My title might be a bit hyperbolic, but stuff like this worries me. I love to read and I love reading on a kindle. This has been going on for a while, but it has now reached absurd levels.
My title might be a bit hyperbolic, but stuff like this worries me. I love to read and I love reading on a kindle. This has been going on for a while, but it has now reached absurd levels.
Anyone that buys anything from Amazon is also part of the problem. Support your local bookshop while you still can.
I mean, most of my reading comes from authors who are literally only on amazon. And they’re only on amazon because it’s impossible to make a living trying to sell your book anywhere else. Brandon Sanderson has brought attention to this issue.
I’m supporting indie authors in a sub-genre that you literally can’t even find in a physical bookstore. I get that bookstores are hurting, but I had to make a choice between small time authors and small time book stores.
Assuming you mean the sub-genres popular on Royal Road, sufficient Patreon support helps keep authors off of Amazon.
But that gets expensive fast if you support multiple authors, so that’s hard to do too.
A store cannot survive on good will alone unfortunately. As much as I like my local bookstore, Amazon provides more content in more formats. It’s just better from every angle.
If you need The Good to be just as convenient as The Bad in order to make the switch, it’ll never happen. Nobody’s saying bookstores offer a better deal than Amazon, they’re saying that Amazon is so bad for the world that it makes sense to sacrifice that convenience and switch to alternatives.
Problem: those formats are DRM’d. Your access to “your” books can be revoked at any time without justification.
Don’t worry, your utopian vision of streets full of closed shops and associated tumbleweed will be here soon enough.
There won’t be tumbleweed. There’ll be tents. Tents everywhere. Portland, Oregon is a preview of everyone’s future at this rate.
I like reading ebooks on my phone or tablet. Google and Amazon make acquisition easy in that regard.
So yes I am part of ‘the problem’ whatever that means.
Good for you. Just remember that monopolies rarely have your or the little authors’ interests at the centre of their business plans. It’s seems to be mainly about owning big yachts and rocket companies.