market every single day and the average book now sells fewer than 200 copies in its lifetime. Most disappear into the digital void within months of release. That’s ALL books, btw. Not just indies.

You hear the refrain from aspiring authors all the time: “I don’t WANT to be a marketer! I am an artist. I want to WRITE!” But the novel publishing system is now, and ever has been, a business. What is a genre? It’s a sales category. What is a cover? A piece of marketing.

And the biggest problem is that a lot of aspiring writers are trying to be good at something they don’t actually want to do: sell novels through a bookstore. They think they want that. But they don’t.

And neither do I.

Starting today, I'm doing something different. The Twitter Crush, my psychological thriller about a ghostwriter whose client might be making critics disappear, launches as a weekly serial on Serial Journeys. Four chapters every Wednesday for ten weeks.

This isn't something I just came up with either. It's a format that has been growing in small pockets of the internet for some time—a response to how storytelling is evolving in the digital age.

The $126 Billion Web Novel Industry

While traditional publishing struggles with oversaturation, web novels are exploding. The global web novel market reached $34 billion in 2023 and is projected to hit $126 billion by 2032—a 15.63% annual growth rate that makes traditional publishing look stagnant.

The reason they’re doing so well (even though you may have never heard of them) is because web novels represent a fundamental shift in how stories connect with readers.

Platforms like Wattpad boast 90 million users. If you’ve heard of Wattpad, it probably wasn’t in a positive light. Fair enough; its users trend younger, female, and the reader base doesn’t care much about quality control. But that’s the lower end of the market.

Successful web novel authors on Patreon earn $30,000-$60,000 monthly from serialized fiction. Sites like RoyalRoad, Inkitt, and Webnovel have more discerning readers and more male-oriented genres, driving a whole market of web-based books. Some of which get picked up for traditional book publishing.

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Aethon Books Revolutionizes Publishing With Royal Road Pipeline, Creating New Path For Web Novel Success

Aethon Books has pioneered an innovative business model that's transforming the publishing industry by establishing a direct pipeline from popular web fiction site Royal Road to mainstream publishing success. This strategic approach functions like a "minor leagues" system for discovering and developing literary talent, allowing publishers to identify pr…

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a year ago · 9 likes · Fandom Pulse

Who's reading web novels?

• Gen Z prioritizes accessibility, interactivity, and content that reflects their values

• Millennials form the core audience, drawn to the community aspect and flexible reading formats

• Mobile-first readers consume content in bite-sized chunks throughout the day

These readers enjoy storytelling and want to interact with the author. They don’t want stylized Instagram posts about motivation. They comment, theorize, share, and build communities around ongoing stories. And most of all, they’re not interested in BokTokkers to tell them what's worth reading.

The Attention Economy

Some try to deny it, but books ARE competing with YouTube, TikTok, and video games for attention. Take it from a professional editor: Reading takes energy. And if you spend all day looking at screens, you might not have enough of it left to sit down and read a book.

But attention spans aren’t something I pearl-clutch about. We still engage deeply—just engage differently. For many readers, it’s better to have a story that fits into their fragmented schedules while building toward something larger.

And before you start sobbing about “declining standards,” I’d like to remind you that Uncle Tom’s Cabin was first published as a serial. That’s why it’s so damned repetitive. It was designed to be consumed in small portions, and Harriet Beecher Stowe slipped in reminders for the reader because she didn’t expect them to remember every minor detail of last month’s installment.

Web novels are just a modern iteration of that. Instead of demanding readers commit to a 300-page investment upfront, they offer digestible chapters that build momentum over time. Readers can discover a story, catch up quickly, and join the conversation while it's still unfolding.

The engagement data backs this up. Serial fiction readers are significantly more likely to recommend stories, engage with authors, and become loyal fans than traditional novel readers. Which, if most aspiring authors were honest, they would admit that’s what they truly want. JK Rowling money would be nice, but that isn’t why most writers are in the game.

Why The Twitter Crush Works as a Serial

This brings me to why I structured The Twitter Crush specifically for serial consumption. The story follows Jackson Reed's investigation into his client Irina Sterling and what she might be killing people to hide.

I've designed it with an epistolary, case-file approach—tweets, DMs, emails, investigative notes, police reports. Each chapter reveals new evidence, new connections, new reasons to suspect that Irina isn't who she claims to be. And neither is Jackson.

