How To Buy E-Books Directly From The Author

Did you know that when you buy an e-book on Amazon or Barnes and Noble, you don’t really “own” it? You’re technically leasing it for an indefinite period of time. But at any point, a corporation can revoke access to your purchases for any reason—if they think you’ve violated their terms of service, for example, or if they shut down their platform.

Yes, it’s convenient to purchase a book on Kindle and manage it in your Kindle app or [fill in your favorite reading app or device]. But if you have hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of ebooks contained in a single account, it might be worth it to look into your options for backing up your data.

So how do you purchase e-books so that you can really “own” them? And how do you gain “ownership” access to the books you’ve already purchased?

Currently, the answer to this question is not at all simple. But there are few things you can set up a system to make managing your e-books easy, while also retaining access to all of the books you’ve purchased no matter what a big ‘ol mean corporation might think of you.

And if you’re thinking, “But I follow all the rules! They’d never revoke my access!” I kindly submit—yeah, no. First off, terms of service are complicated and always changing. Unless you’re a lawyer and can fully understand all of the implications of the contracts they make us sign to use their services, AND you read, in full, all of the updates they make every time they make an update—you could be violating their ToS right now and you’d never know it.

Secondly, you might be right! Maybe you’re not violating anything! But that doesn’t matter if their robots (or real life employees) think you are. They can still revoke access and not give it back. And are you really going to hire a lawyer to get back access to your ebook collection?

Consider this: a few months ago, someone submitted a notice to Amazon that one of my books violated a Disney trademark. It didn’t. I proved it. I even got Disney to send a notice saying they had nothing to do with it. It still took months for them to reinstate my book.

Case in point: big corporations can do whatever they want to little guys (authors and readers alike) and there’s basically nothing you can do about it.

So here are a few things you can do.

1. Understand DRM.

DRM stands for “Digital Rights Management.” According to Wikipedia, “are a set of access control technologies for restricting the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works.”

The most important thing to understand is that some books have DRM enabled on them, and some don’t. The ones that have DRM are more difficult to download, and you may be prevented from doing so (unless you have the know-how and tech to strip the DRM from them).

In most cases, the author or publisher gets to make the choice about whether a book has DRM or not. Some choose to use DRM because they want to protect their work from being pirated. Other authors believe that DRM does absolutely nothing to prevent pirating, and only makes it more difficult for legitimate readers, such as yourself, to manage their e-book collection.

Here is a helpful article about how to tell if a book has DRM on it.

Some readers only choose to buy books that don’t have DRM. Other readers choose not to worry about this at all. But it is helpful to at least understand the concept, particularly if you are struggling to download or manage a book—it may be because of DRM.

2. Buy directly from an author.

Not all authors offer this as an option, but many authors are starting to more and more. They may offer their books for sale as a direct download from their website, or they may offer them through an e-commerce platform like Payhip. Payhip is what I use. When you purchase a book in this method, it is like purchasing a PDF—you receive and email or a download link and are able to download the ebook file directly to your computer or device.

If it is possible, buying a book directly from the author—whether through a program like Payhip, though the author’s website, or via the author literally emailing you a copy of the book—is the easiest way to get a DRM-free .epub file of the book sent directly to your email. You can then download it to wherever you store your ebook files, and upload it or send it to your preferred ebook management tool.

3. Learn about apps and programs to help you manage your ebooks.

There are many non-corporate and open source apps and software that will allow you to manage your ebooks locally (meaning on your computer or device). And once you have this software, you will always be able to read an access the books you’ve purchased, even if it’s not in your preferred reading format. In short—if you download books directly to your hard drive, you will always be able to access and use the files you’ve purchased, no matter what Amazon or one of the other companies thinks does or says.

(Except the FBI. If they raid your house and take your computer, I can’t help you lol.)

One of most common platforms discussed in reader and author circles is called Calibre. It is free and open source. I use this to manage my ebooks on my computer. It is a simple platform, and works on any operating system. Calibre also supports the conversion of one ebook format into another, for use in a different app or program.

You might also check out IceCream Ebook Reader, which has both free and paid versions, or Alfa Ebooks Manager. For more options, check out this article on various options for ebook managers. Some cost money; others don’t. It’s all about what type of system or services you’re looking for.

