I recently mentioned that Amazon + Audible + Kindle pays me the smallest royalties per book; but also that a majority of my sales volume comes from that same combination. Here’s the pie chart illustrating my royalty income mix:
Here’s a problem. There is a movement to boycott Amazon from March 7th to March 14th (including Amazon Alexa, IMDb, Prime Video, Ring, Twitch, Whole Foods and Zappos.) To support this blackout, I should suspend all sales of my books on Amazon, Kindle, and Audible—but I’m conflicted about shutting off sixty percent of book sales revenue for a full week.
I’ve recently asked our financial advisor to sell all holdings in AMZN, which I feel good about. I’ve also held off on shopping for anything at Amazon or Whole Foods or watching Amazon prime.
This is rebuilding habits. Instead of jumping to the easy online marketplace, I spend a little bit of extra time looking for local suppliers or alternative online sources. For a long time, I’ve purchased my electronic components from Adafruit instead of Amazon. I like Adafruit, they record informative videos on new products and maintain essential code libraries to use those integrated circuits. I would feel guilty buying the part from Amazon, then download code from Amazon.
To avoid being a hypocrite, I should shut off sales through those Amazon channels. I set about that task. Here’s what I experienced.
Continue reading Blacking Out Amazon