The format mirrors how we actually consume information in the digital age: fragmented, from multiple sources, requiring us to piece together the truth. It also gives you the thrill of watching a social media trainwreck unfold in real time, wondering who’s going to drop what truth-bomb next.

It’s fun to read. And it’s fun to write.

Ten weeks. Forty chapters. Free for seven days.

The first four chapters dropped today. Come give it a try. Web novels might be the reading experience you didn’t know you needed.

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The books and tv shows of that era set the expectations for a whole generation of girls. About boys, adults, and red flags in friends.

Obviously I hadn’t read any of them in decades, so I took a crack at the first three books by Richie Tankersley Cusick, my absolute fave from 7th grade to 10th (at which point she was supplanted by LJ SMith).

Reading these books as an adult was… interesting.

Follow John on Twitter (X): https://x.com/J0hnADouglas

Traditional fantasy publishing is dying—and indie author John A. Douglas explains exactly why male readers are fleeing en masse from modern bookstores.

From a bullied homeschooled kid to becoming a successful self-published fantasy author, John won’t stay quiet about how publishers actively alienate their core audience. Now indie authors are creating the epic fantasy adventures that traditional publishers refuse to publish, and the future of literature depends on writers who aren't afraid to write what readers actually want.

This brutally honest conversation exposes the industry's biggest failures and shows why the rebellion against the norm is a double-edged sword when it comes to building your author platform. If you love fantasy but hate what's happening to the genre, this interview will change how you see the entire publishing world.

Scroll through social media and you'll find countless examples of older Americans – particularly Baby Boomers – expressing open disdain for younger generations while simultaneously hoarding the very resources that could help them succeed.

The statistics are staggering: many older Americans are sitting on millions in home equity while their adult children struggle to afford rent. They're refusing to retire from jobs that could provide career advancement for younger workers. They're spending lavishly on luxury cruises and expensive hobbies while their adult children ask for help with student loans or down payments, only to be told they need to "work harder" and "stop being entitled."

Most disturbing of all, surveys show that…

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This month I read more and watched more than is typical, so let’s look at what I can reasonably recommend to you and what I think you should spare yourself from.

Pass

The Mayfair Witches is a new series on Netflix that seemed to be right up my alley. Family secrets, the heat and flavor of New Orleans, women with powers, and witches. All the ingredients were there and I’m not sure what feel flat for me. I made it three episodes, which I had to force, honestly. I just wasn’t invested and not to be rude, but I think the casting had a lot to do with it. Anne Rice properties thrive on the sexual heat of the villains/morally gray characters, making it reasonable for the protagonists to be led astray. There was no heat at all in this show. Just passable writing that would have been overlooked if anyone on screen had a bit of rizz.

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Not to be critical, but many of these books are lacking in the elements that make a good book. Yes, they have red-hot scenes in them. Yes, the behavior of the characters is outrageous. And yes, they technically have a plot. But they’re not GOOD.

But one stood above the rest. Haunting Adeline was originally self-published and then was so wildly successful it got picked up by a publisher, wher…

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Your inbox is clogged with ads for Black Friday sales, so I thought I’d cut through the noise and tell you what I’m buying this Black Friday:

THE MOAT by Chris Orzechowski: Chris was kind enough to let me review his book and the timing couldn’t have been better. I’m launching my own bookstore in January and I need all the help I can get. If you plan to sell ANYTHING online, I highly recommend this book. Dude is a master at ecomm.

NINTH HOUSE by Leigh Bardugo: She’s known for Shadow and Bone, but Leigh Bardugo has created other (terrifying) worlds than the Grisha-verse. Secret societies, magic, and horror… this one is right up my alley.

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This is a free preview of a PREMIUM post.

Ask any college professor or high school teacher for the best short story. Not their favorite. But the “best.”

The most common answer by far will be “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway.

If you went to high school or college in the US, you were probably forced to read it at some point. And you probably remember your teacher telling you that this is “one of the best” short stories ever written.

But it’s not.

That’s right, I said it. “Hills like White Elephants” is not one of the best short stories out there. It isn’t even good.

How do I know this? If you’ve read it, ask yourself… did you like it?

For those of you who were spared reading this crap, the story is about a conversation between a man and a woman as they sit at a train station in Spain. The woman is pregnant, and the man is trying to convince her to have an abortion.

But the thing is, they never clearly communicate what they’re saying. You, the reader have to figure it out. …

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