Saturday. June 27, 2026

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine from college—a voracious reader—lost her entire library of ebooks. Thousands of them.

Gone in an instant.

You might think this happened because she lost her e-reader, or through some kind of rare technical glitch.

No. It happened because she got into a dispute with the company she bought all the books from (I won't say who, but you can guess). The dispute was actually over a completely different product she bought on their platform. When they refused to give her a refund, she decided to close her account with them.

In response, the company wiped every single book off her reading device. 

Was this some vicious retribution on their part for closing her account?

Not at all. It is standard operating procedure for all the big ebook platforms. To them, it's just flipping a switch: ACCOUNT TERMINATED, and all the user agreements you clicked YES to go into effect.

You see, when you "buy" a book from them and download it to your reader, you don't actually own it. I'm not talking about books from the "all-you-can-read" lending libraries, like Kindle Unlimited or Kobo Plus. I'm talking about all the books you buy from these huge companies, period. Every single one of them.

When you click that Buy Now button on Amazon, Apple, Nook, Google, or Kobo, you aren't actually buying a book. You're essentially streaming it, like a video on Netflix or music on Spotify. You've paid for temporary access to a file that lives on their cloud. The second you disconnect from their ecosystem, the music stops and your library vanishes.

Because your ebooks live on their servers, the platform can and will reach right into your device and snatch your entire library out of your hand. If a book publisher has a contract dispute with Amazon or Apple, or if you decide to close your account like my friend did, the master server sends a silent command. The next time your device connects to the internet—poof—your books vanish from your screen.

It sounds like scary sci-fi. Only this isn't sci-fi. This is real.

These companies deliberately build digital walls around the books you "buy" from them so you can't archive them yourself. You can't plug your device into a computer, drag your favorite books onto a hard drive or a flash drive, and back them up. If you switch from a Kindle to a Kobo, or from an Android phone to an iPhone, you can't take your library with you. You have to start over from scratch.

Few people know this dirty little secret—the big companies do a fine job of hiding it from you. The few who do know it often think, "I'll just turn on Airplane Mode and cut the Wi-Fi so they can't touch my books." That works as a temporary band-aid, but the big companies thought of that, too. If your e-reader stays offline for too long, the app will eventually lock you out of your own files until you reconnect to "verify your account." You can't win.

Of course, if you can re-open your account with the platform, you can usually get your books back. But in the case of my friend, that would have required her to go crawling back to a company that mistreated her—something she absolutely refused to do.

Let me give it to you straight: if you part ways with any of these big companies, they are going to delete all their books from your device, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Why am I sharing this dark fact with you?

Two reasons. First, it makes me furious that some cold, calculating mega-corporation has absolute control over the books we paid for and can yank them out of our libraries at will.  I'm a big reader, too, and didn't know this myself for quite a while, even after a started publishing.

Second—and this is the good news—my friend's experience has made me totally rethink my publishing strategy.

From this day forward, I'm focusing on bringing my readers—that means you—directly to my online bookstore, so that every book you buy from me in the future is actually yours. 

This is part of the reason I decided to publish the entire Lust, Money & Murder series—all 18 books—as one single, large file last week, exclusively on my store. I know many of you love the characters and the emotional ride this series has given you, and you want to hold onto it safely, so you can go back to it whenever you choose.

Books you buy from my store belong to YOU.
No clouds, hidden strings, or corporate permissions required.

When you buy this set directly from my store, you receive a file that you can download, back up on a flash drive, and keep forever. 

The disturbing publishing industry "cloud" (pardon the pun) I've talked about here has a silver lining, at least for me. I've realized that selling my books primarily through my own store, rather than relying on those giant platforms, allows me to cut out the corporate middlemen.  It will take me a couple of months to get all my books on my store again, but that's my new goal.  This will increase my earnings enough so that I can keep doing what I love: writing more books for you, including future stories in the Lust, Money & Murder world.

Thank you for supporting independent authors, and for taking back control of your bookshelf.

Mike

P.S. Have you read all my books?  

Lust, Money & Murder

Affordable Trilogy Boxed Sets

Lust, Money & Murder

Stand-Alone Novels

Outback Diamonds (LM&M #16)

Marilyn's Secret Liptstick (LM&M #17)

Mortal Silence (LM&M #18)

More 'Unputdownable' Books by Mike Wells
(Click on the photos for full synopses)

International Crime Thriller - Lust, Money & Murder (Series)
The deeper she goes, the more she risks becoming a criminal herself.

Crime/Psychological Thriller
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Crime Thriller - The Drive-By Wife
Takes "home invasion" to an entirely new level.

Crime Thriller - The List
She doesn't forget. She doesn't forgive.

Crime Thriller/Serial Murders - With Mother's Approval
A mother's love is eternal. For some, it's lethal.

Romantic Suspense - Forbidden (Series)
Temptation has its price.

New Adult Sci-Fi Adventure - Wild Child (Series)
You don't choose the green water...the green water chooses you.

Horror/Black Comedy
Babies always know...and they don't forget.

Technothriller - The Tesla Secret
Unlocking Tesla’s free energy secret could power the world...or end their lives.

Technothriller - Blind Scorpion
He could walk away a hero...but for which country?

YA Sci-Fi Romance - The Mysterious Disappearance of Kurt Kramer 
Lost in between worlds, will his heart lead him home?

Romantic Comedy - Secrets of the Elusive Lover
He plays the field, but she changes the game.

Coming of Age Suspense - The Wrong Side of the Tracks
First love in the teenage hell known as high school.

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