SuperOnyi:





@Tomman, I lost interest in reading your comment when you said the reason he might have made that amount was because of his location — Canada. If you're really great observant, you'd understand kdp played a vital role in evb2000's 'relocation' to Canada — he clearly stated that. Matter of fact, we all witnessed that.

I've been ignoring your comments because I do not want to discredit your claims because I'm no expert on this topic and I understand how powerful racism, tribalism, and other isms that exist can be — which means there MIGHT be some truths in wst you're saying.

However, I think it's about time black people start becoming victors instead of victims. I don't care if Europeans or their cousins in America like me — like heck, even in Nigeria, there are Igbos and Yorubas here on Nairaland who believe a person's ethnicity is enough reason to judge them.

So, rather than screaming "them whites don't like us," start working SMARTLY to build a system that will favor you and your people — besides, that's what the Chinese did and are still working on. Compare that with what African countries are doing — tragic comedy!

I could not agree more with the bolded statement, and it is precisely what I have been advocating for a long time for black people collectively to be doing - BUT WHICH THEY HAVE NO INTEREST IN DOING (partly because of their tendency to see so-called "white" people as gods - which they are not). There is no bigger advocate of (genuine) black independence than me, and that necessarily includes financial and economic independence.

And, incidentally, it is not an either or thing, as most black people strangely tend to talk as if it is. One can work for true independence as a people while at the same time acknowledging the realities of the hostile nature of certain other groups towards them and any attempt by them to be collectively free. In fact, such recognition of reality is a necessity, without which you can't really have true independence.

I was aware that evb2000 had starting making some money in Nigeria through KDP before he moved to Canada. I was only referring to the extent of it. Even then I may have made a mistake in my reading or characterization of the whole thing. But that does not change the overall point I had been making, I never said that one is not allowed to make any amount whatsoever even within Nigeria or Africa as a whole. But there is a certain level of income that seems to trigger the alarm bells of Amazon and causes a shutdown action with respect to black authors, especially those in Africa, regardless of whether they are working honestly or not. And that is in addition to the fact that the algorithms seem to be very much rigged against them in the first place. In fact, most of the evidence I have seen for this is actually based on the experiences of black American authors.

Like I said towards the end of my previous post, I am very much open to being corrected and proved wrong. I would be happy to be wrong on this. I like to think that, in spite of how things may look, we are nevertheless in a fair system. The problem is that I just have not seen any actual evidence that that is the case.

evb2000:


I don't understand the angle you are coming from. People have different publishing goals and they are doing great. Ofcourse, as Nigerians, living in Nigeria, we can't compete with most American Authors, but there are Nigerian authors in the US doing well by virtue of the fact that they can walk into any media house and advertise their books. However, you don't expect an author in Nigeria to compete with the likes J.K Rowlings or Dan Brown? Because we don't have the budget and exposure to market your books like they do. Besides, they are brand names and building a brand takes years of hardwork.

Now, let's bring it back home. Success is relative, what you feel is sucess may not be success to the other person. Some authors just need book royalties to put food on their table, while others want to build a brand. However, there are many "successful" self-publishers that I know and others that I know are Nigerians but not close to doing $1k, $2k, $6k, $7k and $10k a month. Like, I said, success is relative. But don't expect to churn out poor quality books with AI and be successful. Don't expect to be successful without a good budget for marketing your books.

Bring it back to the question on how well i am doing? I am not a guru neither will i claim to be so successful because I am still a work-in-progress. But the little i have gotten from publishing, i have documented in my diary. If not for anything, I can afford to fund my MSc program and take care of my living expensis while schooling in the west, which I give all the glory to God.

https://www.nairaland.com/6884099/sponsoring-myself-study-canada-sept

To give you a clearer picture of what I was talking about, let me quote a post that I made in a different thread that was based on a similar topic:

The challenges that Africans - particularly Nigerians - and even black people in general, face publishing books on KDP, are not the same as the challenges that a white person living in America or UK, for example, faces. And it is extremely misleading to talk as though it is exactly the same, as several people here have been doing.

