Amazon is excluding spicy romance & LGBTQ books from the affiliates program.

[sapphireangel@mastodon.online]

@susankayequinn @andrew I don't agree with what they are doing, but people need to stop tossing everything at the founder when he's not the one making the decisions now. He was and that can be faulted.

[susankayequinn@wandering.shop]

@sapphireangel Bezos empowered Trump, donated to the ballroom, funded the Melania movie, in every way has used HIS AMAZON MONEY to put the people into power who are enforcing Project2025 at every level they possibly can, OF WHICH THIS IS PART. Amazon is absolutely kow-towing to the fascists and Bezos is *making that happen*.

Your "people need to stop"... is an insult at best, at worst, it's making excuses.

@andrew

[kerravonsen@mastodon.au]

@Broadfork @DavidBridger @susankayequinn
I can't remember exactly when I stopped using Amazon, but it was quite a while back, when I heard about their terrible employment practices. I wasn't going to support a business which penalized their workers for taking breaks (and other relentless, ruthless and callous practices).
I have not regretted it. For books, I go to Fishpond.com.au; and that was the only thing I bought from Amazon anyway.

(I wish I could put a permanent setting on all my search engines to exclude results from Amazon; it's a bit annoying to have to add the "-site:" string every time I'm looking for shopping stuff...)

#CorporateGreed

[mycotropic@beige.party]

@susankayequinn

Chuck is enough anyway!

[peribotsarah@babka.social]

@susankayequinn what non-amazon ebook shops do you suggest- looking for those which let me download.

[susankayequinn@wandering.shop]

@peribotsarah Bookshop.org is carrying ebooks now. I'm working on getting the rest of my books over there. Kobo is good. Nook is decent. I'm also on Google Play and Apple but they're big tech too — not as horrible as Amazon (maybe) but yeah.

[rubyjones@wandering.shop]

@susankayequinn Sadly, D2D is not great for spicy books either and will not send any of mine to bookshop.org. Like, they will publish to other places, but two of my books they will only publish to Smashwords.

Like I feel you, they are better than Amazon, but there is a strong chance that if it's spicy they will block it from bookshop.org.

[firlefanz@writing.exchange]

@susankayequinn

I knew they would come for those books. I knew it. And that's only the beginning. (Although their greed may keep romance alive.)

I never used the affiliates program and never will. In fact, I stopped using Amazon ads this year (and yes, I see a loss of sales).

You can re-order links in Books2Read, and I have put my PayHip on top, followed by Bookshop org and Smashwords (which now pays 75% royalties), before I list Amazon.

Same on my website.

And I'm going "wide" with Print.

[thedutchchief@mstdn.social]

@susankayequinn A couplet of weeks ago I closed my Amazon account. It's Kobo or my local bookstore.

[sobex@social.sciences.re]

@susankayequinn It's not obeying in advance, Bezos himself is a fascist.

[grace34@bookstodon.com]

@susankayequinn Congratulations on publishing your book! That’s a big step. Are you planning to promote it or are you focusing mainly on organic readers?

[jens@social.finkhaeuser.de]

@Firlefanz @susankayequinn About ten years ago now (time flies), I did some research on costs, on how to set up an alternative to the POD system from Amazon, which leaves brutally little for authors or small publishers. In my opinion, this is holding back growth of small publishers more than so many other factors, because it's a complaint I heard over and over.

The TL;DR of it is, it doesn't seem impossible. The harder part is that the printers I spoke to were fearing an uberization of...

[jens@social.finkhaeuser.de]

@Firlefanz @susankayequinn ... their services, i.e. where I provide a platform on which they compete, which ultimately drives down their price. I guess the experience with Amazon had burned them badly.

At the same time, mid-sized printers have invested heavily into POD-style printing solutions (TL;DR), so they are ready for this kind of thing, by and large.

I dropped that whole line of thought for a number of reasons back then, but I still feel it is missing. And more precisely, I think...

[jens@social.finkhaeuser.de]

@Firlefanz @susankayequinn ... what is missing is a co-op style organization for this rather than a market-driven one.

Perhaps it is time to dig out my notes and have more serious conversations about this? 🤔

[firlefanz@writing.exchange]

@jens

I definitely lean towards a co-op rather than market-driven. I would even be willing to share in the cost.

Indie Authors Unite! or something along those lines. 🙂

@susankayequinn

[chantaryu2@pataterie.ca]

@susankayequinn I thought Amazon was 80% "Pregnant by the alien dinosaurs" and "Ravished by alpha vampire werewolf twins" by now.
I know Kobo Plus is. 😬

[crcollins@writing.exchange]

@sapphireangel

Does he not still own the company? 🤔

I mean, the Washington Post has someone else running it too but come on 🙄

@andrew @susankayequinn

[sapphireangel@mastodon.online]

@crcollins @andrew @susankayequinn Do you also avoid using microsoft, walmart, google and apple? They are all guilty of the same type of behaviors and support of the state of this country. If you are going to go after one why not all? All of these rich people have done awful things.

[sibylle@troet.cafe]

@susankayequinn someone THAT rich is not obeying the fashs. He is a fash...
He's a trailblazer.

[jens@social.finkhaeuser.de]

@Firlefanz Oh yeah, I mean, definitely a Co-Op. As it so happens, my day job has given me a bunch of insights there as well, so I feel way better prepared for this than I was when I first had the idea.

It's more that back then I was thinking of barriers to growth for indie publishing. Now I think about it more are "keep civilization running in the face of the threat the fascist-capitalist-complex poses". Both, really :)

@susankayequinn