For anyone interested after a number of suggestions my recommendation is...

Payhip 🎉 It seems to be a lot like having a writer page but without a lot of the hassle.

Personally, I don't like subscriptions and wouldn't buy anything from one, but if that's your jam I recommend Ko-Fi 😁

@galacticwriters @bookstodon @writingbooks

#Ebook #Ebooks #Sales #DRM #DRMFree #Question #WritersCoffeeClub
#Author #IndieAuthor #Indie #Writers #Writing #WritingCommunity #WritersOfMastodon
#BoostingIsSharing

Nick East (Indie Writer)

2026-09-15 07:34:09

A question for the indie authors on Mastadon...

Do you know of a good way to sell your own ebooks? 🤔

Right now I'm using D2D which is a good service, but in some cases they take as much as 60% of a sale.

Simply put is there a good way for me to do the sales myself?

@galacticwriters @bookstodon @joinin
@writingbooks

#Ebook #Ebooks #Sales #DRM #DRMFree #Question #WritersCoffeeClub
#Author #IndieAuthor #Indie #Writers #Writing #WritingCommunity #WritersOfMastodon
#BoostingIsSharing

Your photos, your words and your work: why is Labor making it easier for AI companies to take them for free?

"Leaked documents from a government proposal show that the Albanese government is considering reversing the fundamental rights of Australians under copyright law.

The proposal refers to an “opt-out model”. This would give AI companies permission to train on the open internet here in Australia. Every family photo you ever posted, every small business website, every website would be fair game for AI companies unless you choose to opt out.

Right now, under Australian law, a company has to ask for permission if it wants to use your content. This proposal would mean it doesn’t. It would put the onus on the individual to opt out – through a mechanism that hasn’t yet been proven to work. And it would give AI companies rights to your content until you choose to say no. This flips the legal burden on to the individual. It means that our legal system would serve the interests of AI companies first."

theguardian.com/australia-news…

#LaborFail #LobbyInfluence #ContentTheft #Corruption #Complicity #News #Australia #Activism #Copyright #IntellectualProperty #HumanRights #Authors #Artists #Author #Artist #Photography #Photographer

The Mexican Chronicles – Thirteen

After the coffee we moved to the “parade ground” for roll call. We stood around in what could be called a “loose formation squad”. Some guys wore shorts, some longs; some wore shirts, some T-shirts. All the boots were different. The only thing the clothes had in common was that they were either cammo or green-coloured. The camp by day was very different to an SADF one. Nothing – but nothing – was “squared away”. The tents were in no real layout and not put up straight or even particularly well. The beds were unmade or semi-made and all sorts of civvy shit was just lying around. The parade ground was the road we drove through the skitwal on.

Reima strode forward and shouted: ‘Aandag!’ but only he and the four new chaps came to attention. As for the rest, all they did was stand up if they had been sitting or lying on the ground and face vaguely forward. If they had been smoking, some put the cigarettes out, some didn’t. Then another chap came ambling up looking bored; Reima saluted him and yelled something unintelligible. They said a few words and Reima about-turned and screamed: ‘At ease!’ The four rookies went to “at ease”. The rest couldn’t get more at ease unless they lay down again. A roll call of sorts was taken and when it was my turn I earned my first nickname; my earring was still in. After being called a girl and a queer all at the same time, Reima calmed down and never called me anything but oorbel after that. Later on you will realize how pathetic all this posturing of the sergeant major really was. The CO welcomed us new chaps and explained this was definitely not the SADF and how we were not to act as if it was. He had very little else to say. These amazing roll calls happened in a similar fashion the whole time I was with Executive Outcomes. The only real purpose these parades served was to make sure no one had disappeared in the night, which I found out later was quite feasible in this crazy place.

As the place where I am is up for sale…Gypsy on the Move?

As explained in the link above, I will post, a series of what would be my OLD MAN’s CV.

Rate this:

The Mexican Horse Thief

2026-09-06 05:12:12

Gypsy on the move?

