There are a couple of big changes I have been making of late regarding both my writing and this website, and I thought it might be best to share a bit about them for the scattered few who might be curious.
First, I have updated the URL of the website so that it is primarily now www.swcampbell.com rather than the old www.shawnwcampbell.com. This is something that I’ve been wanting to do for quite awhile, and having recently acquired the former, I’ve made the decision to retire the latter. That being said, for the foreseeable future www.shawnwcampbell will remain active, but will just forward you to the new website.
Second, I have taken down a lot of my writing which was formerly publicly available on the website, specifically copies of my short stories that have been published and the old Professor Errare blog posts. The reason for this is that in the age of AI, anything publicly available on the web is constantly being fed into it, and I really just didn’t want that to happen anymore. Unfortunately, that’s just the reality of the world we live in today.
Third, I have stopped selling e-book versions of my books. This was done because e-book versions are that much more easy to feed into AI and I believe that given its rising prominence of AI physicality, things we can hold and touch, are going to gain a greater importance to us. With that being said, apologies to any of my readers who prefer e-book formats, if this is too much of an issue reach out via the Contact form and we can figure something out for you.
Fourth, I deleted the old Professor Errare page on Facebook. This was done because I have not updated it in years, most of the links in it no longer work, and it was increasingly becoming a page mostly liked by bots to try and prove how human they totally were.
Fifth, I have begun the process of shifting the printing and distribution of my books from Amazon to Ingram Spark, an alternative vendor. There are several reasons for this, but the main one is that despite the fact that I can provide books cheaper via Amazon, it is extremely restrictive, greatly limiting my ability to gets books into actual book stores, which is important to me because given AI I think in the long-term finding a regional audience is going to be increasingly important, similar to how many musicians often find regional success and build out from there. I also just increasingly dislike Amazon as a company. This is expected to take another year or two as I transition titles over for reasons that can best be explained below.
Finally, these changes have provided an opportunity for me to do something that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, which is to create my own artwork, specifically cover art and some interior illustrations. While I am not a great artist by any means, I am improving, and I firmly believe that in the age of AI the imperfections of human creation are going to become increasingly valued. I also think it helps give my books and more distinct look, wherein if you see them you will know they are mine. Plus as we age it never hurts to keep ones cognitive skills sharp via the learning of new skills. So far I have completed artwork for four of my old books, which will be available soon, and one new one, which will also become available soon. The remaining books will be transitioned slowly but surely moving forward.
To close, thank you to everyone for all of your support over the years. Since I first started selling books in 2016, I’ve sold or given away nearly a thousand, which is not much in the grand scheme of things, but amazing to me in so many ways. I hope I can continue to create things that people want to read. What an adventure it has been so far.
