Amazon, the billionaire dollar baby of Mr Bezos. Unless you’ve been living in a cave you will know that Amazon is the store that sells everything, almost.

Side Hustle Heaven

You can tap into YouTube ‘How to Sell on Amazon’ and find literally hundreds, or more, of videos giving you every different way possible to exploit their huge platform for your own benefit. New hacks and tricks pop up every day. Fulfilment by Amazon ‘FBA’, where you can source and sell products on the platform, including your own, is a huge income generator for entrepreneurs across the globe.

Of course, there’s a whole swathe of hustlers also making their living by selling courses on how to do it, and yes, some are better than others. It’s a profitable side hustle for, well, hustlers. Power to them, they are providing a service to others. Buyer beware applies in all things off and online.

KDP

Kindle Direct Publishing is Amazon’s programme that allows us writers to get books out into the world. It is free and unbelievably easy to get a book up on Amazon. It can be anything from a lined notepad to a full-on in-depth business text book. Again, just tap into YouTube ‘How to use KDP’ and there are loads of tutorials on how to make your fortune via KDP book publishing.

Bezos Beginnings

Jeff Bezos had a goal as a young man. He wanted to go into space and he loved books. He decided to sell books, made a fortune and buy a space rocket. Guess what! Yep, whether you like him or not, he cracked the code in achieving goals.

The End of Books

They said TV’s would kill movies, Kindles would kill books, even suggested people will stop reading, but guess what? We still read books. #Booktok and #bookstagram are proof that the next generation of book lovers are strong and vocal about their love of literature. Of course, books are now written, sold and read differently. The computer hasn’t killed the pen. Technology has just given us all the opportunities to access so much more in different ways. Books are no longer just leather-bound parchments made only for the wealthy.

What’s The Problem?

Sadly, if you tap into Google ‘Why is amazon bad for writers?’ you will find reams of posts declaring Amazon is killing bookstores, books, literature in general. Now if you’re an old school publishing house, maybe they are to blame for a fall in demand for your services. But wasn’t it about time we subjected the industry to some disruption? Why should writers who throw their heart and soul into their books to be at the mercy of an agent or publisher?

Is it right that they beg for permission for their work to be given to the public, sign over intellectual property rights for outlets that may not even exist yet, then wait months or years for the book to get out there and then have to share the profits as well? 

Books are Power

Writers can sell direct from their websites, upload ebooks in minutes. They can sell via Apple, Google, Kobo and many other sites, but we don’t hear that they are killing bookstores. Yes, of course Amazon is huge, it is the biggest marketplace. That’s exactly why hustlers love it. As a customer, I can just tap into an app and buy what I need in seconds. As a business, you can take advantage of that app, their warehousing, their marketing skills and sell your products, and yes, that includes books. Anything that allows access to books is, in my opinion, a good thing. 

Marketing

Amazon is the master of selling. They want their customers to buy things and come back and buy some more. They make it easy. Hustlers know this, and sell ‘merch’ through the platform. Writers do the same, but weirdly it receives a bad rap on how it treats writers but not how it treats e.g. a tee-shirt business. As a writer, you are a business. Someone offers you access to just about the biggest online marketplace in the world. Do you accept? If not, that’s OK too. There are other options, but we can’t blame Amazon for being successful. They sell stuff, isn’t that what we all want?

Accessibility

Ebooks have brought a whole new level of education and accessibility to the masses. If I want to learn about a topic, I can go online and read a blog, watch a video or yes buy an ebook. Amazon leads the way, allowing writers to reach their readers, and readers to find the book they want, everything from erotic fiction to dot to dot books for kids, and all things in between. How awesome is our world where someone house-bound in Asia can buy a book written by an author sat in their back bedroom in Arkansas or Yorkshire! Someone living in a van in the desert in the US can buy a book written by someone who works in a skyscraper in Sydney, or at a kitchen table in Alaska.

Publishing houses might not like it, because they are losing their monopoly. Just like old school broadsheet newspapers and boomer-based high street stores, many stubbornly refused to keep up with customer needs and go online. You can’t blame Amazon for taking advantage of that gap in the market and being at the forefront of online shopping. 

Bookshops are Gorgeous

I adore bookshops. Waterstones is my favourite place to spend an hour, and I do pandemics allowing, but I still love Amazon. So do my readers. I have sold books recently in Japan, Mexico, Canada, Spain, Australia. How amazing is that! It is ridiculously difficult to get books into a high street bookstore. After all, there are only so many shelves and the publishing houses have long-running relationships. Celebrity books now fill the shelves. They have the connections, as in other business, who you know counts for a lot. Please buy books in your local store, from market traders, your artisans in tiny dedicated business.

Use your local library. Donate your books to them, support them.

But please don’t condemn an online store who has enabled writers across the globe to become best sellers. To earn five figures and more from their books. To be professional writers. Amazon is not to blame for the death of the high street. The problem is so much bigger than that, but a successor is often the soft target.

Can You Publish a Book?

Of course. Write it first. Then write another. You can use Amazon, you can go non-Amazon which is often referred to as ‘wide’ publishing, or a hybrid mix of the two. You could go cap in hand to a publishing house, wait two years and see your book on shelves. Maybe you want to write to win awards. Money is not your goal. Great! Do it! Everyone should write their story be it memoir, unicorns or the next 50 Shades.

That’s why I love Amazon. It gives us options. It’s not perfect but nor were old school bookshops. I love that literally anyone, or any race, gender, culture and age writing any genre, niche topic or story can get their work into the hands of others. Women can write under male pen names but only if they want to, no longer because the (white male) world dictates they must if they want to succeed. That is power. 

Do you love Amazon as a customer?

If you boycott Amazon, what is the main reason?