There are also plenty of apps for your iPhone or Android, if you like to read your books on your phone or tablet.

The number one app that most authors use is called Bookfunnel. The app is amazing, with a sleek look and straightforward functionality. With a Bookfunnel account, you can download all of your books at anytime to your desktop to back them up. They can also open books in any format. Many readers use this to manage free books they get through promos that authors do.

A couple other apps that I have seen with good reviews include FBReader, BlueFire Reader (for about $4/month), Aldiko, Pocketbook Reader which is especially good for international readers, and Readera.

Disclaimer: I have not used every single one of these, so please don’t get mad at me if one doesn’t work for you, or if they were free but started charging lol.

4. Learn how to keep back-ups of your ebooks.

Did you know you can make back-ups of the books you’ve purchased?

The process for doing so will vary depending on your device and distributor—so if you buy your books on Amazon, how to back them up will be different than the process than if you buy your books through Kobo. I’m not going to go through the detailed, step-by-step process for every program and platform, but if you’re interested in doing this, I recommend searching, “How to back up my ebooks from [fill in your source of ebooks here].”

Keep in mind, if you have a lot of books, the process might take a while. Once they’re downloaded, you can simply keep them in a folder on your computer, or transfer them to an external hard drive, if you want a second back-up. Or you can add them to a program such as Calibre. If some of your books have DRM enabled, you may run into some issues with that, but again, you can search the internet for how to resolve that issue.

But the point is: the files will exist on your computer, in your possession, for you to manage however you want.

5. Understand there is no perfect system.

Just like in the real-life analog world, there is no perfect system. Valuables can still get stolen from safes. A fire can still burn down your house. Rust or mold or rot can still get into your closets or basement or home.

The same is true in a digital world. You can still get hacked. You can still accidentally delete things. You can still misplace your external hard drive. You can still fry your motherboard or get bluescreened and lose everything.

But, taking simple precautions like these can help you protect your collection of ebooks so that you’re not at the mercy of a company like Amazon.

How My Own Direct Sales Work

What I would like to see, in the grand scheme of things, is direct sales being a safe and convenient way for readers to buy books from their favorite authors, without having to always rely on media giants and corporate distributors. Not only will this allow you to receive the item you purchased (the book) and have delivered directly to you, but it also allows the author to make a larger amount of money, even at the same or reduced prices for the buyer, because the author doesn’t have to split royalties.

So for example, if I sell a book on Amazon at $2.99, I usually make between $2.02 - $2.06 once I’ve subtracted the 30% royalty and the distribution fee. On Payhip, it costs the buyer exactly the same amount, $2.99, but I make $2.87 once I’ve subtracted the credit card transaction fee. That’s +$0.82 difference for me per sale, at exactly the same cost for you, which is huge for me when multiplied by sales over time. In addition, it gives me the option to pass along the savings to readers —I can charge you only $2.10 for an ebook, and still make the same as I would if you bought it on Amazon.

If you choose to buy an ebook directly from me, you would start out at Payhip: https://payhip.com/ArieleSieling and select what book you want to buy.

This is what my store looks like:

And at the top of the page, there are collections, one for each series, so you can go right to the books you’re most interested in.

In this example, I’ve selected Midnight Wings. You can pay using a credit card or Paypal, and it walks you through the process much the same as any other site transaction.

Next, it will pop up with a download link, so you can immediately download the .epub file to your computer.

If you accidentally click away or don’t want to download it immediately, never fear! Payhip will send you an email automatically with a download link that you can use at a later time:

(I gave myself a super secret coupon code so I didn’t have to pay for my own book lol)

And then, to make it more convenient for you, I’ve set it up so you will also get a follow-up email from Bookfunnel, where you can again download the file, or have it sent directly to your Bookfunnel app.

And that’s it. Once you’ve got BookFunnel or Calibre set up, you can buy a book on Payhip, have it delivered to you, and be able to read it within minutes. It takes about one extra step as compared to Kindle or Kobo and you have access to it forever (or as long as your data remains uncorrupted).

And that’s that!

