R. S. Breed Founder

Books by R. S. Breed

Posts

• ACX's new royalty model is 50% exclusive, 30% non-exclusive

  Industry News · 5 months ago

  Audible's ACX announced on 28 April that its new royalty model, which it has been trialling with some creators, is opening to everyone. - **Exclusive:** 50%, up from 40% - **Non-exclusive:** 30%, up from 25% It opens to all ACX creators on...

• 422 new indie bookstores opened in the US last year, apparently

  Industry News · 5 months ago

  Some good news for once. Reported by Good Good Good, citing the American Booksellers Association: 422 new independent bookstores opened in 2025, a 31% increase. https://goodgoodgood.co/articles/independent-bookstores-on-the-rise That's seco...

• Readers, how do you actually listen to audiobooks?

  Readers' Corner · 5 months ago

  Question for the listeners here. Less "what's your favourite" and more the practical side. - Which app or service? - What speed? Plenty of people swear by 1.5x and I've never been sure whether that's most listeners or a vocal few. - When? C...

• Draft2Digital announces new activation and maintenance fees

  Industry News · 5 months ago

  Draft2Digital announced two new fees on 14 April (US time). The short version, from D2D's own post: - **New accounts** pay a one-off $20 activation fee. Existing accounts don't. - Accounts that earn **under $100 from book sales over twelve...

• Keep your own copies of everything

  Writing & Publishing · 5 months ago

  Over the past week or so a few authors have written about their KDP accounts being closed, apparently by automated systems, with not much explanation. Here's one account of it: https://vaniamargene.com/2026/04/06/a-few-thoughts-about-amazon...

• How to check an agent or publisher is real before you reply

  Scam Alerts · 5 months ago

  The fake editor emails from last month have raised a broader question. If someone claiming to be an agent or a publisher gets in touch out of the blue, how do you check they're real before you answer? None of this takes long, and all of it...

• Your blurb is not a synopsis

  Writing & Publishing · 6 months ago

  Most indie blurbs I read have the same problem. They try to tell me the whole book. A blurb has one job, which is to get someone to open the sample. That's it. It doesn't have to be fair to your subplot, mention the twist in act three, or e...

• Scammers are impersonating editors at the big publishers

  Scam Alerts · 6 months ago

  Writer Beware has a fresh warning about emails impersonating editors at major publishing houses: https://writerbeware.blog/2026/03/27/watch-out-for-this-scam-impersonating-editors-at-major-publishing-houses/ Writer Beware says it has had a...

• Reminder: Anthropic settlement claims close 30 March

  Industry News · 6 months ago

  If you've been meaning to check whether any of your books are covered by the Anthropic copyright settlement, this is the week to do it. The claims deadline, originally 23 March, has been pushed back to Monday 30 March. Don't leave it to Mon...

• February KENP rate is out, and it's back up from January's low

  Industry News · 6 months ago

  Written Word Media has February's KENP rate at US$0.004689 per page read: https://writtenwordmedia.com/kdp-global-fund-payouts/ That's a decent bounce from January's US$0.004202, which was the lowest of any month since at least last October...

• Getting useful feedback from beta readers

  Writing & Publishing · 6 months ago

  Beta readers can save a book or waste a month. The difference is mostly in who you pick and how you ask. Pick for the job. You want a few readers who read your genre heavily, and at least one who doesn't. Genre readers catch broken conventi...

• Audiobook, ebook or print: how do you actually read these days?

  Readers' Corner · 6 months ago

  Curious how people here split their reading. Do you have a main format, or does it depend on the book? Some people do audio for the commute and print in bed. Some have gone all-in on ebooks for the adjustable font. A few things I'd love to...

• Dealing with rejection without letting it steer the book

  Writing & Publishing · 6 months ago

  Rejection comes in a lot of shapes. Form rejections from agents. Silence, which is its own kind of form rejection. A contest that doesn't place you. A one-star review. A beta reader who stopped at chapter three and went quiet. It all lands...

• Authors Guild warns of a rise in email scams targeting authors

  Scam Alerts · 7 months ago

  The Authors Guild put out an alert on 24 February about a rise in email scams aimed at authors: https://authorsguild.org/bulletin/rise-in-email-scams-targeting-authors/ The types they list: fake book clubs, fake publicity and marketing offe...

• Getting honest reviews without paying for them

  Writing & Publishing · 7 months ago

  Reviews are the part of publishing where desperation makes people do silly things. So the things to avoid first, then what tends to work. Don't pay for reviews. Paying someone to post a review is not the same as paying for a legitimate serv...

• What makes a cover look self-published to you?

  Readers' Corner · 7 months ago

  Question for readers this time (authors, feel free to lurk). When you're scrolling and a cover makes you think "self-published", what tips you off? The fonts? The photo? Something you can't quite name? The follow-up I'm more curious about:...

• The cover mistakes that keep turning up

  Writing & Publishing · 7 months ago

  A cover has one job at first contact: tell a browsing reader what kind of book this is, at roughly the size of a postage stamp. Most cover mistakes come from forgetting one half of that sentence. **Designing at full size.** It looks great f...

• Draft2Digital ebooks are now going to Bookshop.org

  Industry News · 7 months ago

  Draft2Digital started distributing ebooks to Bookshop.org on 4 February. Publishing Perspectives has the details: https://publishingperspectives.com/2026/02/bookshop-org-draft2digital-partner-to-make-self-published-ebooks-available-through-...

• Another round of job cuts at Simon & Schuster

  Industry News · 8 months ago

  Publishers Weekly reports more job cuts at Simon & Schuster, following a first round earlier in the week. The layoffs total about 15, across both adult and children's publishing, and include several senior editors: https://publishersweekly....

• Querying or self-publishing? An honest comparison, not a sales pitch

  Writing & Publishing · 8 months ago

  This one gets argued about like a football code. Both paths work for some people and grind others down. Here's how I'd weigh it, without pretending either is obviously right. Querying first. What it gets you is an agent who knows which edit...