Can an Author Thrive Without Amazon?

 

I recently had an unfortunate exchange on twitter with esteemed horror author Gabino Iglesias. I’ve followed Gabino for a long time on twitter and other social media platforms. I’ve met him, had him sign a copy of his novel, and gave him a signed copy of Curveball at the Crossroads. I am a fan of his work, as well as the content he puts out, which is typically fighting for the underdog, both socially and in the literary world.

Our recent disappointing exchange happened when I asked Gabino why he promotes the Amazon link to his books. Gabino is the type of person who stands up to The Man and I was surprised to see him supporting the multi-billion-dollar online megastore that has put bookstores out of business, underpaid workers, and manipulated prices on books for decades. Gabino didn’t like me asking that and blocked me. He did however, refer me to an article he wrote explaining himself.

I looked up Gabino’s article. “5 Reasons Amazon is a Necessary Evil” was written on LitReactor.com in May 2019. Seven years ago. A lot has changed in the book and publishing world since 2019.

In all fairness, let’s look at Gabino’s article and see if it still holds water. Keep in mind, Gabino is a full-time author who has a publishing deal with a big-name publisher. He has done book signings around the world. I am a scrappy, part-time author who self-publishes and sells books at sports bars, Irish pubs, and out of my trunk. My range has been limited to Central Florida, a bookstore in Cincinnati, and a folk-art store in Mississippi. He is a professional, I am a weekend warrior.

Gabino’s article starts with him admitting Amazon isn’t the best company to do business with. However, he admits, “when I get my royalty check, 99% of it will be from Amazon. I’m only now getting a few advances for things I write and foreign rights sales and I live on a teacher’s salary. Every dollar counts, and most of my writing dollars come from Amazon.”

Personally, I have a different perspective. I make 10% of my sales from Amazon, maybe even less than that. I haven’t even sold 10 books on Amazon in 2026 and we already are in October. I make most of my money from in-person sales and a fair amount from consignment at local bookstores. In 2025, I sold 40 books on tik-tok, but that completely dried up this year, which is an article for another day. I know I am an extreme outlier regarding lack of online sales. I recently talked to a local author friend who stated Amazon accounted for 1/3 of his sales. Another 1/3 was in-person signings and the last 1/3 came from distribution to bookstores. I think that is more normal.

Gabino also cites distribution, e-books, ease of ordering, and the Amazon algorithm as the other reasons he promotes Amazon. But I find it hard to believe he stands by a seven-year opinion with the same conviction. Maybe he does. Or maybe his publisher makes him. Publishers have a lot of sway and they don’t care who sells the book as long as it sells. If Amazon moves products, then big publishers will gladly kowtow to Jeff Bezos and force their writers to do the same.

Gabino concludes by saying, “I will say this: love it or hate it, Amazon is a necessity for indie writers. I’ve seen folks try to sell their own books. I’ve seen publishers open up online stores. I’ve seen it all...and then I’ve seen how most of them go back to using Amazon. Maybe we will create something better at some point, but for now we need to use what we have.”

What if we have something better now? What if we have other options or a mix of options?

Let’s start with Bookshop.org.

Opened in January 2020, Bookshop.org is the number one online book vendor alternative to Amazon. They only sell books and as part of their business model, a percentage of their sales goes to over 1,000 partnered independent bookstores. As of 2026, they have given over $50 million dollars to these bookstores. Customers can also select an option on Bookshop.org to have 30% of their purchase go directly to a partnered bookstore, local or beyond.

Bookshop distributes via mail just as Amazon, so Gabino’s distribution argument is no longer valid. I would assume if a reader orders one of Gabino’s books on Bookshop he gets a royalty check, negating his first point. Encouraging readers to use Bookshop will only increase Bookshop’s percentage of his royalty income, perhaps from 1% to 33%. Maybe he can eventually get all of his royalties through Bookshop. Those sales will help the indie bookstores he loves.

Gabino is still right that Amazon has an advantage on algorithms and internal ads. I am not sure if Bookshop.org has an algorithm influencing customers. Amazon sucks up your metadata when you land on the website or open the app and uses that data to suggest your next purchase. If you don’t mind your next purchase being suggested by a bot, Amazon may be the place for you.