There are probably hundreds of ways to set up a system like this, but this is just one example that is relatively simple and allows you to own the digital ebooks you’ve purchased.

I hope this is helpful.

Let me know if you have any questions! I can’t promise to answer them, lol, but I will try.

New Book Release: Voro's Return!

Ah yes, it’s finally here. The fifth installment of the Land of Szornyek series—a post-apocalypse filled with rampaging monsters. The Voro’s Return has new monsters and old, new characters and old, and enough plot twists to hopefully keep you wanting the next book!

Blurb:

Askari and the others spent their winter in the Vault, taking the time to heal, rest, and learn as much as they can. But with the first drops of melting snow, an all too familiar face appears: Devor.

Askari knows he is taunting her, trying to get her to react and she knows she should resist. Yet all she wants is to kill him... until she finds out that there might actually be a way to save Agi in the process.

As the days grow slowly warmer, Askari and the others embark on a mission to save their friend and fellow warrior--and possibly the future of the human race.

This is the 5th action-packed book in the Land of Szornyek series.

In related news, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what makes a series good. You know, crafting the plot of one book is a skill—but doing a whole series? It’s a lot more complex. There are a lot of moving pieces. A lot of characters. A lot of places and worldbuilding and little, teeny, tiny details to keep track of.

So what makes a series good?

I have no idea.

There are a few basics, of course: wrapping up plot holes; characterization stays consistent throughout; a new and exciting climax/challenge for each book; tie-ins from the beginning to the end; no timeline inconsistencies; and a series climax that satisfies everything that has been laid out before it.

But you could have all those things, and the series could still fall flat.

So what I’ve decided is to not worry about it. I’ll tell the story I think I want to tell, read some books and articles on crafting series, and otherwise—just keep moving forward. Because the best thing I can do? Is to learn by doing.

Anyway, so in The Voro’s Return, a few questions are answered. Some new secrets are revealed. Information about …the other side… is shared.

Plus, you get to hang with some of the favorites—Rudi, Moose, and Minda, along with the others.

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can do so on Amazon!

Letters on the Study & Use of History by Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke

Picture from Wikipedia & the National Portrait Gallery in London.

I bought a new book last week. It’s titled Letters on the Study and Use of History. By the late Right Honorable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke. Published in 1770.

It is officially my oldest book.

One of my hobbies is collecting the oldest books I can find. I currently have three published prior to 1800. Besides the one I just mentioned, I also have The Chirurgical Works of Percivall Pott, FRS. and Surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital (Vol. II) published in 1783, and The World (Vol. III) by Adam Fitz-Adam published in 1789.

All three books are bound in leather, with damaged spines, and their lowercase ‘s’s look like ‘f’s.

There is something about old books that really resonates with me. Think about it: a book published in 1770 is older than the United States of America. It survived the revolution. The Civil War. WWI. WWII. Vietnam. 9/11. And all the big and small events that happened in between. And it will (hopefully) continue to exist long after the pandemic and me and you and whatever else happens in the world.

Most books are lost eventually. But the books that have not yet been lost hold not only the words, thoughts, knowledge, and feelings of someone who lived in a long-past century, but they hold whatever thoughts and feelings they were imbued with by those who purchased, owned, read, held, and loved that book.

They are telepathic time travel machines.

Honestly, holding old books for the first time makes me cry (and heaven forbid I end up in a library filled with old books—let the waterworks begin lol). I can’t help but think of all the people who loved that book, and how now I get a chance to love it before it passes onto someone else.

If magic exists, this is it.

I also can’t help but imagine that one day, my own books will end up in the hands of someone who loves old books. That a single copy of one of my books will make it 100, 200, 300 years into the future, far past when my own life has expired. Maybe it's a leather-bound special edition, or a well-loved, well-preserved paperback, or a digital one-of-a-kind edition built using an NFT.

I have spent a lot of time trying to visualize time as a four (or more) dimensional construct, and when I add books into my image, I see a spiderweb that connects the far past to the far future, and spreads out from person to person in an impossible complex and beautiful pattern.

