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F@ck Amazon and Their "Amazon Original Stories"


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I was just on Lip Alley where they have a much more vibrant Black book discussion than AALBC.  I wish that were not the case, but anywho ...

 

Someone there just recommended a book, by N.K. Jemisin, whose work I follow, so I was surprised to learn about a book i never heard of (image below).  The book is not in distribution -- it isn't even in Books in Print's database.  So I mosey on over to Amazon and see that it is an "Amazon Original Stories." I was like WTF!!?

 

So Amazon is now selling books that they have the exclusive right to sell and Black writers are signing up for this bullshit?!  This is outrageous. 

 

Amazon is the same company that announced during a global pandemic ,when millions of people have already lost the jobs, that they are cutting  affiliate commissions 50 to 70% with just one week's notice. This has to be devastating to the businesses involved. How freaking cut throat can you be!

 

Now I stopped directing readers to Amazon last summer.  I did continue to link to Amazon for paid advertisers, but this is a practice I'm going to have to discontinue. 

 

Amazon already dominates the online Black book market.  They already dominate all ebook and audiobook sales -- so much so that I can no longer sell these products on AALBC (side bar: readers simply do not buy libros audio books or kobo ebooks from me. I would still offer them for sale if the those vendors made it easier to determine which books had ebooks or audio books available -- but that is another story).

 

So N.K., perhaps the most celebrated living science fiction writer on Earth, has a new ebook, Emergency Skin, which I can not offer for sale.  Beyond this post, or similar commentary explaining just how f@cked up Amazon is, I will make believe the book does not exist.  

 

Just image if this ebook were made available to all indie booksellers by only making it available via Kobo and not the Kindle.  Could the author make as much money?  Why not? 

 

Indie booksellers, Black, white, online, brick and mortar -- whatever, are going to have to unite against Amazon or be buried.  Amazon is predator taking advantage of weaken competitors while they are down. Some bookstores, many perhaps, will not survive the combination of a global pandemic and Amazon’s business practices. 

 

Readers, support your indie booksellers or lose them.

 

amazon-originals.jpg

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