To my knowledge, Bookshop doesn’t give books a ranking and it doesn’t track your behavior on its website. It does not appear to be driven by algorithms. If you like your experience algorithm-free, Bookshop is the way to go.

Maybe Gabino knows Amazon’s algorithm has been particularly helpful in his sales. I can’t fault him for knowing where his bread is buttered.

Gabino also brings up the ease creating e-books on Amazon. This reason specifically needs a modern take. It is still easy to publish an ebook on Amazon and enroll in Kindle Unlimited and get paid for page views. However, in order to make the most money, an author needs to give Amazon exclusivity over their e-book for the first few years. It is a deal with the Devil that most indie authors willingly sign up for, even if Amazon is an unfair partner, often changing revenue percentages without notification.

 

 

 Another problem with using Amazon for e-books is the proliferation of AI-created e-books drowning the Amazon rankings. Popular author and culture observer Ted Gioia recently wrote “Amazon is now more an AI company than a book retailer”. The top book lists on Amazon are flooded with AI-created books, many blatant rip-offs of popular human-created titles. Amazon has done very little to stop this and anything they have done is a bandaid on a mortal wound. In October 2026, for example, Amazon’s self-publishing department finally changed the limits on self-publishing from 10 books a week to only two a week. That’s still 100 self-published titles a year per author.

Only AI-slop artists can “publish” 100 books a year. Not even James Patterson puts out that many books.

In his article, Gabino mentions ease of ordering. Amazon is a one-stop app-based shop for everything from books to bananas to buttons. But according to several articles, many authors are building their own one-stop shops and not relying on Amazon. They are building Direct Sales channels from email boxes to their own personal homepage-based shop. For the uninitiated, Direct sales means going to the author’s website and buying the book directly from the author.

(To my knowledge, Gabino does not have a direct website. At least I couldn’t find one.)

According to the articles, direct sales are increasing as many authors are getting tired of dealing with Amazon. They are forming a new chain of purchase, one in which readers subscribe to the author’s email list (like you may be here!), authors provide a link to the subscribers, and the subscribers purchase directly from the author. An article on ReaderWeekly states this creates “a subscriber-and-superfan revenue stack, with books serving as the top-of-funnel content and the direct relationship serving as the monetization engine”. ReaderWeekly also states “The new war is about who owns the reader.” Although authors need to pay for service such as Shopify and their own website, they don’t have to deal with Amazon. Everything is direct.

I don’t know if boycotting Amazon is a good thing or the kiss of death for an author. I am particularly optimistic about the growing Direct Sales trend but maybe it depends on the popularity of the author and their following. Most articles on direct sales recommend the route only for established authors with robust mailing lists, not for small indie authors. An article on IndieReadingCommunity.com states, “For newer authors with limited platforms, exclusivity can be a better bet while building momentum”.

Personally, I never wanted to be exclusive. Ever. Part of my research into self-publishing was “how can I get my book in local bookstores?”. I’ve built diversity from Day 1 and most of my online marketing promotes local bookstores. With my low online sales, perhaps I have lost sales not promoting Amazon. I do know I have great relationships with my local bookstores. I would rather make them money instead of giving my sales dollars to a billionaire who wants to go to the moon.

If readers want to buy Curveball at the Crossroads online, I would rather they buy my novel through Bookshop.org, order it directly from my distributor, or order it through their local bookstore. My small joke book The Man Makes You Work is also available on Bookshop.org, but my other self-published novelty titles are admittedly, only available on Amazon. But I hope to change that soon.

The 2026 book selling world is far different from the world Gabino Iglesias wrote about in 2019. Authors have plenty of options, as do buyers. We do not have to be reliant on Amazon for selling books. I don’t think any author should be promoting an Amazon link to their books. Unless they are still under contract with the Devil.

I’d like to see Gabino try the direct sales route. He has a dedicated base of followers and a consistent newsletter. I think he would be a great candidate to help find ways to make money without Amazon.

As unfortunate as it is that Gabino blocked me on Twitter, I still feel I was in the right. In the words of Bookshop.org, friends don’t let friends buy books on Amazon. And authors should discourage other authors from promoting their books on Amazon.

 

 

The Soundtrack of my Afghanistan Experience

 

 I haven’t written in over a week. Many apologies. I got caught up watching and attending the baseball playoffs. More on that later, including a post on my attendance at a raucous and wild Tropicana Field last week.

