I received an email this morning from a reader who was upset not to be able to buy my ebooks on B&N. By now you may have noticed that all of my ebooks are primarily available through Amazon. It was a tough decision to make, becuase I do believe in choices, and supporting a healthy industry, but I made this decision carefully and for a number of reasons.

First off, let’s look some hard truths: Subscriptions are the way of the future. Kindle Unlimited is no longer the only subscription service, merely the most widely used. Kobo now has one, and there’s Scribd and Hoopla and countless others. The reason this trend is growing is because you are choosing them. You’re a prolific reader, and you want more books for less. I get that, and that’s great for you, but you getting more for less shouldn’t mean that I get less for more. And this is what has been happening. All the while this trend continues to grow, the fact is that more and more amazing writers are getting edged out of the business, unable to support themselves under current circumstances, and as you gravitate toward your favorite subscription services, actual book sales dry up. It’s true. Unfortunate, but true. I’d rather we have a win/win, where we are both winners, and the best way for that to happen is for me to accept this growing trend, and join one of those sailing ships.

So there’s that. But there’s also this. I actually want you to read more, and I understand that people are on budgets, and that food on your table takes precedence. It should take precedence. So, in order to help you read more of my books, I opted for a subscription service.

But why Amazon? Very simply, despite that I do lean toward buying local whenever possible, I shop Amazon myself. Why do I do that? Becasue as a consumer, Amazon believes in customer first. And since I also believe in customer first, we’re very well aligned. On top of that, the majority of my book sales comes from Amazon. So it made sense to me to partner with a company that looks out for you, my valuable reader.

Alas, I knew going into this that there would be sore feelings, and I’m if you’re among those consumers who don’t support Amazon and don’t want to shop there. I respect your choices, and because of that I took great pains this summer to ensure that you also have some choices in regards to my books. For those titles not currently available wide, you have several options. 

1. Purchase the paperback version. To ensure you have reading choices, I teamed with Ingram Books to publish a competitively priced paperback version of most of my titles. These are available anywhere served by Ingram Book distribution.
2. Most titles now also have corresponding hardcover editions available for library purchase, so you can support your local library while you’re reading my books. If your library doesn’t currently stock me, you need only hand them a list of ISBNS for the books you want to read. To get a list of these ISBNS, click here.
3. Listen to the book as an audiobook. Most of my titles are currently available through iBooks, and now there are a few available at Google and Kobo and other retailers as well. Future titles will also be distributed widely.
4. If you’re not averse to Amazon, and if you prefer to read the ebook and don’t have a Kindle, download Amazon’s FREE Kindle app by clicking here.

The Kindle app works with just about any device:
– Smartphone (iPhone/iPod touch/Android/Windows/Blackberry)
– Tablet (iPad/Android/Windows)
– Computer (Mac/Windows)

Once you’ve downloaded the free Kindle app, you can purchase the book from Amazon and it will automatically appear in your app.

In closing, I must say I have NO immediate or foreseeable plans to return my ebooks to wide distribution, although I will continue to work with Ingram to provide you more and more competitive paperback prices, and also with audio retailers to bring you audiobooks. I do hope you will support me in this career choice, and please understand that it was not a decision I undertook lightly.

Warmly,