From the late honorable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount of Bolingbroke: “The child hearkens with delight to the tales of his nurse: he learns to read, and he devours with eagerness fabulous legends and novels: in riper years he applies himself to history, or to that which he takes of history, to authorized romance: and, even in age, the desire of knowing what has happened to other men, yields to the desire alone of relating what has happened to ourselves. Thus history, true or false, speaks to our passions always.”

Ariele University: The Memoir Project | Heartbeat

I know it’s been a minute since I’ve posted about my fake master’s degree, but never fear, I’m still plugging away at it. One of my goals this year is to sit down and hash out exactly how much work I’ve done and how much I have left to do—and if I think I’ve officially “graduated” yet or if I want to move onto my fake Ph.D. or what.

At any rate, the current book I’m working my way through is called The Memoir Project by Marion Roach Smith. Obviously, I’m a fiction writer, not a memoirist, but one of the whole goals of my fake master’s degree is to challenge myself, and reading about and writing memoir is certainly a stretch for me. In addition, like most writers (I think), I have a few memoir-y type things that I’ve considered writing, though they are so low on my priority list, I’m not sure I’ll ever actually get to them.

That said, while I haven’t finished this book yet, it does lend itself to writing exercises. And so, I’ve completed my first writing exercise, about 1/5 of the way through the book. In it, she describes a-750 word piece she asks her students to write based on a big theme or concept, using themselves as the illustration for the concept. So that’s basically what I tried to do here.

I’ll be honest—I’m not being graded so I didn’t count the words or edit this lol, but I wanted to post anyway (since that’s what I promised myself I would do). This short essay is called “Heartbeat.”

TW: death, s*icide

Heartbeat

The first dead body I ever saw was cousin Marty, lying in a casket. I was 5; he was a 45-year-old alcoholic who died by suicide. I couldn’t stop staring because I kept thinking I could see his chest move like he was breathing. I couldn’t really though—it was just an illusion.

My only memory of cousin Marty was from a family party a few weeks before. We were a family of teetotalers; he was the only one drinking. He brought his own beer and hid it in the car. And when he got so drunk he couldn’t walk straight, he tripped on the stairs and broke one of my mom’s plant pots.

The next dead body I saw was lying by the side of the road in Chapel Hill, NC. The cop had just arrived and an ambulance was pulling up. I didn’t know the man, but I was driving and the shock of seeing him just lying there made my heart pound and my hands shake so badly I had to pull over at the next gas station to let myself breathe. I was 20; he looked about 50. A heart attack, I always told myself.

The third dead body I saw was my grandmother. I was 31; she was 87. For the last hour of her life she gasped for breath. We sat around her telling stories. And when the end came, we knew it was coming. There was a smell and I was holding her hand.

And then she died. But her hand was still warm. It was 2:47 PM on a rainy day in November.

For a while, nobody said anything. Then, after a bit, I let go of her hand.

I don’t remember that part though. But I know I must have let go because I’m not still holding her hand.

What I do remember were my fingers on her pulse. I could feel her heart beat.

And then I couldn’t any more.

Heartbeat.

No heartbeat.

After I let go of her still-warm hand, I left, because after all, she wasn’t there anymore, so there was no reason for me to stay. And I had decided that the next part, with the undertaker and the body—that was for my mom to do, and my uncles. I would probably have to do it one day, yes. But not today. Not this time.

The first thing I did was call my big brother. I told him she was dead. I told him I had been holding her hand. I told him about her heartbeat. I didn’t tell him about letting go.

Because the truth was, I let go, but I also didn’t let go. And I don’t mean in a metaphorical sense, like I will never be able to get past the loss of my grandmother. I mean in a literal sense. Like I never let go.

If you think of time as a construct, something that has always existed and always will, then everything that has happened inside of time has always happened and always will.

Which means, I always held my grandmother’s hand as she passed from this world to the next. And I always felt her heart beat. And then not beat.

I always will.

And I will never let go.

For Writers: How To Name A City

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One of the hardest parts of my job is naming things.

And you wouldn’t believe the number of things that need to be named in a fictional work:

• Character first and last names and sometimes nicknames and titles

• Cities

• Towns

• Rivers

• Mountains

• Continents

• Imaginary species

• Communities

• Races

• Businesses

• Fictional book titles (not to mention the title of the story itself) and movies

• Stores & coffee shops

• Monster names

• Pet names

Endless. Seriously endless.

