I’ve decided to pull down the web store on the Malleus Maleficarum web site. It’s just too much work, and it’s not bringing in the results we expected. For some reason the people who bought so many books through our Amazon.com affiliate links aren’t interested in buying those same books directly from us. So… why keep headbutting the wall?
I’ve restored the Amazon.com affiliate links on the main pages, and have converted the existing store link to an Amazon.com based e-Store on-site. That’ll make it easy for people who want to purchase copies of the Malleus Maleficarum and other related works to do so, and will hopefully resolve the trust issue which some people had over ordering from the web store. It’ll also be a lot less work for me. That’s a good thing these days. There are already too many projects on the table.
In closing, I just want to address some of the people who dismissed our efforts to provide an on-site web store as an attempt to “cash in” on the Malleus Maleficarum. This web site has now been in operation for over a decade. All related expenses have always been paid out of my pocket, even as I watched people steal our PDF files and sell CD-ROM copies of them on eBay, re-post the entire work on their web sites without any credit to us whatsoever, and avail themselves of our free downloads by providing uncredited links to them on their own pages. All I’d hoped to do with the web store was try to off-set some of the costs of maintaining this decade long project so that we might continue to provide these services to the community. It was never my intention to “cash in”. Anyone who believes you can get rich on a web site that’s mostly frequented by college students is delusional. But I had hoped that, perhaps, among the 1,000 plus people who visit this web site every day, there might be a handful who wanted to chip in and help support the effort. But I always have expected too much of people.
To that one person who posted a link to this web site and derided it as “one stop shopping”, I would like to advise you that as you move forward in life you’ll realize that nothing is free. Nothing springs from the ether. Everything is the product of someone else’s labor. Sooner or later you’re going to have to stop doing nothing but take from the world around you and pitch something into the pot.
I hope the new Amazon.com e-Store functions suit the needs of our users better. Please let me know if there’s anything that you think should be added to the store. I’ll get it right up right away.
Walk in light and peace.
~ Wicasta Lovelace