And I also have been working on another post about the writing world, so stay ready for that.

Today I wanted to post something I finally put together that has been on my project list for over 10 years. I don’t know why I didn’t knock this out sooner, as it only took me a few hours. But I finally made a video collage of pictures from when I was in Afghanistan in 2012-2013. I was there for 14 months from February 2012 to April 2013. I spent the first seven months in Kabul and last seven months in Bagram and two weeks on vacation in between bases.

A note about the song. Rapper Rockness Monstah has been one of my favorite rappers for decades. He released the song “Monstah’s Ball” in late 2011. I remember playing it one day in Afghanistan and thinking how much it related to where I was and my life at the moment. 

(Caution: some bad language. You’ve been warned.)

 

 “I’d like to welcome all of y’all to a beautiful monstrosity …”

As beautiful as Afghanistan could be with the snow-capped mountains, sunrises, etc, it was marred by the monstrosity of conflict since the 1970s.

“This is for my monstahs …”

You had to be a little bit of a monster to be in Afghanistan. You had to be a little nuts to volunteer to be there, as I did. Everyone was a little off their rocker, from the military to the civilians to the locals to the terrorists. But the money was good.

“The system tried to finish me …”

I was also out there to prove a former boss wrong. Before taking the job in Afghanistan, I was laid off in Tampa. It was my first of five times being laid off. I was motivated to work hard and show that asshole what he lost. I wanted to be a monster who was unfuckwitable as the song so eloquently says.

“Victory over certain misery …”

In Rock’s case, he was found not guilty of a murder charge before writing the song. In my case, getting laid off tried to end my career. I was celebrating getting paid again.

Although it’s not a perfect fit, there were enough lines in Monsta’s Ball to motivate me every morning. To motivate me through another day in the Monsta’s Ball.

Again, not sure why this took me 13 years to put together. But it was a nice walk down memory lane. Enjoy!

The Best T-Shirt for Sticking it to The Man

 

A few months ago I had an idea to make stickers, t-shirts, and more based on my book The Man Makes You Work. I had text, but I needed an image. I reached out graphic designer BrokenOptics to create a logo. After some brainstorming, we created a logo that I am very happy with.

 

 It has definite Bad Boss vibes.

After doing a bit of research and comparisons, I found a website to make stickers. I used an Internet Original - stickerguy.com, who has been making stickers since 1993. His slogan is “Sticker Guy! – Stickin’ it to The Man since 1993!” It was perfect.

After making a batch of stickers, my next step was t-shirts. I found only one print-on-demand site that does both front and back shirts - threadless.com. Every shirt has the option of either a big logo on the front or a smaller logo on the breast pocket.

The back of the shirt varies. I have so far created 20 different back versions of The Man Makes You Work t-shirt. Each shirt features 10 to 12 different observations from the book.

 

Customers can choose which shirt fits their lives the best. I am also open to doing custom shirts with whichever observations a buyer wants, as long as they fit on the shirt. I have noticed 12-15 lines is the most I can do.

My next step is business cards with QR codes that direct people to FightingTheMan.com, where they can buy a t-shirt or 20. I make a few dollars on each, so the more the better. Then I am looking to relaunch the original book The Man Makes You Work with the new logo and illustrations throughout. A rebrand, if you will. I hope to have that out by the holidays.

I will also be adding to the t-shirt selection with more options for the back of the shirt. Once a month I will update my mailing list subscribers with the new designs.

Having a merch line is a fun experiment. It hasn’t cost much but it could turn into the internet’s next great viral sensation. As long as The Man keeps trying to ruin our lives, there will be a market for merch that sticks it to The Man!

Celebrating twenty years of blogging

 

A few weeks ago, I passed a monumental anniversary. Twenty years ago, on September 19th, 2006, I typed my first blog post. It wasn’t much, just a few paragraphs, but it altered the course of my writing life forever.





My blog, The Serious Tip, has always been my writing home. Although I have written for bigger websites and publications, my little blog (or now newsletter, depending on where you read this) has been where I write whatever I want, whenever I want. No deadlines and no oversight, for better or for worse.

These days, as I hobnob and cavort with authors at bookfairs and events, I meet purveyors of the pen of various experience. I’ve noticed many jump into novel writing as their first writing aspiration. To me, that’s like running a marathon after buying your first pair of running shoes. I started with blogging. The Serious Tip is my gym, it’s where I work out. It’s where I practice. It’s where I develop a voice. It’s where I develop confidence.

