The Mighty Zon

To use or not to use? That is the question.

I am a writer. An indie author. So are a lot of people I know.

The ‘boycott Amazon, stick it to the man’ brigade have a point.

We live in a world where big corporations swallow small businesses chomping their way through towns and cities till all individuality is removed. When you arrive somewhere new it can feel like someone blindfolded you and said to the stores change places and then the blindfold is removed and you play some strange game of spot the difference.

Maybe one or more are missing or duplicated. Maybe there’s a pub or a church or a school or a theatre or cinema or a library or even shock horror a bingo hall or leisure centre or even more than one of those or which may or may not be being used for their original purpose. (My list is what came to mind so is unlikely to be exhaustive). You might even have landed where there’s a collection of these community spaces which were the mainstay of every town once upon a time.

In a twist of video killed the radio star the internet swallowed some of the stores the supermarkets or similar brands left standing.

Some stores only use the internet to display goods you have to actually go to the store to buy stuff. Can you imagine?

It could be argued that the ones with websites or store fronts on places like Etsy and dare I say it Amazon now have a reach they could only dream of in suburban or rural ghost towns.

So it is with Indie Writers.

If this was a panto Amazon would be the big bad villain everyone boos but panto season has long since past and what is played out on stage is only part of the story.

I do understand we all need someone to blame and in this story they are lining up to see the judge (which is you, the customer) but here’s the stinger - boycotts hurt the innocent as well as, or sometimes more than, the guilty. If you as judge have allotted those roles.

Amazon is where most if not all of us sell our books, for some of us the only place we are able to do that. A website where we also get paid for page reads via a programme where you can read as much as you like for a monthly fee if we are willing to accept Amazon’s ebook exclusivity clause. (Kindle Unlimited).

Its also a place where small businesses sell their goods.

Can you see where I’m headed here?

Who suffers from this boycott? The big bad Amazon or the unknown author trying to make a bit of money by selling the words they have torn from their souls and laid out in book form?

The aforementioned small business is getting beat up too and what did they do? Use the tools at their disposal to give themselves the best chance of competing in crowded markets. If you were them wouldn’t you?

If I thought that people would run to Indie Bookstores and small independent retailers and spend their hard earned there (and if you do keep doing that) then I would applaud. But in reality as the scenario above illustrates those are few and far between. (I must be fair and say they still exist and I know of at least three that have opened in the past year or intend to open soon.)

I will never tell you what to do, that’s not my place. But I will ask you to fully consider who your actions affect when you boycott and what you are hoping to achieve.

Can I suggest you walk a mile in the shoes of an indie author or a small business owner please?

I know there’s hope and I hang onto that.

We are grateful for each bit of river that flows our way and isn’t swallowed by the sea.

We value each and everyone of you.

We like to think you value us too.