This morning, I posted a long rant on Mastodon, about how I might take my books off Amazon because of their latest AI nonsense. I’ve added a little perspective and included the posts but cleaned them up a little for better readability in this format.
What is This All About?
If you haven’t heard about Amazon’s latest scheme, it’s been explained here on Writer Beware, which is an awesome watchdog site for indie authors. Basically, Amazon wants to implement an “ask this book” AI that will create answers for questions readers might have about the book they are currently reading.
This means pushing every book on Amazon into a huge database, analyzing them all so they can generate answers through a local AI chatbot. In other words, it’s one more grab to steal books, suck up their content for an AI – and this is my guess, but maybe Amazon wants to be able to “write” books with that AI in some future, and feeding those to readers. We already see that with AI-generated songs on Spotify. They won’t have to pay anyone for that content.
Basically, I can see the tech giants trying to get rid of the original creators (and paying them), so they can make even more money.
So What am I Thinking and Doing about This Crap?
Here we go, this is the first part of my rant:
Now that Amazon is getting even more evil than it has been for a long time, by shoving AI into every ebook uploaded to them, I am seriously contemplating taking my books away from Amazon.
I can actually do this because
1) my books have been widely available elsewhere for years and I have a somewhat established presence “wide”
2) I have my own store set up through PayHip, so people can buy direct, if they want to (still need to put everything in there).
3) I have a presence here on Mastodon which is already shifting visibility – and people here are much more willing to buy direct and own the ebook they got.
4) I have a day job that pays my bills. I do not rely on book sales for my livelihood. I can take the hit to royalties because I never depended on them anyway.
5) I have taken the steps to kill my publishing business at the end of the year. I guess that was more prescient than I even knew a week ago.
So leaving Amazon is doable for me. And it feels like the right move.
But I’m just one little indie author.
Amazon is not going to miss me. It’s not even going to miss a thousand indie authors leaving them. They won’t care.
They will only care if readers leave them – and that’s where you come in.
What Can You and Other Readers Do about This Crap?
You can leave Amazon, as well. You can get your ebooks elsewhere, and you can even put them on your Kindle (because having one is an investment nobody wants to throw away easily).
This is what I have explored, and I know there is much, much more out there.
1) Use Smaller Stores
There are Smashwords, Kobo, B&N, Thalia (Tolino) in Germany (although they are also evil), BoD, and many more. (Try bookshop.org, as well.)
I absolutely recommend Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/
2) Buy direct.
My store is through PayHip, and you may not even be aware that PayHip has its own book catalog: https://payhip.com/marketplace/fiction-books
What else can you, dear reader, do?
There’s quite a lot, even if you’re not yet willing to give up your Kindle.
3) Buy direct. Buy direct, buy direct, buy direct.
It’s really easy to put books on your Kindle that you bought elsewhere. I just wrote a blog post to teach you that: How to add an eBook to your Kindle
So there’s no need to give up your Kindle just yet. But show interest in eReaders that are open source and let you read all books.
4) Talk to your favorite authors
Tell them how you would prefer to buy from them.
Authors who earn all their income from Amazon will be scared. They need to know there is a market outside of it.
Some are already experimenting with selling direct for a week or two before going exclusive with Amazon.
Support that!
5) Stop writing reviews on Amazon
Put them on Bookwyrm instead.
https://bookwyrm.social/
No, do not use Goodreads. It belongs to Amazon.
The Bigger Picture
Of course, this all needs to be seen in a wider context:
Stepping away from tech giants like Amazon is also part of a rebellion against the billionaires who are destroying our world out of pure greed.
By not giving Amazon money, you are voting with your dollars and euros and whatever currency you’re using.
You are choosing actual human beings – in this case us indie authors – over tech bros who don’t give a rat’s arse about people.
Let’s do this!