The Serious Tip might not get very many readers and blogging might not be popular anymore, but it will always be my little corner of the world wide web.

I’ve written about this before, but I credit former FSU Cowgirl and current comedian Jenn Sterger for inspiring my online writing endeavors. I wrote for the Florida State college newspaper when she and I were both students there in 2005. When I saw her blogging on Sports Illustrated and getting readers, I figured I too would throw some words into the innertubes for the masses. I almost called my blog The Not So Serious Tip in tribute to Not Necessarily the News, the 1980s HBO comedy show, but settled on The Serious Tip, a tribute to an old school hip-hop term.

Early on, I wrote a lot about sports. Sports blogging was popular in the late 2000s and I was part of that community. But I didn’t really have an angle. I was just doing commentary, some of it forced to keep up with the latest sports current event. Despite many good posts, there wasn’t much consistency in content or subject matter.

In 2010 and 2011, I wrote a lot about stand-up comedy as I was trying my hand on stage. I wrote a lot of posts dissecting comedy as I built my knowledge of the art form.

In 2012, The Serious Tip played a big role in chronicling my time working and living in Afghanistan. I wrote some really interesting commentaries at the time on the people I met and my experiences. But that was short lived. That time in Afghanistan also was the first time I wrote personal tributes about people I cared about who passed away, as I wrote blog posts for both of my grandmothers, who both passed while I was in Afghanistan. I’ve since written about several friends and other family members who are no longer with us, to include my Dad who left us in 2023.

Afghanistan is also where I started writing the draft of what would eventually become Curveball at the Crossroads. On March 24, 2013, I blogged that the rough draft was finally done.

Following my return, there was a time where I tried writing on JordiScrubbings.com, and left The Serious Tip to wither on the vine. According to Google Analytics, there was a month when The Serious Tip only got 30 views. That’s one view a day. For a website, that’s terrible. Fortunately, I realized that paying for a website was a waste of money and again started writing on The Serious Tip.

From late 2013 to 2016, I barely wrote on The Serious Tip. Not only was I in grad school, but I was also consistently writing about baseball on TampaBayBaseballMarket.com. I built a baseball readership there, analyzing stats on the business of baseball in Tampa Bay. Posts on The Serious Tip were few and far between.

On September 27, 2016, I wrote about my first 10 years of blogging.

I also wrote a lot about my first long stint with unemployment. Looking back after other long stretches without work, I am saddened by how often I’ve had to ponder career instability. Those periods take a toll. There are definitely times that The Serious Tip became a diary of sorts, a place for me to word my thoughts.

In 2018, I used The Serious Tip to chronicle another overseas journey, this time to Qatar. I used blog posts like letters to friends and family. All I had to do was send them a link or share the link on social media. I had a lot of great adventures there and they are all documented on The Serious Tip for all time.

A few years later, during the COVID pandemic, I started doing bad movie reviews. I watched and wrote about the worst movies I could find. I called them Not So Serious Movie Reviews. Most of them were short and quick and allowed me to keep The Serious Tip going.

When I finally published Curveball at the Crossroads, The Serious Tip was where I posted pictures of me and my first novel. I also posted about my book signings and events. It was where I let the world know about my positive reviews. The Serious Tip was the online home of author Michael Lortz.

From 2021 to 2026, The Serious Tip was mostly book news or movie reviews. It still didn’t get a lot of views, although occasionally there was a spike of bot traffic from Russia. Maybe I’m big in Russia. Since publishing The Serious Tip newsletter in March 2026, I’ve tried to add a weekly or at least bi-weekly essay. What is published on the newsletter also gets published on the website.

Now The Serious Tip has over 1,000 blog posts. Many more are unpublished and sitting in a drafts folder. Since that lonely night in my mother’s basement, I’ve developed the confidence to write novels and write for several national and local publications. I became a writer.

I will always be a blogger as well as an author. I have friends who write short stories. I write essays. I write bad movie reviews. I occasionally write something that makes readers think - things that make you go hmmm. There is a little bit of everything on The Serious Tip. That’s the way it started and that’s the way it will probably always be.

