This has not been a good time for me.
I had a major personal loss in March, one that still makes me want to curl up into a ball and cry until I run out of tears. I won't say anything more, as it's not something I want to burden you with.
But what I want to write about is about something I swore to myself when I started this blog that I would never do -- politics.
Politics is personal, and I'm not comfortable waving mine around in public. But what has happened to the Russian-Ukraine War Factbook has made me break that vow. and it's time to vent.
I mentioned before that the book was supposed to be the first of a continuing series, written to detail the evolving war in near-time. Each volume was to cover a phase of the war, and the fist volume cover the initial invasion up to when the Russians retreated from Kyiv. Well, it has been decided that due to abysmal sales, there will be no more volumes.
I don't blame Military Miniatures Press. There were problems, yes, with the book not being Kindle-friendly, which killed presales, but that can be chalked up to a learning experience. The entire process was a learning experience, for all parties involved. This was my first non-fiction book I'd ever written and Military Miniatures Press was new at the publishing business. I had nothing but good vibes from the people there, especially Jamie and Samantha Rife, who came to me with the offer to write it, and who did their best to make the book visually appealing.
But what has really gotten under my skin about the entire experience, they one thing that ensured the book never got off the ground, is the killing of ad campaigns on Social Media. Killed by some idiots in an office somewhere who decided that the book was "propaganda" without reading it. And that makes me angry.
We tried to counter the blockade by doing podcasts, talking to anyone who would have us. But even the best podcasts don't have the reach of the planned ad campaigns, and the money isn't there to go around the social media companies to other ad choices. In short, the social media companies sank this book quicker than the Ukrainians sank the Moskva.
It's bad enough when people are censored when they say something other disagree with, but to throttle a book's advertising, a book they couldn't have read before making the decision, on the theory it was propaganda is infuriating. To decide such a thing is arrogance in it's purest form; it's them saying, "We think you're too stupid to make your own decision about the value of this book." Yet these same social media companies will allow posters to say the most outrageous things without blinking an eye. And it's not right.
My theory of censorship is simple; is the reading material age-appropriate for the reader? Most normal people won't give an eight-year-old a copy of Penthouse. Why? because it's not something an eight-year-old should ever be aware of, let alone be reading. But if that eight-year-old is now eighteen, it's his decision whether or not he wants to read it. Same with any book. Mein Kampf is arguably one of the vilest books ever written, yet you can walk into most bookstores in the US and by a copy. (And no, I would not let that eight-year-old read it.) Censorship is for the individual adult to decide, and for parents who care about their children's well-being. When someone else decides for you, you cede power to them, power you will have to fight tooth and nail to get back, if you can at all.
And that's what these faceless idiots at these social media companies did -- instead of letting you decide whether or not you wanted to read the book, they decided for you by killing the ad campaigns. They took the decision out of your hands, deciding that you wouldn't know the difference between propaganda and factual writing. That says to me they think you are too stupid to know the difference, that you are eight-year-old, and can't make up their own mind. And that is dangerous.
Now, I'm not claiming the Russian-Ukraine War Factbook is perfect. It was written shortly after the events in the book, using only open source material. I'm sure there are things in it that are inaccurate. But it was never mean to be a deep dive into the war, just a simple look at the war, with enough crunch stuff for wargamers (Military Miniatures Press, after all), but also for the person on the street who wanted to know more without having to slog through a three-hundred page book of dense writing. Its a first look at the war, nothing more than that. The deep analysis of this war comes later, by authors with better and deeper access to materials than we do.
But you, the reader, never got the chance to decide for yourself if the book was worth reading. Instead, face idiots did it for you, and that should make you angry. What else have they decided you shouldn't see or know about? If they can do this to a small book by blocking the ad campaign (and taking money out of their pocket by doing so -- not a huge sum, but money all the same), what will they do about other, more important subjects?
That's all for now. Any more and I'll be going around in circles.
Later
Craig
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Update: If you want a copy, go to https://militaryminiaturepress.com/, as things are still being hashed out with Castemate Publishing, and Amazon is being a dick about things, in the words of the boss, "their fees were ridiculous and they kept on putting holds on payments for their "reserve" so the above link is your best bet.....
If you want to take a closer look at the Russian-Ukraine War Factbook, or to buy it, you can go here: https://www.amazon.com/Russia-Ukraine-War-Factbook-Craig-Reed/dp/B0BL5CRLLK/ref=sr_1_18?qid=1672081631&refinements=p_27%3ACraig+A.+Reed&s=books&sr=1-18&text=Craig+A.+Reed
or here:
For my other non-Battletech writing, all four of the Outcast Ops novels I co-authored with Rick Chesler are on Amazon and are part of the Kindle Direct program. In the US:
In addition, there is a physical version of Watchlist here: Outcast Ops: Watchlist Paperback
For those in the United Kingdom,
For anyone else, please check your country's Amazon Website (if there is one).
Also, check out the other Outcast ops novels:
In addition, Outcast Ops novels are on audiobooks! If you're member of Audible, you can listen to them free! The audio versions can be found here:
The audios for Game of Drones Games of Drones (Audible) and The Poseidon Initiative The Poseidon Initiative are also up on Audible, or though Amazon!
Please read or listen and leave a review!