And every time I run up against a new thing that needs a name, I find myself Googling “how to name a city” or “how to name a continent.”

So I’m writing this tactical checklist for myself as much as for anyone else. So next time I need to name a city or a civilization, I won’t have to Google it. I’ll already have a system in place.

(Just as an aside, I’m focusing on city and town names here, however, many of these strategies could also be used to name other things as well.)

Strategy 1: Consider the immediate context.

Why is your character in this location? Is it to find a lost treasure? Lost Treasure City. Is it to climb a mountain? Great Mountain Town. Is it to meet a mysterious stranger in a bar? Stranger City.

Need a famous example of this technique? Metropolis. Literally “big city.” Or in Latin, “mother city.” It makes sense. Clark Kent is going to fight crime in the big city, as opposed to “Smallville” where he’s from.

Strategy 2: Consider the geographic context.

In real life, many towns, cities, counties, etc. are named after geographic features. Think Springfield, one of the most common town names in the US: “spring” (a place where water wells up from an underground source) and “field” (a open expanse of cleared ground).

Natural Bridge, VA features a big rock sitting horizontal across a gorge which functions as a… you guessed it—natural bridge.

The White Mountains are mountains that are white. The Green mountains are mountains that are green. The Rockies? You guessed it. Mountains that are… rocky.

A few more common examples:

• Brookview

• Fairview

• Greenville

• Oakland

• Newport

• Riverside

• Ashland

• Portsmouth

Essentially, people aren’t necessarily creative when it comes to naming their surroundings. Think about the landscape—how might the first colonizers/people to see it have reacted?

“Wow, that’s a big rock!” — Big Rock

“What a big sky!” — Big Sky City

“It’s so green here!” — Greenville

A couple fictional examples: Bedford. Castle Rock. Springfield. Hill Valley. Basin City. Eaglewood.

Strategy 3. Consider the historical context.

Now, I know not everyone plots and plans out the entire history of a civilization before drafting a piece of fiction, but sometimes it can help to think about what the history of a specific place might have been—even in vague terms. For example, did it have a king? Or perhaps, the people who first colonized it were loyal to a king? Kingville. Kingston. Kingstown. King Village.

Who was the first mayor? Governor? President?

The most common town name in the US is Washington. Another super common name is Georgetown. Franklin. Baltimore is named after Lord Baltimore.

Another piece of relevant history is where did the first settlers come from originally? There are a lot (LOT) of cities, especially on the East Coast of the US, named after towns and cities in from other countries: Bath and Dover for example (two towns I’ve lived in lol), Lebanon, Greece, Athens, Berlin, Cairo, Chili, Delhi, Lima, New Madrid, Milan, Palermo, Italy, Russia, Tripoli, Versaille, Montpelier, Vienna, New Prague—these are all small towns in the US.

Strategy 4. Consider the indigenous context.

There have been a lot of wars throughout history. A lot of people taking land from other people. And while sometimes places may get renamed, many of the original names get passed on through the generations. Who lived on the land your fictional town is set in first? And what might they have named it? Would it have been translated into a modern language, or would it have kept it’s original name?

Think of places like the Susquenna River, named after the Susquehannock Tribe. Or Big Foot, IL, named for a Potawatomi chief. Or think of Mount Denali/McKinley in Alaska. The name "Denali" is based on the Koyukon name of the mountain, Deenaalee ("the high one") [source].

Note: If you’re using real life indigenous names, make sure you do your research! Understand the history and the meaning behind the words, and only use them if you are fully confident that your use is not disrespectful or appropriative.

Strategy 5. Consider the lingual context.

Perhaps the name “Big Rock” is too boring for you. That’s fair. Invent a language! Or, if you don’t want to go to the work of actually creating a language, consider borrowing from parts of your own language or Latin or another language.

There was a town near where I grew up named Buena Vista. That’s Spanish for Beautiful View. Los Angeles is literally “the angels”. De Roche is French for “of the rock.”