Stay tuned. I want to eventually collect all my best essays and put them in a self-published book. Twenty Years of The Tip or perhaps The Tip of The Serious Tip. We shall see.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

A Review of In-Demand Indy by Rob Kimball aka RYZIN

 

 

The art of self-publishing involves a lot of promotion, marketing, and business savvy. In my journey selling my wares as an author, I have taken a lot from professional wrestling. So it was with great interest that I recently bought In-Demand Indy, a new book by pro wrestler Rob Kimball aka RYZIN. It also doesn’t hurt that my upcoming novel, Chaos in the Corner, is a story about a wrestler who works his way through the independent circuit. Reading about the industry is research.

Admittedly, I am not the target market for In-Demand Indy. The book is written for wrestlers aspiring to make it in the difficult business of pro wrestling. Unlike other books I have read on independent wrestling, RYZIN writes from the perspective of someone who has been successful, with over 20 years in the business. Despite never being signed to a long term deal, something he addresses often, RYZIN is a name in demand, having worked for WWE, AEW, TNA, and many other well known promotions and he has experience against some of the top names in wrestling. In-Demand Indy details his lessons learned, successes, and failures. It is a great book for those trying to make a business of being in the business.

Although I have only been in a wrestling ring three times in my life, I made a several notes as I read In-Demand Indy. These are from my perspective as a wrestling fan who has friends and family in the business and someone who has a love for the old school days of professional wrestling.

1) My biggest observation is that while RYZIN writes often about being a character, he makes no differentiation between being a heel or a face. For RYZIN, the business of wrestling is agnostic, which is the dominant theory since fans started rooting for the NWO in WCW and Stone Cold in the WWE(F). These days, heels can make as much, if not more, than faces.

The old school fan in me disagrees with the agnostic business model. In the old days, heels would not go out to see fans at intermission. Old school heels also didn’t interact with fans before or after shows. They kept kayfabe as insufferable assholes or unapproachable, intimidating monsters. Today, MJF in AEW is the only wrestler that keeps this tradition alive. Unfortunately for old school heels, that meant not making as much money in merch and other fan-related avenues.

I had a lot of problems with Norm Kaiser’s Fixing The Indies but his chapter on heels is really good. Kaiser writes about what makes a good heel including the different types of heels, from the arrogant bastard to the super strong monster. (FYI, I reviewed Kaiser’s book here.)

2) Speaking of old school, I don’t think the term “kayfabe” is mentioned at all in In-Demand Indy. Maybe once? In past generations, this book would have a “TOP SECRET: FOR PROFESSIONAL WRESTLERS ONLY” label on the cover. It would not be for sale to the general public. Wrestling was a secret society and “protecting the business” was paramount. This is not a knock against RYZIN. I am sure there are parts of the business fans are still not privy to. I know the days of keeping kayfabe are long gone, but I always wonder how the modern era of the business could fit in the past mentality of secret keeping.

3) This book was published in 2025 and probably written in years prior to, but it would be interesting to know RYZIN’s thoughts on Generative AI and wrestlers using AI-generated material for their marketing and swag. Is it ok to make AI-generated flyers? What about creating an AI logo or putting an AI design on your shirt or stickers? What if you sharpen your image by putting in ChatGPT or Claude?

If I am not mistaken, you can’t copyright an AI image. In order to sell your image on a t-shirt, you need to own it. If you can’t copyright it, you can’t own it. In other words, don’t use AI. Hire a real artist and buy the image from them.

I could see RYZIN commenting on AI in almost every chapter, from flyers to swag to using AI in business spreadsheets. That might be in volume two.

4) I mentioned in the intro that I use a lot of the same skills that indy pro wrestlers use in my book hustle. I “cut promos” to tell viewers the time and place of my next signing, I book my own events by contacting venues and organizers, I have an LLC, I tally profit and loss, I add swag to my table, I push product, and I hope to get signed to a contract for guaranteed money. I really enjoyed finding those comparisons. Fortunately for me, I don’t put my body on the line. Although I probably should go to the gym more often.

5) Since this book is all about the business of being a pro wrestler, how do wrestlers reconcile their personal business with the business of the promotion? For example, what if the promoter wants a wrestler change from heel to face or face to heel? What if that interferes with their branding? Should wrestlers not take the booking, even if it is early in their career? What if the show that wants them to alter their gimmick offers great, possibly career-altering, exposure?

