Sometimes, by doing the ‘right thing’ you do more harm than good

I don’t have time for reading and even less for watching the news or analytical videos produced by various bloggers in abundance on YouTube and other platforms. But thanks to social media I do get glimpses of the main trends and hottest topics. So, it was through the Writing Community on X/Twitter that I found out about the boycott of Amazon. As far as I understand the context, its aim is to protect the rights of small businesses against the greedy big business tycoons who rip them off and hold them under a merciless foot.

Well, I’m not a small business. The definition I remember– true, rather vaguely – from the Business English class at school claims that ‘businesses are formed to grow wealth of their owners.’ I am an author, so my goals are slightly different. Yet, growing readership is one of them, and if potential readers are told not to buy my books because of the platform I sell them from, it doesn’t protect my rights or help me in any way.

If you don’t have a big publisher interested in promoting your books, with the means to put them in front of a big audience, you have to do the marketing yourself. And that isn’t an easy task. It also isn’t free. To make their books seen, authors have to pay for advertising. I won’t go into free methods to search for readers. They exist and some authors use them with some measure of success. But they aren’t what could ever ‘grow wealth’ or even help an author start making a living from selling books.

While Amazon might be a ‘big bad monopolist,’ it also gives authors from all over the world an opportunity to publish their books. And unlike with marketing, it gives them a chance to do it completely free. Yes, an author, if disinclined or simply having no money to spare, still can publish on Amazon since it provides you with every tool, from converting your manuscript into an ebook and a paperback to making a cover, to put your book out there. By the way, I know authors with Amazon-made covers who aren’t doing that badly. And here we come back to the inevitable truth – it’s all about marketing.

Getting back to myself and my author’s journey. I don’t go a free route. I pay for editing and also for covers. And, with how things stand for indie authors who write cross-genre, I don’t expect a quick return on my investments. My main goal is not to ‘grow wealth’ but to reach as many people who would enjoy reading my books as I can. Unfortunately, people boycotting Amazon prevent me from reaching this goal.

‘Going wide’ and publishing books on other platforms isn’t an option for every author. Each platform requires advertising. Besides, the fact remains that Amazon holds a huge part of the market. Yes, it isn’t called a ‘big bad monopolist’ for nothing.

As an indie author, I already spend abnormal amounts of time doing things which aren’t actually writing. And even though my husband and my son are super supportive of my writing pursuits, I still can’t spend 24 hours a day and 7 days a week doing only bookish things. And frankly, I don’t want to. If I thought that ‘going wide’ would help me connect with more readers, I’d consider it. As it is, it would be nothing but yet another burden on my indie author’s shoulders. I’d spend even more time trying to learn marketing techniques that work for each new platform and the return on my investment would still be low.

Anyway, I didn’t mean to complain by sharing my thoughts. As you have probably noticed, I stopped posting anything save book reviews on this blog. This is because I am working on a new dark epic fantasy series and since I do have to do at least something to promote my published books, it leaves no time for writing meaningful posts. I have a lot I’d like to tell you about. Writing and learning more about how book marketing works for an indie author like me provide me with enough material I could share. Alas, priorities must be set. And at least for this year, I’ve set mine. They are as follows: writing, doing what I can to find more readers for my already published books, and helping other authors by reading, reviewing, and promoting their work.

I’ve just finished writing book three out of five of my current series, so I’m glad I used this opportunity to write this post on something really important for me as a writer.

As a final thought, I’ll just say that thinking outside the box and kindness are always a decent way forward. If more people accepted them as their principles, the world would be a much happier place.