Spring. Time of change, a good time and good changes. Well I HAVE to believe that right now. Last Sunday I was informed that GOA is going on the market and I must find alternative arrangements, for work and to stay. I know EXACTLY what I want to do with the last few years of my life, and to that end I am attempting to make a decent CV. I want to get out of been so much cyberspace firstly. Then I NEED to grow stuff and make gardens like at Zwavelpoort. I also would like to build real things with wood, not make photos of things, make some. I did put some feelers out and will start this week looking at these “organic” farms. Hope to find one in the Bush here, where I belong. Also an extra pair of …. trained eyes about the place will help with security. Well, wish me luck….

Will get my photos of all the gardens I have made over the years, from Maputo to Cape Town!!!

Rate this:

Grace of Africa Boutique Safari Lodge | Komatipoort

Grace of Africa Boutique Safari Lodge, Komatipoort. Gefällt 18.919 Mal · 880 Personen sprechen darüber · 63 waren hier. 🌈 Escape to the Wild Heart of Kruger National Park, 🐾 Big 5 Safari, family-run,...

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Today in Labor History August 23, 1927: Sacco and Vanzetti, two Italian immigrant anarchists living in the U.S., were executed murder during a botched robbery in Boston. However, there was no evidence linking them to the crime. They both had alibis, too, including an official at the Italian consulate. Their trial was rife with racism and political bias. The judge, Webster Thayer, said the following about Vanzetti: "This man, although he may not have actually committed the crime attributed to him, is nevertheless morally culpable, because he is the enemy of our existing institutions." The jury foreman, who was a former cop, said he didn’t care if they were innocent: "Damn them. They ought to hang anyway."

The author, John Dos Passos, who came to Boston to cover the trial as a journalist, was arrested at a solidarity protest along with writer Dorothy Parker. Einstein, H.G. Wells, and Bernard Shaw all appealed for Sacco and Vanzetti lives. The IWW called for a 3-day nationwide General Strike, which was heeded by 1,132 out of the 1,167 miners in Colorado’s Walsenburg coal district, leading to the Colorado coal strike of 1927. The day after their execution, there were violent demonstrations around the world, including in Tokyo, Geneva, London, and Paris. In South America, wildcat solidarity strikes completely shut down many factories. In Germany, 3 protesters were shot dead. In Boston, over 200,000 came to the funeral procession. Upton Sinclair’s novel, “Boston,” explores the trial, and Vanzetti's life. Woody Guthrie recorded a series of songs known as the Ballads of Sacco & Vanzetti. In 1971, Joan Baez recorded her song "Here's to You," with music composed by Ennio Morricone, a tribute to Sacco & Vanzetti that went on to become a symbol for the human rights movement of the 1970s.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #saccoandvanzetti #IWW #coal #miners #strike #generalstrike #solidarity #riot #author #writer #books #fiction @bookstadon

"Following the #Hamas-led #Oct7 attacks on #Israel, #Jewish #authors have described an increasingly hostile environment in traditional #publishing. In fact, the number of #books marketed as Jewish have declined over the past three years — pointing to either fewer Jewish books, or fewer #publishers willing to market them as Jewish.

Even so, the demand for Jewish #romance #novels from Jewish readers has flourished, aided by The Matzah Ball’s #author #JeanMeltzer and a #bookclub she started called Jewish Joy.

“I think a reason why the community grew is because of what the romance genre itself offers the reader, which is basically happiness,” says #HeidiShertok, the author of two #Orthodox Jewish #romances and a leader of Jewish Joy. “We’re going to give you that happily ever after, no matter the struggles and the obstacles and the difficulties that the character is facing. And I think we need that so much right now, especially as #Jews.”

forward.com/news/842360/these-…

Today in Labor History, July 23, 1944: Madeleine Riffaud, 19, got off her bicycle, pulled out a gun, and assassinated a Nazi military officer as he took a stroll over the river Seine. She was pursued by French collaborators with the Nazis, beaten, tortured and imprisoned in a concentration camp. She escaped, but was later caught, eventually being released in a prisoner swap. She then joined the armed uprising against the Nazis. She had said she wanted to murder a Nazi in broad daylight to encourage the demoralized population. At the age of 18, she worked as a midwife in a Grenoble sanitarium, where she also helped hide Jews and Resistance Fighters, and helped operate a clandestine printing press.