What if a promoter wants a wrestler to job out (lose without putting up a fight)? What if the promoter’s idea is bad for the wrestler’s business? Is it ever ok to go into business for yourself? How do wrestler’s minimize the impression that they are only trying to get themselves over?

6) I enjoyed the social media chapter. In 2010, I wrote an article for a wrestling website on how wrestlers can best use social media. Of course, platforms and audiences have changed, but the need to constantly communicate to potential fans has not.

7) If I could add one chapter to In-Demand Indy, I would suggest that indy wrestlers be open to participating in other creative avenues as a way to promote themselves. Podcasts, talk shows, stand-up comedy, improv, movie acting, and many other platforms use many of the same performing “muscles” as pro wrestling and allow should allow a wrestler to namedrop their wrestling endeavors. There are numerous examples of this, from Hulk Hogan in Rocky 3 to Nick Nemeth in comedy to Tyrus on FoxNews. Even just taking local improv classes can raise a profile. Anything a wrestler can participate in is going to bring fans and make them more in demand, especially if they bring their new fans to wrestling.

Overall, I really enjoyed In-Demand Indy. 5 stars out of 5. There were a few typos and grammatical errors, but that can be looked over. It was a quick read (only 138 pages!) and it is filled to the top turnbuckle with great advice. RYZIN knows what he is talking about and it would behoove beginning wrestlers to pick up a copy and follow RYZIN’s words of wisdom. Recommended and necessary.

In-Demand Indy is also helpful to other folks peddling their creative wares. Pick it up if you want. Support indy wrestling.

Seeing Beast Mode on the Big Screen

 

 

I’ve always been a fan of Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. It’s a movie about a guy who makes a lot of friends across the country and after he plays a role in a movie, he invites them to the premier. Yes, there is his quest for his bike, but I think the movie is more about the friends than the bike itself.

Last Wednesday, I had a Pee-Wee moment in a movie theater. Woah, let me rephrase that.

Last Wednesday, I had a life accomplishment not unlike Pee-Wee’s character at the end of Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. I invited my friends and family, many of whom have never met, to see me in a movie, Joel Wynkoop’s latest low budget psychological thriller-horror-comedy Beast Mode.

I’ve been promoting Beast Mode for a while and while that was a lot of fun, it was even more fun to sit in a nice cushy theater seat, look up, and see a giant me acting on screen. My character Jordi Scrubbings is the first character appearing in Beast Mode. None of my guests had to wait to see me. I am not just some guy walking in the background. I play a reporter and newscaster who has segments throughout the movie.

I may have tapped my mom on the shoulder every time I appeared and whispered “That’s me!”. I wonder if big time actors had the same moments of awe the first time they saw themselves on screen. I don’t think I have ever seen that question asked in a Hollywood interview.

Big thanks to my mom (pictured above) and my friends former wrestling cameraman Jason Davis; Mabili from WMNF 88.5, who also helped with some promo videos (below); fellow writer Eddie Peeler; and former wrestling ring announcer/promoter The Don Vinnie. Not surprising, I have an eclectic group of friends.

One of my friends asked my mom if she was surprised I was in a movie. She said something to the effect that she wasn’t because my creative adventures aren’t really surprising anymore. I hope they are still fun and enjoyable. I actually agree with my mom. I made a 35-minute low budget sci-fi movie in 1999 and thought about applying to film school at Florida State before settling on English. I didn’t apply because the FSU advisor didn’t think my movie, Flash vs the Aliens, was enough experience to get accepted into the program. So I started writing.

Fast-forward 27 years and I am in a movie directed by the King of the B-Movies. I don’t know how many FSU film school grads can say that.

Hot Girls Shouldn't Be The Only Readers

 

 

I always find it interesting when I tell people about the Bookstore Revival. There is a 600% increase in bookstores nationwide according people who track these things. Bookstores are popping up everywhere. There are over 30 in the Tampa Bay area, from Brooksville to Sarasota.

Is this sustainable? I am not an economic forecaster, but I hope so. A lot of bookstores fill specific niches, such as romance-only, used-only, Black community, or fiction-only. There are bookstores that sell only books, bookstores that have coffee shops attached, bookstores that are part record stores, bookstores that are part of oddity shops, and even bookstores that share spaces with tattoo parlors and virtual reality gaming areas. If you put up a wall of books, to me, you are a bookstore.

