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Writing
Haunted By The Ghost Of Amazon Past
A hard self-publishing lesson learned
About ten years ago — before I had any clue about writing — I published a paperback book on Amazon. My intentions were good. The result, not so much. Here is what happened.
Remember back when Facebook was fun? Around 2008 or so. Well, a friend of mine loved my humorous Facebook posts and kept saying I should put them into a book. Over the next four years, I laughed at her frequent suggestions and didn’t give them much consideration. I wasn’t a writer!
When I learned that my friend was dying of cancer, I decided to make the book. I gave her a signed paperback copy, and she got so excited! It was worth the effort. Her husband told me she kept it on her nightstand until the end.
After a while, I unpublished it. That was when I found out that Amazon will never delete it from their website. It will show up on Amazon under my name forever. Arggh!
Lately, I’ve been thinking I should republish it and set the price at $200 (the maximum Amazon allows—I really wanted to set it at $2000) since it’s going to be on their website anyway. I really don’t want anyone reading it, but for $200, I’ll swallow my pride. [Laughs.]
Think before you publish your first book. Or you might also get a visit from the Ghost of Amazon Past.
