The last week or so there's been a lot of talk about Amazon thanks to their decision to remove downloads for Kindle books from their site. They're trapping you in their ecosystem. Readers are frustrated. Authors feel stuck. Stop giving Amazon so much power already. - ThreadSky

dvewlsh.com • 7 days ago

The last week or so there's been a lot of talk about Amazon thanks to their decision to remove downloads for Kindle books from their site. They're trapping you in their ecosystem.

Readers are frustrated. Authors feel stuck.

Stop giving Amazon so much power already.

Comments

carpenter22.bsky.social•6 days ago

Authors need to understand there are other platforms on which they can publish their work and still have it distributed via all of the online booksellers, even Amazon. Try Kobo, Draft2Digital, and PublishDrive. They all distribute all over the world to thousands of sites and stores.

butchugal.bsky.social•6 days ago

Shut down my Amazon accounts last week. Bezos will never see another penny of my money, and he can shove his rocket up his ass and light the fuse. Do the world a favor.

franco58.bsky.social•6 days ago

Cancelled Amazon and stored my 13 year old Kindle for good.

susankayequinn.bsky.social•7 days ago

I'm getting ready to put out an anthology and I think it's time to give up on DRM and start having an option on my website (although that's painful to say and even more painful imagining how much work that will take on the website).

dvewlsh.com•7 days ago

I know you've had to deal with the weird fediverse reply guys with that stuff before, but it's probably one of the few "good" options now.

Right now I'm doing my store through FourthWall hooked up to BookFunnel on a subdomain I own.

Good thing is BF allows watermarking ebooks through them.

susankayequinn.bsky.social•7 days ago

Oh good to know! Thanks!!

dvewlsh.com•7 days ago

So, in theory, you could trace where it came from if you found a copy bought from you distributed elsewhere.

I do FW because they handle taxes, which are not something I enjoyed handling when I ran my WooCommerce shop. Was too stressful.

ibooksy.bsky.social•6 days ago

Smashwords sells ebooks and https://Bookshop.org recently started doing so. Unfortunately, a lot of indie authors are locked to Amazon due to KU. Truly terrible deal when one considers that there are authors from large publishers that are in KU and able to sell elsewhere too.

dvewlsh.com•6 days ago

Bookshop still isn't open to indies yet, but they've announced a deal with D2D to get there.

cb-2025.bsky.social•6 days ago

I gave up Amazon when Bezos fealty to Trump became apparent. It feels great. You can do it!! And Facebook too. No taxes for them, no trade from me.

kloandog.bsky.social•6 days ago

DUMP AMAZON!!!
You will not miss it. All merchants now ship. Amazon no longer serves what cannot be obtained everywhere. Stop feeding the fraud!!

DUMP GOOGLE TOO!!! USE "DuckDuckGo' as your search engine. So far, it is private and does not store your search info.

0b-or-boris.bsky.social•6 days ago

Ending the download options feels like they are about to edit books imo

katp2.bsky.social•6 days ago

If you no longer own the book, you're better off with the Libby app and a library card. All the books (and audiobooks) you want at no charge.

simonskiles.bsky.social•6 days ago

Useful alternative to Amazon for selling my self-published books?

dvewlsh.com•6 days ago

I still have my books listed on Amazon for now, but...

Go direct with Kobo, Google Play, B&N. Use Draft2Digital to hit Apple (trust me, Apple's interface is awful and they only have a skeleton crew for support) and a bunch of other places.

I use FourthWall tied into my BookFunnel for direct sales

champierth.bsky.social•6 days ago

I’ll not be buying any more books from Amazon, at least until I’ve cleared my backlog and hopefully I’ll have found a better place to buy them from by then.

anniemluke.bsky.social•6 days ago

Go support your local library. They have all kinds of printed books & websites packed with digital books. And all of it is free & can be put on hold so you never miss out on reading the lastest bestseller or banned book.

madammimm.bsky.social•6 days ago

Get your hands on all the manuals you can when you can. Second hand is great for that sort of thing. Get technical manuals on your car, your household. Get familiar with tools and their uses. Even if nothing ever comes, you'll have gained great insight.

dvewlsh.com•6 days ago

Yep, have a drawer in the filing cabinet for this stuff.

I've had to fix so many of my appliances that were new and expensive.

nevarran.bsky.social•6 days ago

I'm moving to Kobo for reading. Unlocked all books from my Kindle with Calibre/DeDRM so I can take them with me. Bye, Kindle, you will not be missed.

dvewlsh.com•6 days ago

Made that switch in 2019 and never regretted it for a second.

I've had a Libra H2O since then and my wife now has a Libra Color.

nevarran.bsky.social•6 days ago

The Libra Color looks really neat. I think I'll give it a try.

ineti.bsky.social•7 days ago

This might be useful: https://youtu.be/bcQhoztBi5w

auntsuzanne.bsky.social•6 days ago

I've cancelled audible. One small step.

huckmucus.bsky.social•6 days ago

I have no idea what you're talking about. (Boomer.) Dumb it down for me. I "self" published a book through Bookbaby, but it's sold all over the place, including Amazon. Do I control that? How do I cut Bezos out? Will I be cutting my own sales?

dvewlsh.com•6 days ago

You're good.

If you publish direct to Amazon via their KDP dashboard is when you get the option of being exclusive and all the other weirdness.

Publishing books across more stores is always good!

spishaz.bsky.social•6 days ago

I'm on board. The Prime videos are now riddled with commercials. But you can eliminate them for a cost upgrade. I feel a real fleece job. I don't subscribe to Prime anymore and no more books.

celtic-cat.bsky.social•6 days ago

I never use Amazon for anything books included.

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