Boycotts Are an Area of Effect Spell

People need to be aware of who gets caught in the blast. Authors need to have some defensive magic ready.

Area of effect spells and attacks can take out unwanted targets Photo by Luke Jernejcic on Unsplash

I remember playing Dungeons & Dragons and my character was trying to achieve a sneak-attack, when our resident wizard decided to cast a fireball spell at the enemy. Yeah. My dark elf was lucky to get the best outcome for her die rolls! The point is - area of effect spells and attacks can take out unwanted targets.

Boycotting is doing the same. A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons.

I get it. Really, I do. So do most writers. So do most creatives. We hate what is happening and we want to make these corporations pay for their horrible - insert problematic policies here - well, everything!

However, you have to think about the toll a boycott might play on people who are just trying to survive by using the platforms best suited to their business. And in today’s case, we’re talking about Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) and Amazon KU (Kindle Unlimited).

For indie authors, those sales matter. For those on Kindle Unlimited, the reads matter. They get credit for all of it and even though it’s a minute royalty; it adds up. That money often goes toward paying off what they spent on the current books or will go toward the next books they publish.

That’s why it’s not fair to try to return anything you’ve purchased that way, because then the author doesn’t get credit. In some cases, the author will lose money. But that’s another subject entirely.

Publishing like this is not free, though marketers will make you think as much. No. You put in the hours to write, pay for editing, put in hours revising, pay for cover art, formatting, any internal art, advertising, etc…

In some cases, these authors have been able to turn enough of a profit to pay their bills with this. This can be a career if you have enough sales or reads to sustain.

But when you boycott a platform entirely without thought to the small businesses and indie authors using that platform for most of their sales, you’re not hurting Amazon, you’re hurting the underdog trying to make ends meet.

Photo by Daniel Eledut on Unsplash

Theoretically, you are not hurting Jeff Bezos or Amazon.

Jeff Bezos may be a lot of things I will not mention on here, but one thing for certain is - he either knows the best business law or hires the best business lawyers. He does not own Amazon the way he did before the pandemic. He actually owns less than 10% of shares in the company and hasn’t been CEO since 2021.

Unlike other retail chains, Amazon has surpassed the point of being harmed by boycotts. Why? They make most of their money from their branch called AWS (Amazon Web Services). They basically offer comprehensive digital services and cloud computing to huge corporations—think Netflix and government contracts. They’ve been around since 2006! So they’re firmly established before the retail side of Amazon really took off.

As of this article, I am not sure where the numbers stand on how effective the boycott will actually be for Amazon. Other boycotts are working against their intended TARGETS (see what I did there?). Ironically, that just means less competition for Amazon in the long run.

So who are you hurting?

You are hurting the third-party seller using the Amazon platform to reach consumers. Amazon has the largest e-commerce search engine available (Google is the largest search engine of all, but it doesn’t focus on e-commerce). That means it’s the perfect platform for finding the products you need. Therefore, it’s also the perfect place for people to sell their wares.

A boycott of this company and all the products on it only hurts people like us - small business owners, independent creators, and people relying on the affiliate programs. I found a perfect encapsulation of this on The Kindle Subreddit by user MissNikitaDevan -

Small businesses and indie authors rely on Amazon for visibility and sales. And for many BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and disabled authors, Amazon provides one of the few accessible and equitable platforms to publish and reach readers without the barriers of traditional publishing.

For indie authors, Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and Kindle Unlimited (KU) programs are our main way of reaching readers. Many of us are exclusive to Amazon because KU requires it. That means when sales drop, even for a week, our books lose ranking, visibility, and future income. Since KU ebooks can’t be sold anywhere else, there’s no alternative way to support these authors outside of Amazon, unless they offer direct sales … which often doesn’t help, because a lot of authors buy their copies from … yeah, you got it … Amazon. And if you’re outside of the US (either as a reader or an author), shipping fees to get those books can cost more than the book itself, and just isn’t financially viable.

But it’s not just books. Many small businesses use Amazon’s third-party marketplace to sell everything from handmade goods to specialty products. When sales decline, it’s not Amazon losing money—it’s these businesses taking the hit.

And if the boycott does make an impact on revenue? The first people to feel it, beyond authors and small sellers, will be Amazon’s employees. Corporate executives won’t be the ones taking pay cuts. Instead, Amazon will do what corporations always do. They’ll cut warehouse staff, reduce contractor hours, and lay off employees at the lower levels.

As consumers what should we do?

If you want to be a problem for the Zon and stand by your principles, find ways to help the people who will be affected most by your boycotting. Be willing to put in the work. Find your favorite creators, shop owners, and indie authors through their social media, their websites, and more.

Continue to support them despite not using Amazon. The company purposely tries to keep people on its site and doesn’t provide a direct path to the author’s socials or website for a reason. Don’t let that dissuade you!

When it comes to Amazon (or any other retailer you want to boycott) stop using them out of convenience. Halt your Amazon Prime subscription. Shop local more. Stop purchasing Amazon’s Brand/Version of products (some of which they stole designs for).

Keep in mind, Amazon has created a toxic cycle in what it is doing with Kindle Unlimited (KU). When your favorite author is incentivized to use KU, they are locked into a 90 day exclusivity clause and as long as they are in Kindle Unlimited, they cannot share that particular book anywhere else.

As long as their fan base partakes of KU, they will remain in KU because they need their money. Upholding your principles won’t always provide a way to pay the bills, so some of them are going to remain because they feel they have no choice. Some may lash out and freak out because this boycott is cutting their income in half or worse. So, please keep that in mind when interacting.