After the war, she was inspired and encouraged to write by the surrealist poet, Paul Eluard. She became a journalist for the communist newspaper L'Humanité, and other left-wing publications, reporting on anti-colonial rebellions in Algeria and Vietnam. She saw her reporting as a continuation of her anti-fascist fighting, writing that "a people who oppress another can never be a free people." In another quote, she said: “I didn't want France to do elsewhere what the Nazis wanted to do here.” She also wrote poetry and a memoir: On l'appelait Rainer (Called Rainer). Her first poetry collection was published in 1945, with a preface by Eluard, and a portrait of herself on the cover, drawn by Pablo Picasso. In 1974, after working in a Paris hospital, she wrote her best-seller “Les Linges de la nuit” exposing the poor working conditions of hospital workers in France. She died, at the age of 100, in 2024.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #nazis #fascism #antifa #antifascism #journalism #france #communism #poetry #memoir #books #author #writer #poet #bookstadon@a.gup.pe

Today in Labor History June 6, 1894: Colorado’s governor sent in the state militia to support the Cripple Creek miners' strike, the only time in history that a state militia was used to help a workers’ struggle, rather than to suppress it. The mine owners were demanding a 10-hour day without an increase in pay. In response, the miners went on strike. There was considerable violence from both sides during the strike, led by the Western Federation of Miners (WFM). On March 16, some miners ambushed, shot and beat some sheriff’s deputies. The judge, a WFM member, let the miners off, but charged the deputies with carrying concealed weapons. Furious, the Sheriff arrested 20 union leaders. Meanwhile, the mine owners conspired to bring in hundreds of scabs and deputized vigilantes. When the new deputies marched on the strikers’ camp, the miners blew up several mine structures, forcing the deputies to flee. The mine owners hired hundreds more vigilantes for their army. When he heard about the size of the miner owners’ force, the governor declared the deputies illegal and sent in state troops to defend the miners.

On June 5, the day before the state troops arrived, the mine owners’ army began cutting telegraph lines and arresting and beating reporters and hundreds of town residents, including many who weren’t miners. When the state troops arrived, there were already gun battles going on between the vigilante army and the miners. However, the state troops gained control of the town relatively quickly and the mine owners disbanded their army and sent them home. 300 miners were arrested, but only four were convicted. And the populist governor pardoned them all. The WFM won, keeping the 8-hour day and their $3/day wages. And, they were so popular because of their victory, that they easily organized most of the other industries in the region (e.g., waitresses, laundry workers, bartenders, newsboys) into 54 new locals.

The Cripple Creek strike was a prelude for the Colorado Labor Wars (1903-1904), led by future IWW cofounded Big Bill Haywood, and the Colorado Coalfield War (1913-1914), which historian Thomas G. Andrews called the “deadliest strike in the history of the United States” and which included the Ludlow Massacre. Hundreds were killed in the Coalfield War. During the Labar Wars of 1903-1904, James McParland ran the Pinkerton agency in Denver. He had served as an agent provocateur in the Pennsylvania miners’ union in the 1870s. The state convicted and executed 20 innocent Irish coal miners because of his testimony. (I have depicted that story in my novel, “Anywhere But Schuylkill.”) Like he did in Pennsylvania, McParlan tried to sabotage the WFM by placing spies and agents provocateur within the union.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #mining #colorado #union #strike #solidarity #militia #sabotage #police #policebrutality #EightHourDay #wfm #vigilantes #cripplecreek #pinkertons #fiction #historicalfiction #books #novel #author @bookstadon

You can read more about the Ludlow Massacre here: michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/…

My novel, “Anywhere But Schuylkill” is available from these retailers:
keplers.com/
greenapplebooks.com/
boundtogether.org//
historiumpress.com/michael-dun…

Or send me $25 via Venmo (@Michael-Dunn-565) and your mailing address, and I will send you a signed copy!