R. L. Davennor

Author R. L. Davennor Home and shop of dark LGBT+ fairytale fantasy author R. L. Davennor.

I have a website that’s definitely preferred over TT shop and has ALL the same stuff plus even more! Thank you for purchasing!

rldavennor.com

I DO NOT CARE if it’s temporary. Any interruption, however ‘temporary,’ is still an absolutely devastating hit to me and millions of small businesses and creators. We should never, ever have been collateral in the government’s dick measuring contest.

I want to scream, cry, and throw up at all the people who told me to ‘stop overreacting.’

This is 60-75%+ of my income, just ✨poof✨. Gone.

I gave Bluesky a shot, but it’s not for me. I won’t be posting here regularly, if at all.

To keep up with me, follow my IG or Threads. Same user.

linktr.ee/rldavennor

Dear Tiktok: respectfully, what the hell?

Why has there been 0 word on what will happen to US TT shop sellers?

Mere days before the ban—I think we deserve some answers and action plans, not these bullshit marketing emails carrying on as if nothing is happening.

So if TikTok gets banned, which would be an utterly devastating hit to my author income (both via TT Shop and the boost in Amazon sales I get via visibility on TT)—can myself and the millions of other affected small businesses/influencers all file for unemployment?

Kind of joking, but kind of not.

The only man this bisexual found worth my time 💍

(That is a joke, please don’t ruin my cute wedding post)

I’m at the point where if you’re even slightly rude to me, it’s a block. You’re not entitled to be in my space, and you’re certainly not entitled to speak to me with anything less than basic respect.

Above all, how and when someone chooses to come out is THEIR choice.

Please, please stop.

And speaking of safety, authors who choose to show their face especially might face real, incredibly dangerous risks if they were to come out or even BE out. Maybe their family and friends don’t know, and maybe they need to keep it that way.

Folks, it is NEVER okay to out/question/demand the sexuality or gender identity of someone writing queer books. This is wildly inappropriate and harmful.

Bisexual people exist. MANY trans people are potentially about to go stealth, likely because they have no other choice for their own safety.

I’m an author of queer (primarily sapphic/trans) books, and for some reason, people rather consistently think it’s okay to question my queerness.

I’m marrying my fiancé on Friday—a man—and one of the many thoughts racing through my head is how much worse that’s potentially about to get.

News flash, I AM QUEER and grew up in a conservative, religious family. I DO know what it means to ‘really believe and participate in a faith tradition while being queer.’

My experience might be different than yours—that doesn’t mean it’s not my experience.

If a book isn’t for you, and its themes don’t strike in the way the author intended, that’s okay—leave a review, tell your friends, and move on.

Maybe DON’T comment on the author’s posts completely invalidating THEIR own experience.

Dropping such an insane amount of money is one thing—BUT, if we had a better chance at making that investment back, faster, you would see a LOT more books in audio.

Don’t blame authors or narrators. Blame Amazon.

Trust me—authors want to make their books as accessible as possible, and we know this is the only way some people can read at all. Just please, please be kind when an author informs you there is no audio for their book.

Amazon keeps the other 75%. They did not pay a DIME to produce these books.

I know this predatory behavior has been pointed out by dozens of smarter authors before me—I just wanted to verify its truth, and inform readers of the immense, IMMENSE financial barrier there is to produce audiobooks.

I did pay for production, not royalty share. I employed 4 different narrators and their rates were between $200-300 PFH. I am not exclusive to Audible/Amazon (because I wanted to own the rights to the thing I PAID to produce) and as a result, I get 25% of my audio royalties.

Less than $100. My longest book earns me $3.51 per sale.

(This is not a commentary on narration costs. Narrators deserve to be paid. This is a commentary both on Amazon’s predation, and readers who complain that indie books don’t have audio.)

This year, I was privileged enough to be able to record and produce my entire backlist in audio.

I dropped—and I am not exaggerating—close to 10 grand, to record 6 books.

My ACX (Amazon) average royalties, per month?

You’d think it would be the opposite, because we as authors aren’t in competition with each other, but more people than you’d realize get real toxic REAL fast when you have something they know they never will.

No shade to anyone posting sales figures, and I myself haven’t exactly been shy about sharing the fact that I had a 6 figure year—BUT, please please remember that for a lot of people, seeing those numbers only breeds resentment among your peers.

I've had a lot of comments that I should just leave Meta and find better platforms if they're discriminating against me and my queer SFF books. Yes! I agree! But there's also this:
1) I have multi-6 figures in sales in my author business, 90% of that driven from Meta ads
2) Tiktok is the other 10%
🧵

11) The projected loss of income in month ONE is $100 million. That’s not nothing. Our businesses are not nothing.

I don’t know what to do. But wanted to at least tell my story.

10) I know not everyone is as deeply affected as I’m about to be by the US TT ban. I’m not saying you should panic buy my books. They’re not going anywhere and neither am I vanishing from the internet.

I AM saying this seems like an overstep by the government on BOTH sides of the political aisle.

9) Is it possible to make it without TT? Probably, and I know people are doing it, but it’s going to take months if not years to rebuild my entire marketing strategy into anything close to viable.

8) 5) So… what AM I going to do?

I don’t know, to be honest. At this point I’m hoping for a miracle, but bracing for the worst—that the one and only tool I’ve ever had success with in selling my books will vanish within the next year or two, if not less.

7) Sure, TT isn’t perfect, but TT shop for example has actively looked for ways to UPLIFT marginalized voices rather than silence them.

“But other platforms exist, like YouTube and Pinterest—“

They sure do. But they are NOT the same, nor do they have TT shop, which is where my income is.

6) One of TT’s main strengths is that it’s NOT Meta. It’s not governed by community guidelines that disproportionately affect marginalized groups, that are known to suppress LGBT+ content (which my books are).

5) All in the same of an alleged ‘national security threat’ that has NOT been properly disclosed to the American people (and until it is, I’m going to keep calling it an alleged threat).

“Why not just move to another platform?” Here’s why: