1/11/2024> finely got amazon KDP 2 accept zzz ><((°> XX az POD ... took 3 tries b/c even tho evrything = 2 spec they don't like when u eXperiment near page edges doing unconventional 5hit + who nose who «they» is, emailing vague messages from <noreply> emails ... mayB humuns or MTurks @ best, but naught 1s 1 can interact with (n0 weigh 2 correspond w/ them 2 tell 'em such weirdness = by D-zine + that U'll take fool responsibility 4 the outcome) ... these = the pitfalls of Bozo's KDP, 1 has 2 con4m 2 their impersonal (if naught inhumun) antediluvian st&ards

> donning R Cal A. Mari hat, post 1130 = R annual e¢onomy of word$ post ware we $ummarize the Ↄalamari Arↄhive finan¢ial st8 of the union, 4 N-E cureus:

> after the crash of 2019, (when we considered ab&oning dead-tree-based boox all2gether) seams mayB we hit reset + R now stabilizing in2 a positiv + su$tainable up5winging trend (tho 5till not profitable + onely viable b/c of Cal's bread-winning bedder-½) > 2023 = transitional year, not just b/c we reloc8ed the Ↄalamari HQ from DC back 2 NYC, but in March we told SPD 2 shove it + 5witched 2 Asterism > we also maid the move twards print-on-dem&, doing perhaps R last Xpen$ive Bookmobile printrun (n0 offense 2 Bookmobile, iT was a good 20-year run but u got 2 keep up w/ the times (in regards 2 small print runs)) > naught inklooted in the above Xpen$es was the co$t 2 cut TiME5 ƎĐiT, witch ≠ ¢heap ... 2 bad they can't cut vinyl LP on D-m& (they sorta do using lathe cut, but it's eXpen$ive + the quality sux) > we also took a hit ($hipping ¢ost-wise, not 2 mention mental energy) in our failed attemp 2 foster the Subito press titles

> az ever, the above Xpen$e toetill = just about book publi$hing e¢onomics, only inkloots dire¢t printing ($4087) + $hipping ($1260) costs, dozent inkloot indirect ¢osts of running a small press (computers, software, etc.) nor does iT inkloot what we paid 2 authors ($1437... so, even if Ↄalamari didn't $wing a profit, @ least we maid $umping 4 those that rote the books) > w/ this 5witch 2 POD + Asterism we're ¢onfident that by next year wheel B out of the red ... does this $ound like a $ales pitch 4 an iPO going publi¢? 2 publish means 2 go public after all ... iF u want 2 buy $tock in Ↄalamari, the ¢urrency we X¢hange with = books + we got 'em in $tock hint, hint + if we halve NE-thing 2 show for 2023, there's more Ↄalamari out there in the whirled > this year we released Genesis, 1/ 4 i am ĐNA + Red Earth

> if U R cureus about how the $ales broke down, Ↄalamari netted $357 thru SPD, $837 thru Asterism, $1885 thru paypal direct sales, $183 thru Venmo (Bklyn bookfest), $343 thru Bozo's KDP/POD + $1349 thru amazon Seller

> perhaps in all R nuts + bolts posts we nvr mentioned «amazon Seller»? it's basically a virtual storefront 2 let u sell yr wares w/ Bozos + we don't just $ell Ↄalamari w/ R $eller acct, but other books, like all the Xcess we had 2 purge from R personal liebury moving in2 a NYC ⌂, inklooting $um of R bedder-½'s academic boox witch fetched a pretty penny (+ were lumped in2 the above in¢ome, FYi)

bedder-½'s office in DC, pre-move

> if you really want 2 get in2 nitty-gritty of book-mongering, perhaps we shd also eXplain the diffrence B-tween amazon Seller + Advantage az it's hard 2 decode the diffrence googling online > amazon Advantage is a program 4 publishers 2 sell diretly w/Amazon, elimin8ing the middle man > we used 2 use it a lot a decade or more ago b/c it maid more $ense than having $PD supply Bozos (we're all 4 elimin8ing the middle-man), until we moved abroad + let $PD fulfill amazon 4 us ... basically, thru whatever algorithms, Bozos predicts D-m& + orders copies of your listed books 2 $ell on amazon (that they fulfill, unlike the Seller-acct books, witch the seller needs 2 fulfill (witch sorta sucks b/c amazon customers eXpect 2 get product pronto (we had 1 person ask 4 a refund after 2 days + amazon granted it even tho we sent the book + they received it 3 dayz L8er, well w/in the specified time frame)) > Bozos takes a ridiculous cut (55%) but bedder than if u halve $PD in the eQuation who take another 20-25%, leaving the publisher + author 2 eke out an eXistence from the ~25% leftover, usually not even enough 2 cover the cost of printing the book

