The boycott isn't hurting Jeff Bezos. It's hurting your neighbors.Seventy percent of the sellers on Amazon are small businesses or indie authors like me. We use Amazon to reach customers we would never be able to find otherwise.
The February 28 boycott cut my royalties in half that day. I had 4 canceled pre-orders. There were people who said that while they still intended to buy my book, they would wait until March 1 to avoid breaking thet boycott. Again, I get it. But many of those who did that don't realize the difference on the back end: for a book bought on February 28, I'd get paid for it at the end of April. A book bought on March 1 won't be paid for until the end of May. That makes a difference.
Please don’t cancel your Kindle Unlimited subscriptions or stop buying books from Amazon. You won't hurt the billionaires, but you will hurt indie authors like me. Kindle Unlimited page reads make up at least 75% of my royalties each month. It would be hard to pay the bills without it.
Think of it this way. If you pay for Kindle Unlimited, read more. Make Amazon lose money by how many books you eat every month.
Just a thought.
This is not to say that I don't agree in theory (and in quite a lot of practice) with an economic slowdown. We all buy crap we don't need without very little thought. I'm in favor of more mindful purchasing, whether that means small/local businesses when applicable, reputable companies through big box stores or online markets, or small businesses not local to me who I can only find because of their participation on websites like Amazon.
I know several crafters who, without Joann's, have no access to certain supplies they need without ordering from another large chain or from Amazon. Are they supposed to close their small businesses because some portion of their supplies are sourced from a company that their customers would like them to boycott? The system isn't set up for us to bail on the elephants in the room yet.
And that's a whole different topic.
5 comments:
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I am trying to buy less and with Amazon's policy change on Kindle I have been avoiding Amazon. In your case can we buy direct? Jean
You can buy paperbacks direct from me, but ebooks are Amazon-exclusive.
Do you have an alternative to boycotts? Because they seem to work - the right merely threatens a boycott, and Target stops their program supporting Black-owned businesses - and that's only one example. Open to suggestions.
Hi Karen, I'm with you. I buy all my books via Kindle - I don't have the physical space to house them all - and I love they come with me wherever I go. I don't allow politics to interfere with supporting our authors - I only buy books on Amazon - rarely anything else. I know the author receives a higher % and that's fair. You work so hard to produce the work - and I very much appreciate this. My priority is the author - not the CEO of Amazon who is an untouchable. The world is never fair - we have to choose our battles. Until another competitor can offer such an excellent writer's platform to sell their works, we only have Amazon. Bottom line, Amazon Publishing in this instance, pays more to the author, than traditional publishing does. I support you 100%. I am also a writer - working on memoir and children's picture books. Christina
Thank you, Christina. It really is the system we're stuck with right now, and it's far better than traditional publishing. Good luck with your writing.
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