With social media fragmenting, I’m bringing back my old “You Tell Me” Wednesday discussions to try to get good old fashioned blog conversations going. If you’re reading in a feed reader or via email, please click through to the post to leave a public comment and join the discussion!
I grew up in the middle of nowhere in a town without a bookstore in the pre-Internet cave-dwelling era, and, as a result, have largely appreciated Amazon as an innovator for bringing books to the hinterlands. As a kid, I would have killed to have had every book in the world at my disposal, rather than whatever was carried at the tiny B. Dalton mall bookstore thirty miles away.
I also was an early ebook adopter and have never looked back. I simply love having access to an entire library on my iPhone or iPad, and have built quite a collection via my Kindle app.
But lately…. yeeeesh.
Cracks in my esteem for Bezos Inc. started with the cesspool that is Amazon-owned Goodreads, with its unmoderated mobs and non-developed product. Those cracks only widened with just how much AI slop and pirated junk is allowed to be sold on Amazon. And now you have Jeff Bezos taking a golden sledgehammer to the editorial direction of the vaunted Washington Post and cozying up to the Trumps.
Leaving Amazon behind as a book consumer is relatively easy. There’s now a wonderful site, Bookshop.org, that ships books and even has a great new e-book app, and every sale supports independent bookstores. Because Bookshop.org distributes from Ingram, rather than via third parties, you can have confidence you’re getting the real thing. I already now link directly to Bookshop with book links rather than to Amazon.
But as an author… it’s very hard to leave Amazon. I have self-published my books (even the ones that were originally traditionally published) and the vast, vast majority of my sales come via Amazon. Even if I were willing to forego a real revenue stream that supports my life, I’m torn between meeting book consumers where they are and cutting off my support for a monstrosity I increasingly loathe.
What’s your current relationship status with Amazon? Are you going strong, pared back, or gone cold turkey? How do you think it through?
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I left Amazon with Bezos jumping into bed with Felon47 and out of bed with any ethical concerns at WaPo. I’d relied on it for supplies for caring for Mom, 95-years-old with dementia. I found other places to get the same things. Not as convenient, but I feel better about it. Then I realized the streaming music I have for her is Amazon Music. Switched that to Pandora. Looking to kick Alexa to the curb now that they will be saving everything in the cloud forever and you can’t turn it off. Cancelled Amazon Prime video because there are 10 gabillion streaming options and also, I could read. Or write. Or talk to a human. (Ack!). Cancelled my Amazon credit card, Is any of this going to be felt in Bezo’s pocket? No me. But enough mes add up.
I write. I don’t write books, so.
What would I do? Don’t know. Bookshop.org is my go-to. I imagine I’d adjust.
But yes, it is definitely time to stop feeding the billionaires out of laziness. Wherever there is an alternative, take it. (This is when I realized every article that lists things to buy and new ideas – like Buzzfeed – links directly to Amazon as a purchase option. Clever monkey that Billionaire)
Love this answer! Those of us who can afford it, need to boycott all products benefitting MAGA billionaires and their greedy associates. I will make a difference.
Ugh. I sell only on Amazon (or at local book events), and sometimes I hate myself for it. But I’ve sold thousands of books (print and many more ebooks) on Amazon. As a Kindle Select participant (only selling there), I get paid for pages read – 332 pages read netted me $0.73. Yay! As a self-published author, I’m happy about getting the reach outside my state.
I’d be willing to try Bookshop, because I hate giving Bezos the sales.
I won’t buy books there anymore. I go local or to Bookshop. I’m not 100 percent off it for everything, but I go out of my way to look for things elsewhere. Avoiding Amazon feels like the ethical thing to do these days.
I do not buy on Amazon, And gave up PRIME. The exception however, is kindle. My husband is 87, can’t work a computer, but CAN read on the kindle. And he loves it. So that stays. I like him more than I hate Bezos. I will look further and see if I can get books onto the kindle without amazon …he uses the library too and that goes to the Kindle. so it is possible.. but we shall see. I really hate Bezos and his penis logo (now you can’t unsee it.) Thanks Bonnie West.
