Month: February 2025

A Word about Amazon and Authors (for readers)

Posted on by Tony McFadden

Okay. I hate what Bezos does to his workers, hate how he co-opted the NY Times, and can’t stand the guy as much as any other sane person. But there’s a way we can make him lose money while you read books.

This works only if you’re a heavy reader. I promise it will remove all of your justifiable guilt about giving him money.

I’ll use an Australian example because it’s Australian numbers I know

Kindle Unlimited costs $13.99 AUD

For every page you read with Kindle Unlimited, I get around 1/3 of a penny.

If you do the math, once you’ve exceeded 4200 Kindle pages in a month, Amazon is paying the author(s) more money than you’re paying Amazon.

That’s 10 and a half books. I’ve seen the prodigious output (input?) from some of you readers. That’s barely more than a week’s worth of reading.

I think nine of my books are on Kindle Unlimited. And if you’re willing to play this “kill them by a thousand cuts” game, there are over 90,000 ebooks on Amazon enrolled in Kindle Unlimited.

Fire at will.

Read a good book or a dozen.

It’s Getting Closer

Posted on by Tony McFadden

After 5 a.m. mornings for the past month, getting a couple of hours of writing in before the bill-paying job starts, I’ve completed the first drafts of both Mac D’s “Fast Track” and Nick Harding’s “Do Not Pass Go”.

Now, these are first drafts. Like all first drafts–everyone’s first drafts–they are shit. But that’s okay. They’ll sit for a month while I work setting up promotional activities, and then I’ll polish those turds until they gleam.

Both Private Investigators are working on the same case. They don’t know it at first, but near the mid-point, their paths cross, and by the third act, they are working together.

Both stories are different, from different POVs and with different methodologies. Writing the same scenes from different POVs, and scenes specific to one detective over the other was a challenge and a blast.

If you want to catch up with their previous (non-interlocking) cases, you can find Mac Durridge’s here, and Nick Harding’s here.

Stay tuned at this site for updates. If you’re interested in being an ARC reader in May, drop me a note.