“Your title has been canceled”
A message for our dear, disappointed, digital readers...
Joel Bowman, finding workarounds to petty bureaucracy from Antalya, Turkey...
“Your title has been canceled.”
We read the above correspondence with a sinking feeling...
“I can advise that [...] your ebook title is in a canceled state. Your other ebook titles listed on your account will be in the process of being removed from distribution.”
No author wants to be canceled. Not even those of us who labor for the sheer, unadulterated joy of writing itself. (We can only imagine the pain and suffering incurred by those who toil for the thrill of selling!)
And yet, here we are, in the proverbial “literary jailhouse.”
What crime had your faithful correspondent committed? What pronoun misdemeanor or grammatical infraction had he invoked? Did he misgender anyone? Deploy a racial epithet? Tell an off-color joke? Dare to set a story in an unpopular country?
If only!
No, dear reader... Our felonious fiction/fictitious felony was less Orwellian and more Kafkaesque. It was not the thought police of whom we had run afoul, in other words, but the petty bureaucrats, the petite functionaries who patrol our digital domains.
You see, in our haste to bring our latest novel, Night Drew Her Sable Cloak, to our small but dedicated following, we dared register with our independent publisher (located in the USA) as an Argentine resident.
Alas, Argentina has not enacted legislation that approves e-signatures as legally enforceable, something apparently necessary to facilitate the kind of online commerce that dozens of other countries seem to manage without any problems whatsoever.
But our brave readers need not fear!
As dedicated debrouillards will appreciate, we have found a workaround, something to thwart the tut-tutters and finger waggers of the realm.
Instead of going through meddlesome state bureaucrats... why not just upload the ePUB right here on Substack? That way, members can download our work – along with our first novel – Morris, Alive – in the members section.
Right now, you can access Night Drew Her Sable Cloak AND Morris, Alive in PDF and ePUB format under the ‘Books’ tab at the top of the page.
Membership is just $7/month... about the price of a single Kindle title on Amazon. Call it an unintended “twofer.”
And we’ll be uploading more novels and travel essays along the journey, giving readers direct access to our published work all in one, easy to find place... while digitally bypassing Amazon altogether.
So if you’re not already a member, please consider subscribing here...
Not only will you gain immediate access to our (growing) archive of novels and essays – including our first two novels: Night Drew Her Sable Cloak AND Morris, Alive – you’ll also be supporting independent authorship in an age where censorship – for reasons both Orwellian and Kafkaesque – are increasingly problematic.
Cheers,
Joel Bowman
Antalya, Turkey ~ June, 2023
P.S. If you’re an “old school” reader who prefers a hardback copy, you can of course order through Amazon here. We’ll let you know when we figure out a workaround to that one, too...
In Morris, “Not the kind of order that’s imposed by the force of a select few,” Morris replied. “I’m imagining something more horizontal. Where each individual is responsible for his own life and the consequences, good and bad, of his actions. Not an absence of rules,” he concluded, “more like an absence of rulers.”
I have always felt, within the parameters of reality, which we can extend, that I am in complete control of my life. No one rules me, except the rules I choose.
There was a time when I felt hemmed in, out of control, dependent. That was a time I thought of ending life. I now have abundant life even if I am not furiously searching for meaning in far off places.
I have an eternal perspective and the rules of Christ.
I find no fault with that philosophy.
It seems Hemingway has had an effect with all the drinking Morris’ crowd does.
I am enjoying the journey and knowing the end of the episode intrigues me. Probably different from my perspective.