Of course, normally, a self-publishing author faces the basic challenges of competition (given the tons of books published everyday by other authors), and the need to market his/her books. And that is assuming the written work itself is good enough to interest readers (which is the first challenge that any author has). But if you think that these are the only problems a black/African self-publishing author faces in trying to make money on this platform, you are extremely naive.

As a black person (particularly a black African) you would mostly be wasting your time trying to independently publish books and make money on Amazon or any other American owned online platform for that matter. In fact, platforms like D2D and Smashwords don't even hide the fact that they ban books by Nigerians and other Africans. Amazon is just less open about it.

The truth is that the KDP system algorithm is rigged and it's rigged heavily in favour of white people particularly in America, and next the west in general. And it has nothing to do with talent or how interesting one's books are. Amazon will not allow any black author - particularly in Africa - to make any significant amount of money independently on their platform. They may let you make a tiny amount. But the moment your books start to get any popularity and real money starts coming in, they immediately ban your account and seize (i.e. steal) all your proceeds. This is exactly what has happened to countless black authors including those who are US citizens. Their accounts were suddenly banned and their money seized just as they started making substantial income. And their attempts to get any sort of explanation from Amazon as to their sudden baffling and bewildering banning were met with no real or meaningful response, or no response at all.

The case of Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki who was an award winning Nigerian Sci-Fi writer is just one example of this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/s0phie/publishing_news_amazon_shuts_down_account_of/

For a long time now, I have been challenging people to show me a single example of any black/African author who has actually been successful publishing independently on Amazon Kdp platform (i.e. has lots of ratings and reviews for their books), and nobody has been able to name or point at any example, despite all the incredibly talented writers in Nigeria/Africa or the black world in general. Not a single example. Does that fact alone not strike you as really strange or suspicious?

Incidentally, here is another example of Amazon's anti-black racism within their own organisation: https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/2/26/22297554/amazon-race-black-diversity-inclusion

I provided those same two links in my previous comments on this very thread, but apparently the people here who saw the post did not bother to check them out (one person even sneered at my statement that Amazon is racist towards black people at all - which is absolutely astonishing given that the very first link clearly documents this very fact extensively). But this is the problem a lot of black people have; they just do not ever want to believe that white people can possibly hate them and be against their interests. Even while evidence abounds that this is the case, they ignore it.

For the record, I am not by any means trying to discourage anyone from experimenting with KDP publishing, especially if writing is your passion. That is not my point. All I want is for us to not be deceived about what our chances really are and what the game really is that we are playing here. Are we playing a truly fair game in which everyone, regardless of race, region or nationality, have the same chances of being successful as long as they work hard and do all the right things? Or are we playing a rigged game?

My problem is that I have very strong reasons to believe the game is rigged. Not just against Nigerians/Africans, but against black people in general - including African Americans. Though it is even more so the case with Africans, especially Nigerians. Saying that it is just a matter of doing the usual stuff like having good covers and doing marketing and so on, is silly. It assumes that you are on an equal playing field where the game is not rigged. I guarantee you that there are thousands of highly talented black writers in Nigeria and around the world doing all that stuff and yet barely making anything worthwhile in spite of it. And this is true even if their stories are set in western/American setting. I have constantly challenged people over the years to show me a single example of a black person, even within America, who has been very successful publishing their own books on KDP (with hundreds or thousands of reviews and ratings), without going through traditional publishing companies where their books would be vetted by the gatekeepers and they get paid token royalties, and nobody has been able to point at a single example of one despite all the black talent around the world. Even in American forums where I have posted the question, they will typically whine and lash out for daring to ask such a question, but fail to provide any example.

Even in your diary thread (which I checked out), there was a place where you actually said that you know many talented Nigerian writers working hard publishing their books on KDP, but none of them make anything even close to $1000 a month, And you don't see how strange that is. That makes absolutely ZERO sense if this were really a fair game that we were playing here - where books sink or swim simply based on quality of the stories and marketing/word-of-mouth, and nothing else. There are tons of hack white authors in the US and other countries making much more than $1000 a month on KDP from publishing recyclable garbage - some without even much or any marketing.

