Why I Published an Ebook on Amazon Kindle

So, the royalties for the last 3-month period came for my self-published novel today ("I, AGI; the adventures of an advanced AI") and they were quite underwhelming. In fact, with the money I received I couldn't even cover my expenses for this book. Yes, I did pay others to help out, such as an editor and someone to handle the formatting that Kindle Publishing expects of its books, including the cover design. After all, I have a lot of respect for my audience, even if probably most of the people who read the book chose to not pay for it (there are loopholes when it comes to Amazon Kindle). Still, the reviews I got about it, from reliable sources like Goodreads, were quite positive, so I must have done something right!

Anyway, I could have published this book elsewhere and perhaps if I had 6 months to a year to spend, I could have found a literary publisher for it (unfortunately my regular publisher doesn't do novels!). Yet, even then it's not really worth it for the revenue a fiction book can bring. After all, the standards for sci-fi these days are quite high and I'm more of a non-fiction author. So, why did I bother with this whole project? Well, mostly because I enjoy writing, all kinds, not just non-fiction. And if you have a story in your head that you wish to share with others, the low revenue that stems from a publication of this story doesn't pose a real obstacle.

Also, and perhaps more importantly, I had a message to get to the world, regarding the safety aspect of A.I. and AGI. Of course, I've made this point through other forms, such as a video on the topic and numerous articles on this blog. However, if you care about reaching as many people as possible, you need to be creative about how you promote your idea. And that's exactly what I did.

So, even if Amazon Kindle is not the most profitable way to publish an ebook, even if the people reading this book probably have dozen other books on their to-read list and are less likely to value it the same way we used to value books before the Internet era, even if people are mesmerized about the benefits of A.I. today and are quite reluctant to view any of the potential shortcomings, I'm glad I published this book. At the very least, it was a learning experience and a way to gauge the literary market first hand. And who knows, if things go well, I may author a sequel to this novel as there is more to the story!