I wholeheartedly believe the rise of bookstores is 100% attributed to women. Not only do women own a large majority of the stores, but women visit bookstores far more often. Go to a local bookstore. I guarantee you will see more women buying books than men. Especially fiction. In my experiences selling my novel in bookstores, the ratio is not even close. Probably at least to a 66% to 33% woman-to-man ratio.

Bookworld is predominantly female.

This dominance of women in book spaces has led to several interesting phenomenon. As women also tend to be more social in their book reading, reading and book buying has become a lifestyle brand. Books are the anchor in which elements of their social life revolve. They are part of book clubs, which range from the typical discussions of a weekly/monthly read to experience-based adventures, such as wine tasting and soirees. There are elaborate cosplay events to celebrate certain best-selling book releases. There is an overwhelming amount of bookish merchandise – book bags, t-shirts, hats, mugs, stickers, and numerous other pieces of swag that announce the owner as an avid reader.

Enter Hot Girls Read.

Hot Girls Read is a slogan seen on a lot of bookish merchandise. It is proclamation of empowerment. Reading isn’t only for nerds and outcasts, it is for Hot Girls. You can be a Hot Girl and become a reader with no judgement or you can be a reader and be accepted as a Hot Girl. The only qualification to being a Hot Girl is to read.

(There was also a giant kerfuffle earlier this year when a book influencer tried to copyright the phrase “Hot Girls Read” for their own specific line of merch. The women in bookworld made them public enemy number 1 until they dropped their copyright claim.)

The predominance of Hot Girls in book culture has also led to discussions that book reading is feminine. Preposterous as a rhinoceros addicted to phosphorous. But whether for clickbait or honest discussion, “reading is feminine” has been an online discussion in recent years.

Again, women tend to read more, be seen with books more, wear bookish merch more, and are more social about their reading more. I can see why the layperson who might not be in bookish culture might assume that reading is feminine in the same way that playing video games might be masculine. Newsflash: there is no additional testosterone needed to play video games as there is no additional estrogen needed to read.

Finally, there is a trend, mostly online and mostly among women book reviewers, to call their followers “girlies”, regardless of their gender. Because the majority of their audience is women, they assume only women are watching their content. This might be ok for a romance or romantasy book review, but what about sci-fi or mystery or horror or fantasy?

My fear is that these cultural phenomenon in bookworld are not welcoming new men into reading. There has never been a more important time for men to read. But I fear they are discarding bookworld before even giving reading a chance.

Of course, there is a different between reading and involving yourself in book culture. But why not create a line of book merch for men? Do Hot Guys Read? Is there a space for men in bookworld?

I do see men in horror. I see men in sci-fi. Plenty of men write non-fiction. But maybe men aren’t supporting bookstores as often as women, as I don’t see them browsing the stacks to the amount I see women. Maybe men order their books on Amazon, which I don’t recommend, but it beats not reading at all.

There are a few all-male book clubs. I am a huge fan of the Tough Guy Book Club, a network of Australian book clubs that meet in pubs. They only have three rules: you have to define yourself as a man (however you want to do that), you have to be an adult (it is in a pub, after all), and you have to read. Easy. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of Tough Guy Book Club in the United States, and most of them are in the Northeast.

So how do we get guys to read books? I don’t know the answer to that. Maybe it starts at the top. Maybe seeing well-regarded male public figures reading or carrying books might make it “cool” again. Several years ago, President Barack Obama put out a list of his favorite reads twice a year during his presidency. That tradition has sadly gone away.

We need men to read. We need men to read diverse books by diverse authors. Getting them to read is the first step. For that to happen, we need to welcome them into book spaces. We need to lure them in and get them hooked.

Unfortunately, the problem is there is no money in marketing books to men. Women read more. Of course publishers are going to publish to the gender that buys more. Whereas there are still many men in the traditional best seller lists, self-published and independent book publishing is dominated by women.

It frustrates me that outside of my author and writer community, most of the men I know don’t read regularly. Maybe they are a lost cause. Maybe society needs to focus on school age boys and get them into books. But they aren’t going to like being surrounded by Hot Girl Reads swag and being called “girlies”.

