Farewell to Amazon

Today I am pondering an important publishing relationship. I no longer wish to continue self-publishing through Amazon.com. This comes about after recent revelations that Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, intervened to prevent the Washington Post from endorsing a presidential candidate. Without getting into the thicket of our varying political beliefs, or even the validity of newspaper endorsements, this greatly concerns me.

With this election, it seems evident that the United States is teetering between freedom and tyranny. And, per the eminent scholar of tyranny, Timothy Snyder, the worst thing institutions can do is obey tyrants in advance. It teaches them what they can get away with.

By interfering in the editorial process, that is what Bezos has done. He is obeying a tyrant in advance. I’m not interested in guessing his reasons or impugning his character. They are irrelevant. My personal standards are to resist tyranny as much as I may. My immediate means of resistance is by withdrawing my books from Bezos’ platform.

This is not easy. Amazon.com was the foundation of independent publishing. Beginning more than 20 years ago, they provided the means for authors to produce our own books, and the platform to reach potential readers. Amazon is still the leading e-book seller and a familiar touchstone for the audience.

At the same time, Amazon has changed dramatically from the plucky online book seller it was then. They sell everything now, not just books. With that success, Amazon became a massive target for book fraud and with AI the scamming has only become worse.

Looking at my own financials, between 2021 and 2023, I see that sales on Amazon were between 1/5 and 1/3 of my annual writing income. Getting off that marketplace could really hurt me. But so would an authoritarian takeover of the United States, which puts a number of my immediate family at risk.

Ironically, the technology Amazon pioneered means that there are other platforms now. Indy authors don’t have to go through them. I’ve already had an established relationship with Draft2Ditigal, which gives me access to Smashwords as well. That means I can now do paperbacks through D2D. I didn’t like their terms as well, but I like enabling a dictator even less.

Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t have a WIP at the moment. It’s going to take time and patience to disentangle myself from Amazon’s platform. But in keeping with my personal standards, I can no longer do business with Amazon.com.

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my website, Bluesky, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.