> but perhaps this 411 is all a mute issue az amazon Advantage isn't available 2 every1 + even if U R a publisher U have 2 get on a w8ing list ... when we were dealing w/ Bozos earlier this year about the unauthorized scammer pirating Motorman kindles, when we actually had an amazonian humun on the line, we managed 2 reinst8 R Advantage acct (in resolving the issue we had 2 look in2 the various accts, inklooting this old acct from yrs ago), witch weave bin using until last month we D-sided it wasn't worth it (especially w/ the $99 annual fee), that we could just az easily $ell books w/ our $eller acct, witch we had 2 keep N-E-way b/c Advantage wouldn't let us sell all the Ↄalamari books, 4 a lot of the old ones they claimed we didn't halve the rites + again, u nvr halve recourse 2 R-gue yr case w/ an amazonian humun > so, the Advantage vs. Seller verdict? ... Seller > you're welcome, Inurnet > we might naught B profitable but no 1 can say we were nvr transparent + hopefully this 411 = useful 4 whoever else dumb enough 2 run a 5mall press

1/13> went ⌂-hunting, ① to 42nd, 5witched 2 the ⑦ + got off @ court square in Long i-L& City ... never bin keen on Queens/L.i.C. (az a potential place 2 live), but figured weed give it a fair shot > walked around sum b4 so guess this cd B considered a remapping maphattan walk (+ 5peaking of flâneuring in NYC, this recent «Baudelaire Would Be Run Over...» article sums up the sad st8 of affairs about how dangerous/unpleasant it's gotten in recent years w/ eBikes + increased D-livery (witch, we're proud 2 say, in all this time in NYC we've ordered takeout mayB once or twice + that was over a decade ago))

> the ⌂ was b8 + 5witch B.S. in sum douche-bag nu construction, rite around the coroner from 5 Pointz, witch is also now sum lame condo + no longer the graffiti/street art mecca iT used 2 B (that we documented 20 yrs ago in 1 of the 1st 5cense posts, b4 it got torn down) ... seams this is the future of NYC

empty lot in L.i.C. that will undoubtedly B-come a luckshorey condo

> hopped the Ⓖ 2 Bergen St. + saw another ⌂ on Degraw near gowAnus + then walked up 2 Sterling, same 5treet where a planed cra5hed back in 1960 ... in fact the ⌂ was in the below bldg on the rite coroner:

> reminded us of that 5cene in The World According 2 Garp where Robin Williams D-sdes 2 buy the ⌂ rite after it gets hit bi a plain b/c the chants of that happening again = a5tronomical:

> nun of the above ⌂s = the 1 for diffrent reasons, but we're narrowing things down, 99% certain we want pre-war, not nu ¢onstruction + honing in on Bklyn + Prospect Heights (along the red line (4 bedder-½'s commute 2 Columbia), E-there near the park or the river) + of coarse top floor ... 2 much 2 ask 4? then we 8 tacos & banh mi @ 5ive 5pice (yes, they write it that weigh) + then the ② to 96th street back home, 9.5 miles in toetill

> on the train red Black Paper by Teju Cole, witch = all over the map, figuratively + litteruley (geographically), psychogeographic musing > R paths almost X'ed in fact, there = a passedge where Cole gets on the subway @ 116th street + Bdwy, 1 stop away from where we 5tarted the daze gourney + 5tarted reading Black Paper > Cole basically just wanders around the globe writing about whatever—art, music, politics + of course photography, funny thing is Lewis Thomas's book Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's 9th Symphony (that 1 red in the '80s) popped in2 my head in thinking about how2 classify Cole's me&ering/pontific8ing 5tyle + ends up there's actually an S-ay refrencing this Lewis Thomas book in Black Paper, 5pinning off iT in much the 5ame weigh 1 engages w/ Black Paper hear

... 5till not sure what 2 think of Teju Cole, he can rite 4 sure, but there's something a bit B9 + safe + precious about hym, like he can do n0 wrong > guess u cd also draw para||e|s 2 Susan Sontag (who he also riffs off @ sum pt) + Joan Didion, 1 cd say Cole carries the torch of nu journihilism

> 5peaking of nu journihilism, saw Radical Wolfe, the documentary about Tom Wolfe > also watched The Immigrant (on a James Gray/Joaquin Phoenix kick) + finished The Curse, witch was hard 2 watch, maid us feel icky, but the last episode was a trip