I sometimes take a word I feel represents the town or area in my work, and tack “ville,” “ford,” or “ton” at the end. Or “burg” or “polis” or “land” or “dale”. You can also add: “Spring,” “Falls,” “Beach,” Fort,” “San,” or a directional (North, South, East, West, etc.).

Here’s a helpful list of generic place name parts.

Think Duckberg (Disney). Riverdale. Stepford. Bedford Falls. Toontown. Sunnydale.

Strategy 6. Consider the narrative context.

One of the fun parts of naming things is considering their deeper meaning within the context of the story. This might mean choosing a name that fits with a theme of the work, or that represents something symbolic. It may also function as an analogy or allegory.

And you can make it obvious, like naming a town “Ethicsville” or you could make it more subtle—for example, “ethics” in Hungarian is “etika.” So a town could be called “Etika” or “Etikaton” or “Etika Falls.”

A really simple example of this is Gotham City from Batman. “Gotham” technically means ‘homestead where goats are kept,’ however, it was also used as a nickname for New York City—which creates easy parallels when using a story to interrogate concepts of crime, poverty, and heroism.

Or consider Sunnydale from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This cheerful town name (based on a generic idea of a California town), creates a deep sense of irony when paired with the fact that it’s set on a “Hellmouth” and pretty much overrun with vampires.

Strategy 7. Use a generator.

There are tons of online “whatever” generators. Fantasy name generators. Place name generators. Character name generators. Book title generators. Writing prompt generators. Pet name generators. Some have filters so you can use, for example, to limit the number of characters in a word.

This particular website has dozens of different types of generators for all kinds of things.

I’ve also used this one a few times. It has many filters.

This one does more realistic names. Or you could try this one just for kicks.

I’m a discovery writer, so I don’t plan out much ahead when I’m working on a manuscript. Typically, I will use random name generators when I need a name quick and it’s not particularly important to whatever I’m working on. Like, a character randomly mentioning the name of her hometown. Doesn’t matter, won’t come up again, so a random name generator is perfect. But I’ll spend a lot more time on important names—cities that appear repeatedly for example, or that play an important thematic role even if the character never ends up going there (like a historical city or something).

Strategy 8. Wing it.

There are tons of strategies if you just want to wing it. I once pulled out a star map and smacked my finger down on a random spot to pick a planet name. You could also pick up a phone book and point to a random person and read their address. This is also a great tactic for finding ideas for first names and last names.

You can bang on your keyboard and then try to make the result into a word. Let your cat or your kid bang on your keyboard.

Look at a real map and just pick a name.

Keep a notebook of cool names you encounter when reading the news, playing video games, or meeting new people in real life.

Pick a word and make an anagram. Want to name your city, Really Big? How about “Beragilly”?

Or go to Reddit and read through some ideas other people have. Here are a few discussion threads: one, two, three, and four.

In the grand scheme of things, I think you should name your town or city whatever you want. Whatever you come up with, there’s probably something weirder that already exists.

Like:

• Normal, IL.

• Hell, MI.

• Hell for Certain, KY.

• Satan’s Kingdom, MA.

• Rough and Ready, CA.

• Bacon Level, AL.

• Random Lake, WY.

• Blueball, DE.

• Why, Arizona.

• Whynot, MS.

• Bread Loaf, VT.

• Accident, MD.

• Nameless, TN.

• Hot Coffee, MS.

• Deadhorse, AK.

• ZZyxx, CA.

A couple final thoughts. First off, keep in mind, if it’s really getting in the way of finishing a project, you can always change the name during editing.

Secondly, make sure you google the name you choose to make sure that is either super common, or not already used by someone really famous. Don’t name your fictional school “Hogwarts.” Don’t name your fictional city “Gotham.” Don’t name your super cheerful small town “Disneyville.” And always double check, just to be safe, because there are tons of brands and stories out there that you might not be familiar with.

My general rule of thumb is: if it’s big enough for a Wikipedia page, then I pick a different name.

Finally, I think it can be easy to get really hung up on things like place names. But the truth is, a bad place name is unlikely to ruin your work (unless you name it Disney—seriously don’t do that). And bad is relative. I just like to think of it as “adding character.” It’s more important to finish a project than it is to get everything absolutely, perfectly right.

Keep writing!

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