Amazon has gotten a lot of hate over the years with many groups calling for boycotts for various reasons. The latest boycott movement is being pushed and encouraged in many corners of the book world. Whether or not you agree with the reasons behind the boycott, it does hurt independent authors who rely on Amazon to reach readers and generate income.
The Reality Of Self-Publishing
Let's be frank. Amazon is the big dog when it comes to eBook publishing. Like it or not, more eBooks are sold via Amazon than any of the other online retailers. Amazon provided a platform where independent authors can publish their books without the gatekeeping of traditional publishing. Add that to their global reach, their user friendly tools, and the ease of use, and you can't find a comparable online outlet when it comes to revenue generation for those who've chosen to self publish.
Amazon holds a huge share of the eBook market. Most indie authors make at least 70% of their monthly income from Amazon. Those are the authors who choose to publishing not only on Amazon, but on other platforms as well. Kindle Unlimited authors sell exclusively on Amazon. Their incomes are solely dependent on the platform with the exception of a small amount of paperback and/or audio book sales.
If the last week has shown anything, it's that a good chunk of readers aren't willing to migrate to other online retailers. Amazon doesn't just provide a platform for authors. Readers like it as well. They've made everything easy and seamless. While other retailers like Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, and GooglePlay have a share of the market, they don't have the same customer base and it shows in the numbers.
Unlike some other boycotts, books are only a small portion of Amazon's revenue stream. Books aren't the only way they're making money, so the hit they're going to take is not likely to do them much damage. But the indie author who's counting on that royalty check to pay their mortgage or car payment will.
If you feel strongly about not using Amazon for your book purchases, then what should you do?
A Better Way To Support Authors
1. Buy direct. Many self published authors sell paperbacks directly through their website. Some even sell eBooks and audio books directly via Bookfunnel.
2. Buy from other online retailers. If you don't want to purchase your books on Amazon, there are other alternatives. Simply buying your books on these retailers helps boost visibility and signals to the retailer that they might want to put more time and effort into that aspect of their platform.
3. Leave reviews. While this isn't directly related to Amazon or book sells, reviews are extremely important. And if you're choosing to buy your books from other sources, it becomes even more important. Reader use reviews and word of mouth recommendations to decide on what book they buy next, especially if it's an author they've never heard of before. To an indie author, a reader taking the time to leave a review is incredibly important.
Are you participating in the boycott? If so, how are you continuing to support indie authors?
This is a question that comes up a lot with new authors in the self published space. If you're book is going to be traditionally published, either through a small press or with one of the big New York City publishers, they handle ISBNs so you don't need to worry about it. As a self published author, whether you purchase an ISBN for your book is up to you.
First, what is an ISBN?
ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. It's a unique way for your book to be identified. Multiple books can have the same title, but no two books can have the same ISBN.
If that sounds important, it is. Sort of.
If you're in the US, authors can purchase ISBNs from a company called Bowker (Click HERE to go to the site).
Authors can purchase ISBNs one at a time, in batches of 10, 100, or 1,000. Of course, the more you purchase, the cheaper they are.
But with the rise of self publishing, online retailers have looked for ways to remove the cost barriers of publishing. One of the ways they do that is by offering to provide ISBNs at no charge.
Sounds great, right?
Well, that depends. If you're only publishing on one platform (usually Amazon) and you have no intention of ever publishing on any other platform, then maybe taking the free ISBN is a great option. Who cares what the ISBN is if it's only going to be for sale on Amazon?
But what if you want to publish your book on multiple retailers?
Well, they offer ISBNs as well. When you upload your book, you'll be asked if you want them to assign your book an ISBN or if you have your own. And again, it's free.
This all sounds great, so why would anyone buy an ISBN?
Let's say you decide to publish your book on Amazon, Apple, and Nook. If you decide to go with the free ISBN option offered by the retailers, your book will have a different ISBN on each retailer. On Amazon it will show Amazon as the publisher. On Apple, it will show Apple as the publisher. And on Nook, it will show Barnes and Noble as the publisher.
You get the idea. There's no consistency across all retailers even though it's the same book.
Again, this may not matter to you. But it is important to decide what your long term writing goals are from the start. If you want to try one day for a run at one of the big lists, it might be a good idea to own your ISBN. If you want to build a publishing brand, you may want to have your own ISBN.
If you choose to take the free ISBN, then later decide to purchase your own for whatever reason, you will loose any reviews you've accumulated under the free ISBN. Given how important reviews are and how difficult they can be to get for self published authors, that alone could be a deciding factor.
Personally, I choose to buy my own ISBN. I bought a block of 100 almost 10 years ago and I'm still working my way through them.
It was the right decision for me, but that is something each author will have to decide for themselves.
