The itch.io links from my site are being taken down today while I figure out an alternative. My books were not shadowbanned (they’re extremely mild and don’t sell much, I guess that did it), but itch’s move is bullshit caving to an obnoxious TERF hate group, and I will not use their platform. (What happened? Here’s an in-depth explanation.)
I haven’t had time to work things out fully, but I hope to potentially set up direct ebook sales. In the meantime, there are lots of buying options for my books otherwise.
As someone who’s primarily a reader/buyer on this platform and someone who has been a cheerleader for it, I’m disgusted and angered. I don’t have time right now to elaborate further; just disgusted and angered.
Edit, now that I’ve had a whole day and some caffeine:
Understand that this is my approach. Some devs and authors are sticking with itch.io because they rely on it for income, or any other reason. This is fine. Buy from them if you like. I just bought two book bundles today; they, intelligently IMO, chose to reduce itch’s take to zero and pass all the proceeds on to the participating authors. I will also spend some time downloading more of what I already bought and paid itch for before it vanishes.
I’m leaving my stuff up there (hell, the way things are going it will eventually be the last thing on the site, which makes me feel extra gross) but not publicizing it for now. I’ve set my revenue share to zero as well.
Frankly, I need some more time to work on this. Between day-job busy-ness, finishing up edits on Strangers, and attending a con tomorrow, I don’t have much bandwidth to deal with this clusterfuck. That’s a luxury. I don’t depend on itch for income, so I can say “I don’t have time for that right now” and not starve.
However, to repeat, all of this is my own course of action and not a prescription for what everyone Must Do. I don’t operate like that. Everyone has to make their own decisions, often difficult ones without good options, to survive. The only thing I judge is backing this hateful culture-war bullshit in the first place.