As I said in the quote above, as a black person - and most especially a Nigerian/African - Amazon will only let you make chump change on their platform. But the moment you somehow manage to overcome their unfair algorithms and start making any really significant money, their axe will come down on you. This has happened countless times to black authors (even those who are US citizens) who till this day do not know what they did, get no answers from Amazon, and have had their proceeds robbed from them. I also believe that the reason why you were even able to make the amount you made - a few hundred here and there per month, eventually accumulating to about $1500 - is because you were in Canada. That almost certainly would not have happened if your geographical location at the time had been Nigeria. Platforms like D2D have even banned Nigerians and other Africans blatantly.

You may dismiss this merely as "conspiracy theory". But in the end, I keep going back to evidence. I am an observant person, and I am very familiar with the indie publishing business. And the fact remains that what I have observed does not in any way look as if the system is a fair game where everyone regardless of race, region or nationality is on an equal playing field. Instead all indications point in the exact opposite direction. (And, as pointed out earlier, that is the case even if you are all writing books based on western settings.) You may ask why Amazon, or any other US corporation for that matter, would want to engage in such behavior given that business and profit should be the only thing that matters. Well, part of it is the simple fact that profit is not the only thing that matters to the American elites - racial subjugation (controlling and keeping a certain group of people in their place) also matters to them - and it matters far more than most black people dare to think. Furthermore, there isn't much reason to think that the dynamics of the market, if they did not do that, would lean much in terms of non-ebook products losing out over ebooks as opposed to merely some authors books losing or winning out over others. Besides, they're swimming in so much money that it doesn't make any difference - what do they care?

Ultimately, do I hope I am wrong about all this and that you guys are right, and that the only reason we have not seen even a single renowned independent black/African/Nigerian author on KDP, much less dozens, is simply because black/African/Nigerian authors just aren't talented at writing, or they are all too lazy or poor to use fine covers and promote their ebooks? Yes, I totally wish that were true. But, if I am to be really honest with myself, that is a bit like wishing for the easter bunny to show up at my wedding and be my best man.

evb2000:


Who is advising you guys to do a free promotion for your books? It is a recipe for disaster. The only reason you should give out any of your book(s) free of charge, is when you are using it as a lead magnet. That is, you are either using it to promote another book(s) in a series (or have the link to the other book within the one you are giving out free) or you are exchanging it for their email address to build your email list.

This is all you get, when you guys keep listening or buying all these mushroom courses online that repeat this non-sense. Never give any of your book(s) out for free not for a day. The algorithm has since left that style of promotion. I have stopped putting my books to on select. If the topic is good, the serious ones will buy.

In response to the bolded part, how well exactly do you actually do on KDP? I continue to be amazed at the fact that, despite all the endless conversation going on in this thread, nobody has been able to provide a single example of a black/Nigerian person actually making significant income on the platform (or any other American-owned online platform for that matter).

The challenges that Africans - particularly Nigerians - and even black people in general, face publishing books on KDP, are not the same as the challenges that a white person living in America or UK, for example, faces. And it is extremely misleading to talk as though it is exactly the same, as several people here have been doing.

Of course, normally, a self-publishing author faces the basic challenges of competition (given the tons of books published everyday by other authors), and the need to market his/her books. And that is assuming the written work itself is good enough to interest readers (which is the first challenge that any author has). But if you think that these are the only problems a black/African self-publishing author faces in trying to make money on this platform, you are extremely naive.

As a black person (particularly a black African) you would mostly be wasting your time trying to independently publish books and make money on Amazon or any other American owned online platform for that matter. In fact, platforms like D2D and Smashwords don't even hide the fact that they ban books by Nigerians and other Africans. Amazon is just less open about it.

The truth is that the KDP system algorithm is rigged and it's rigged heavily in favour of white people particularly in America, and next the west in general. And it has nothing to do with talent or how interesting one's books are. Amazon will not allow any black author - particularly in Africa - to make any significant amount of money independently on their platform. They may let you make a tiny amount. But the moment your books start to get any popularity and real money starts coming in, they immediately ban your account and seize (i.e. steal) all your proceeds. This is exactly what has happened to countless black authors including those who are US citizens. Their accounts were suddenly banned and their money seized just as they started making substantial income. And their attempts to get any sort of explanation from Amazon as to their sudden baffling and bewildering banning were met with no real or meaningful response, or no response at all.