One author presented it this way, and I cannot for the life of me find the quote, but paraphrased - “KU is like a loss-leader for Amazon KDP.” They don’t make much money off of it, but it keeps people on their site and initiates purchasing behavior.

Therefore, if you can just use the services that do not make Amazon much money, but help authors tremendously, do that—and have no guilt. I’m not here to judge. I’m just here to explain and advise.

Photo by Resume Genius on Unsplash

As AUTHORS what should we do?

This is all up to you! I hope whatever you choose to do will bring about the best outcome. But I definitely will drop some possible paths here.

So many people are told that they should drop Amazon all together and only publish WIDE and include KoboPlus and public library systems as their subscription offerings. And yet, most of us can report that our most profitable platform remains tied to Amazon.

A lot of people are hoping that this boycott incites a change in this toxic cycle with KU. In theory, it might work, but the problem is the time it takes for change. For one thing, most indie authors using KU have to wait the 90 days to get their distribution rights back. So if they’ve put all of their eggs in one basket, they need time to write and publish something elsewhere.

Direct sales of eBooks will take time as well. It’s great to have this as an option, obviously. However, getting an author’s voracious readers to switch from a library of choices and one monthly fee to paying for each individual book and having to visit each individual author’s website to handle business is not feasible.

Then, if they go to KoboPlus, will their readers follow them? Will these people who are boycotting continue to boycott? Will they fall right back into their habits of going to Amazon anyway? In other words, is this change going to actually work or not? No one can predict the future.

I know some authors who have successfully “wrangled cats” to get their readers to follow them via newsletters or to another platform, but it takes a lot of work.

What bothers me, having felt the loss of income from the implosion of KindleVella, is that indie authors are still putting all the eggs into one basket. Perhaps the loss of money happening will drive authors into considering new income streams?

Get your eggs in more than one basket - honestly, I think you shouldn’t be focusing on just one product, either. So not just the eggs! Photo by Nikhita Singhal on Unsplash

Diversifying Your Income Streams

To be clear, because apparently on Facebook people thought I was telling authors to drop the Zon altogether and I was not—I recommend diversifying your income streams no matter what. It’s always been good financial advice.

Every business is different, and what works for some may not work from others. I’m just trying to give you some advice and options to consider. If you do not feel comfortable leaving the Zon, don’t. But there are other options that can help you increase your income elsewhere at the same time.

There are people, in this day and age, who get almost all of their income from crowdsourcing their products before printing or manufacturing them. Kickstarter has become so popular that even mainstream authors are using it.

There are some amazing authors out there who are not afraid of telling you how they use Kickstarter to keep their business going. These authors usually have a Kickstarter on pre-order, live, and being fulfilled at the same time all the time. It’s their retail cycle, and it works.

Some people have found success at writing serial, extra content, or subscription-based materials to people who prefer receiving the books in that way. There are so many platforms available for this, including multi-use platforms that allow you to design merch and take donations and sell digital materials all in one place!

Some examples: Patreon, Ko-fi, Fourthwall, Payhip, Substack, Ream, etc…

If you do decide to take your books from KU or you have enough material to spread some out to other platforms, Draft2Digital & IngramSpark have major multiplatform distribution, including to libraries and KoboPlus. Or you can put in the hard work to upload your work to retailers individually.

If your fans are willing to migrate, ask them if they’d also be fine with being subbed to your newsletter. Whether you use Mailchimp, Mailerlite, or Substack, this allows you to keep their contact information so they find out when you will be releasing. A bunch of KU authors already do this, and it’s smart, because they can let their fans know if they will be changing platforms.

Add more fans through the use of promotions available through places like StoryOrigin or Bookfunnel. They don’t just offer the ability to distribute your digital products (Dropbox for free if you need that only). These promo platforms are a place for authors to gather and trade promotions. They help authors keep up with beta readers and ARCs. These will cost you money, but they are good services.

I was able to use profits made from my sales in KindleVella and my non-fiction writing on Medium (also a valid place for writers to diversify) to get some books and banners printed for local events. I make most of my profit from those events thus far. I am very choosey about where I go, so that I’m not incurring hotel expenses or booth expenses that I won’t make up for in sales.

I’ve also been able to diversify into things that I’m good at, but are not writing. If you have a talent or skill that can help you stay afloat during times like these (boycotts or corporate changes which take your money from you) begin developing a business around them!

I know authors who have the ability to be editors, paid beta readers, specialized editors/readers, formatters, PAs, coaches, or even teachers for their industry. Some of those authors wind up making as much, if not more, by investing time in building a business from those skills than book sales. And the best part? They are still able to write and read—now they are helping others achieve those goals.

I hang out on Authortube and I have a skill born from years of working in advertising - I can write and coach people through editing their blurbs. So, I’m using that as a side-gig. Also, the hubs loves building websites. I showed him the intricacy needed and the acceptable pricing he’d need to focus on in order to build a base of clients within the creative community. That has become another side gig.

I hope to build these businesses along with my non-fiction and fiction writing into something sustainable. The point is, it definitely helps.

I hope all my fellow indie authors can find enough income streams to keep going through the tough times. I mean, I really hope we all hit it big, not gonna lie! But in the meantime…

Diversifying can only help you.

If you have any other suggestions to go with this, please feel free to leave a comment! We are here to support one another!

The original posts are on my Facebook and Instagram, you’re welcome to comment there as well. Catch me on Authortube or Twitch and also check out other articles that might help you on your author and writing journey!