I am not in a position or role to make changes, but unless we want men to be ignorant lumps in society, we need to create spaces for men, especially young men, to embrace reading. Hot Girls shouldn’t be the only ones reading.

Good documentary on Florida music history

 

Years before the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Black performers had to play at venues in Black communities. In the South, the path through these venues was called the Chitlin Circuit. Florida had many stops on the Chitlin circuit as jazz, blues, and R&B performers took their tour bus from Pensacola to Miami.

Florida’s Chitlin Circuit explores the history of these tours. The 45-minute documentary also profiles the performers, many of whom went on to national fame and fortune. Names such as James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, BB King, Ella Fitzgerald, Tina Turner, and many more all played on Florida’s Chitlin Circuit.

I give this documentary a 4 out of 5. It spends too much time on the Florida Panhandle and misses out on discussing the Jackson House in Tampa. It also loses Florida in its discussion of female performers. There was also no mention of Zora Neal Hurston’s book “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, which details the Central Florida Juke Joint scene of the 1930s. Kind of an important piece of literature on the history of rural Black music in Florida during segregation.

But if you are interested in Florida music history, click the video and check this out.

Not so serious movie reviews - Raw Force, The Realtor, The Cat From Outer Space, and Ilsa She-Wolf of the SS

 

 I’ve watched 47 movies this year. I’ve only told you guys about a few of them. Here are a few more:


Raw Force (1982) - watched 10 Apr 2026

Do you like boobs? If so, you will like Raw Force.

Do you like butts? If so, you will like Raw Force.

Do you like kung-fu? If so, you will like Raw Force.

Do you like zombies? If so, you will like Raw Force.

Do you like explosions? If so, you will like Raw Force.

Do you like bartenders with really weird haircuts? If so, you will like Raw Force.

If you read all this, you will like Raw Force.

Go watch it now.

Grade: 5 stars out of 5



The Realtor (2024) - watched 22 May 2026

A wrestling real estate agent? A guy who finds his confidence in the ring? Rob Van Damm, Sgt Slaughter, and Jake the Snake? Tommy Davidson? A secret cult of successful realtors? Alas, so much unmet potential. The plot meandered. There wasn’t much of a conflict. There wasn’t much of a build. The wrestling was realistic but the organizations were not. There were parts that didn’t work. And did it take place in Philly or Baltimore? It seemed to jump cities for no reason. Low budget or not, I wanted to really like this. It could have been a classic. They could have taken the money spent on cameos and paid better writers.

Grade: 2 foreclosed stars out of 5



The Cat from Outer Space (1978) - watched 18 Jun 2026

When I asked my cat if this was a true story, he denied everything. But I think he is lying.

Fun old school Disney family movie.

Grade: 4 stars out of 5



Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (1975) - watched 14 Jul 2026

I’ll be watching Tom & Jerry cartoons until this disappears from my brain.

A movie about a Nazi torture camp run by a sadistic woman who does experiments on captured women. While trying to prove women can withstand more pain than men and proving her prowess to the leadership of the Third Reich, she puts the women of the camp through several scenes of utter repulsiveness. When a senior German general arrives for a visit, she puts on a show and tell not for the squeamish.

Why was this movie made? Why did they make sequels?

Grade 2 highly disturbing stars out of 5

Beast Mode - Premier Showing at Sun-Ray Cinema!

 

I am really excited to announce that Joel D. Wynkoop’s Beast Mode will be screening at Sun-Ray Cinema in Tampa on Wednesday, August 19th at 7:15pm.

You can see me on the big screen as reporter/newscaster Jordi Scrubbings, host of the Jordi Scrubbings Show. This is my first major film appearance and I could not be happier how the movie turned out. Joel incorporated some of my old comedy and Afro-Squad images and let me mostly improv my scenes. Jordi Scrubbings in the Wynkoop-Sunnyville Universe is the crossover you never thought you would see!

But you can see it! This August 19th at Sun-Ray Cinema in Tampa, located at 12332 University Mall Court, Tampa , FL 33612.

I will be there, of course. Joel will also be there. We might both have tables of merch as well. If you like Beast Mode, I highly recommend picking up Joel’s other movies such as Lost Faith or Dirty Cop, No Donut.

If we get a good crowd, maybe Sun-Ray will have us back! Maybe Beast Mode will be the underground, low-budget horror hit of the year!