It’s easy for me to shop elsewhere because I live in a metropolitan area where I can find everything I need. I know people in rural areas don’t have as many options, and I don’t begrudge them doing what they have to do.
I don’t make a substantial amount of money selling my books at this point, as they’ve been out for a while. And as Martha demonstrates (“332 pages read netted me $0.73”), the author/creator/rights holder gets so little of the profit, so it’s hardly worth it.
My books are on bookshop.org and I’m slowly but surely changing over all my links. I have a fantasy that enough of us will do it that it will make a difference. I mean, the consumer backlash seems to be working at Tesla, so why not?
I’ve been wondering exactly the same thing. The buying part is pretty easy to give up, and I like to think our purchases there benefit Bezos et al more than our selling books in the most visible “store” in the world? Or maybe that’s my justification, since I don’t know where else to go. Anyway thanks for raising the topic!
I’m all about that Barnes & Noble Nook app now! When checking out e-books from my local library, I try to avoid Kindle at all costs.
This is, indeed, the hardest thing. I’ve cancelled my Washington Post subscription (even though I live in the DC area and have counted on it for local news as well as everything else), but with most of my income from Amazon sales, I just can’t remove my books from there. I will look again at Bookshop.org now that they’ve got ebooks.
I loathe Amazon aka Bezos the clown too and don’t buy books there anymore. I borrow from the library or buy from bookshop or used bookstores. But……………as an author I can’t ignore Amazon but my bookshop/B&N buy buttoms are on top of Amazon. It’s the least I can do.
Thanks for your post and also for pointing out the problems with Goodreads. Shepherd is a good site and can hopefully replace Goodreads.
To me, Amazon is the lesser of multiple evils, in that I can pretty much find what I want simply because the stores around me don’t carry what I want/need. I self-publish through and D2D, so I’m quite happy with that.
I don’t purchase much in the way of new books unless they’re from people that I know and like. I do however, purchase used books from my local library, since they’re always purging and offer Spring and Winter book sales each year. And also borrow from same.
It’s really interesting to read all of the hate in the comments for Amazon and everyone else who doesn’t lean left, but eh, it is what it is. Sooner or later, everyone will have to deal with those they don’t like, simply because more often than not, other options are more expensive and less expansive.
I haven’t bought from Amazon, ever. I dislike the Web page lay-out and graphics.
You don’t need it, there are alternatives.
I’ve cut WAAAAAY back on what I use Amazon for – but the library uses Kindle for their ebooks, so I can’t give it up completely. The SECOND that Bookshop.org announced that they had ebooks, I made a vow to only buy through them. I do have an e-reader that is not Kindle and can handle multiple applications so I read the Kindle library loans there, as well as the Bookshop.org books I’ve purchased.
The other issue for me is the connection between Facebook, Instagram, GoodReads, and Amazon- how do I stay connected with my writer friends who haven’ t moved to BlueSky? How do I help my writer friends if I can’t review their books on GoodReads and Amazon?
It’s a mess.
As an author, I would say go to the publisher’s web site and submit your review to their site. Also find where the ebook or print is sold and submit your review there. On behalf of all authors, thank you!
I am a fan of a writer whose most recent book is only available on Amazon, so I couldn’t buy it at or through local bookstores, as I have with her other books, or check it out at the library. Since I don’t buy anything on Amazon, because it has helped eviscerate local businesses, this was pretty frustrating. But I wanted to read the book, did buy it on Amazon, and the next sad surprise was the number of typos and oddly divided short words at the ends of lines (t/he for example).
Does anyone know if the bad line/word breaks are only due to poor layout in the submitted file, or if they could also be introduced into a good layout by a poor Print on Demand process?
After that sad experience, I have doubts about having any of my own titles on Amazon when they’re ready to be published.