With all this craziness going on, the world’s biggest store, Amazon is going to play a big part in our “survival”. I just read an article about how Amazon is prioritizing what they have in stock and what they will be delivering. According to many sources, they will be prioritizing inventory to basic household supplies, medical supplies, and “other” high demand products (I wonder what that really means). This is great for me so I can keep getting stuff for the house, but is scary for those who are distributing their books through Amazon/KDP.
Yes, Amazon is a big player in the self-publishing world and started out as a book store. There are authors who depend on this for their income, either their main income or supplemental. With this priority stocking to be going on until at least April 6th, this can really hurt. (source: www.publishersweekly.com/)
So what can we do? For the readers out there, know that an ebook is always an option. Ebooks are great for the authors as well as get a HUGE percentage of the retail price, up to 70% depending on the file size and price point of the book. Sure, we all love printed books, but in the days and weeks of social isolation, isn’t the ebook a better way to go? Plus it adds the bonus of instant gratification to the reader since it gets downloaded directly to the reader’s app.
Also, remember that there are other places that we can visit, virtually to help support authors and keep ourselves entertained. There is a local bookstore that is offering local delivery of books and will ship them for only $2 (media mail). Small businesses are getting creative on how they will try to stay afloat during this lockdown that we are knee-deep in this quarantine.
If you are looking for a fun read, I can suggest my own books, Fire and Ice and Second Chances. Remember that both books will be coming down off Amazon for a bit in the next few months, so this is a great time to get a copy of the original before they get spruced up and re-released.