The case of Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki who was an award winning Nigerian Sci-Fi writer is just one example of this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/s0phie/publishing_news_amazon_shuts_down_account_of/

For a long time now, I have been challenging people to show me a single example of any black/African author who has actually been successful publishing independently on Amazon Kdp platform (i.e. has lots of ratings and reviews for their books), and nobody has been able to name or point at any example, despite all the incredibly talented writers in Nigeria/Africa or the black world in general. Not a single example. Does that fact alone not strike you as really strange or suspicious?

Incidentally, here is another example of Amazon's anti-black racism within their own organisation: https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/2/26/22297554/amazon-race-black-diversity-inclusion

Btw, just to add: Here are examples of Amazon's anti-black racism:

https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/2/26/22297554/amazon-race-black-diversity-inclusion

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/s0phie/publishing_news_amazon_shuts_down_account_of/

Note that Amazon is by no means unique in this behavior. In fact, this is very much the norm in America.

I find this entire thread very strange. Do any of you actually know of a single independent black African author (particularly a Nigerian) who has actually had any kind of success whatsoever publishing books on Amazon? Can you point at a single black/African person who actually has large numbers of ratings and reviews for their books when you go to their page on Amazon? Are you guys not aware that Amazon is racist against Africans and their system is heavily rigged against them?

There are tons of extremely talented writers in Nigeria. Remember the old Pacesetter series in the 80s and 90s, for example? Far more interesting and enjoyable to read than a lot of the garbage put out by these indie white authors who get make tons of money from their crap. Africa has a lot of writing talent. And I mean a lot. Yet, for some reason, nobody can point to a single case of any African (or black) author independently publishing books on KDP and having any kind of success whatsoever on it. Do you people ever bother to wonder why?

Is there any particular reason why people are so silent on this question? (So, despite all the loudmouths on this forum who act like they are experts on Nigerian politics and history, not a single person can say anything about this.)

The following astonishing quote is from a post in another thread called "Why Nigeria must break up":

Zik, Awo and TB corroborated this below:

Nigeria as a british expression not a nation made by God? Please read from Awo, Zik and TB!

“Since 1914 the British Government has been trying to make Nigeria into one country, but the Nigerian people themselves are historically different in their backgrounds, in their religious beliefs and customs and do not show themselves any signs of willingness to unite … Nigerian unity is only a British invention” – Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, 1948.

“Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression. There are no ‘Nigerians’ in the same sense as there are ‘English,’ ‘Welsh,’ or ‘French,’ The word ‘Nigeria’ is a mere distinctive appellation to distinguish those who live within the boundaries of Nigeria and those who do not” - Chief Obafemi Awolowo, 1947.

“It is better for us and many admirers abroad that we should disintegrate in peace and not in pieces. Should the politicians fail to heed the warning, then I will venture the prediction that the experience of the Democratic Republic of Congo will be a child’s play if it ever comes to our turn to play such a tragic role” - Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, 1964.

These are statements made by the three men largely responsible for Nigeria's so-called independence as a 'country'. Men who are more accurately called "founding receivers" since they simply received the iron baton of Nigeria rulership from the British.

This is what astonishes the hell out of me. And it amazed me that nobody else in that thread noticed it: If these men felt that way about the Nigerian geographical expression that the British created, if these men KNEW that it made far more sense for the expression to be split up into its respective ethnic national countries and that its current British-created setup is a fraud, then WHY THE HELL did these same men continue the 'fraud'? Why did they choose to maintain something they knew was a fraud and a joke instead of breaking it up into its proper nation States?? And there was no attempt whatsoever by them to even do that, as far as I know. None at all.

For God's sake, why am I the only one who is astonished and baffled by this?

Isn't anybody going to reply that question? Is there no one here that has knowledge of Nigeria's political history?

NigeriaIsDoomed:
Zik, Awo and TB corroborated this below:

Nigeria as a british expression not a nation made by God? Please read from Awo, Zik and TB!

“Since 1914 the British Government has been trying to make Nigeria into one country, but the Nigerian people themselves are historically different in their backgrounds, in their religious beliefs and customs and do not show themselves any signs of willingness to unite … Nigerian unity is only a British invention” – Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, 1948.

“Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression. There are no ‘Nigerians’ in the same sense as there are ‘English,’ ‘Welsh,’ or ‘French,’ The word ‘Nigeria’ is a mere distinctive appellation to distinguish those who live within the boundaries of Nigeria and those who do not” - Chief Obafemi Awolowo, 1947.

“It is better for us and many admirers abroad that we should disintegrate in peace and not in pieces. Should the politicians fail to heed the warning, then I will venture the prediction that the experience of the Democratic Republic of Congo will be a child’s play if it ever comes to our turn to play such a tragic role” - Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, 1964.

But, wait a second.... If this is what these men said, if they were well aware that the Luggardian contraption called Nigeria was a joke that had to be broken up into the proper ethnic nations, then WHY IN HEAVEN'S NAME did these same men agree to go along with the contraption Why did they not break up the country into proper independent nation states

I have suspected this ever since the beginning of this crises. And my suspicions are becoming more and more confirmed.

I have been suspecting that this is really a planned genocide by the West to severely depopulate Africa by exterminating native African people. The initial 'global' aspect of the virus pandemic is merely meant to provide an alibi for them so as to make it look as if it wasn't a deliberate covert genocide on Africa. They have to sacrifice a few thousand dispensable western people in order to provide this alibi.

These suspicions are getting confirmed. The Western media has been claiming for days that the mass deaths will be far worse in Africa despite the fact that Africa has few cases and its governments have been taking measures (like other countries) to prevent rises. They even said 'Ours is child's play compared to what will happen to Africa'. They did not say a single word about other poor third-world regions like in Asia and South America. They only kept saying such horrible things towards Africa.

And now I have learned that these western countries are now shipping all their citizens out of Africa despite the relative lack of cases. They are NOT doing this with other poor regions in Asia and Latin America.

It seems pretty evident that this is clearly the beginning of a deliberate planned genocide by these wicked people. A genocide targeted deliberately on black African people.

Has anyone else noticed this trend during the past two decades. Have you noticed that local Nigerian film producers seem to be always going out of their way to hire handsome men for acting roles, but when it comes to the women they usually hire ordinary looking or ugly ones? They clearly do not apply the same criterion of good/gorgeous looks when it comes to hiring female actors. They only apply it to males. Why the hell are they doing this?

This angers the hell out of me. Is the Nigerian movie industry now being run by homosexual men nowadays? As a man, I prefer to see beautiful Nigerian women on screen. I am not interested in seeing beautiful men; I am not gay.

I noticed that this behavior started during the 2000's. Before 2000, Nigerian films usually focused on hiring beautiful women for acting roles, as is normal around the world. They began this ridiculous behavior of focusing on hiring handsome men and deliberately hiring plain or ugly women during the 2000s after Nigeria started to become mentally colonized by America and they began to absorb, internalize and replicate American media racism against black people. And they're doing it against themselves. How do I know this? The American media constantly glorifies white women by promoting their most beautiful ones as much as possible while, at the same time, denigrating black women by usually portraying them in the opposite way. In fact, the American media would much rather show a handsome black guy than show a beautiful black woman because they know that beauty is far more important for females. Male value is mostly measured by social status, not beauty.

Now Nigerians have internalized this racism against themselves without even knowing it and the Nigerian film industry is busy promoting ugly women in their movies instead of showing the world our most beautiful women. They are more concerned with showing handsome men as if it has any relevance to anything, and as if the men running the industry are gay.

If anyone knows how to get in touch with these people, could you please ask them to stop this nonsense and go back to the natural thing that they used to do of hiring beautiful actresses? Please tell these idiots that people are more interested in seeing beautiful women than beautiful men. If they like, they can show both. But, for god's sake, return back to giving us gorgeous Nigerian actresses.