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I’m breaking up with Amazon.
I’ve never been comfortable with their business practices, or with how they treat their employees. As an author, I’m keenly aware of their role in the demise of bookstores and other local businesses. They have frankly manipulative practices when it comes to publishing books on their platform, with many features vital for marketing and pricing accessible only if you agree to publish exclusively on their platform. Recently, they’ve even cut off the ability to download copies of ebooks that you’ve purchased through their platform, forcing you to use their wireless transfer mechanism to send books only to Kindle devices. As someone who owns a non-Kindle ebook reader, it is now nearly impossible to access the thousands of books I’ve acquired over nearly two decades.
Most damning of all, however, has been the behavior of Jeff Bezos in the political arena. While he has every right to support whomever he wants for political office, he crossed the line after he purchased The Washington Post, when he prevented the publication of an editorial endorsing the candidate running against his favorite. Oligarchs controlling the freedom of the press is chilling, and I cannot support anyone who engages in such behavior.
I’ve begun switching to other sources for the items I once would buy through Amazon. Living in a rural area in the San Bernardino mountains in California, much of my shopping has to be done online, but now I’m trying to buy directly from other retailers instead. I’m also finding alternatives for my Amazon devices, of which I’ve grown increasingly dependent over the years.
Long ago, I switched from the Kindle to the Kobo ebook ecosystem. The Kobo devices all are compatible with the industry standard ePub format, unlike the Kindle, and I had already been using Calibre to manage my ebook collection. I can easily sideload my books gathered from multiple stores online through Calibre. I’ve replaced my Fire TV sticks with Roku devices, and, frankly, the interface is far easier to use while still being able to access all of my existing services.
For audiobooks, I switched initially to Kobo as well, but later I discovered Libro.fm. What I like about Libro.fm is the fact that they provide downloads free from Digital Rights Management (DRM) of all books that you buy from their store, so you're not locked in like at Amazon, or even Kobo, which also does not provide downloads. They've got a massive library of audiobooks, drawn from the same distributors as Audible. The people at Libro.fm are strongly against DRM, so the only books missing are those where the publisher demands it. Those books are still listed, but with a note: “This audiobook is not for sale because it is not DRM-free. ... Offering audiobooks with restricted digital rights is not consistent with our values.”
A harder switch has been for my Alexa devices. I’m hesitant to switch to Google’s system for similar reasons to my decision to leave Amazon behind. Instead, I found the open-source Home Assistant system. I already have several Raspberry Pi computers, and there are options to run it through one of those. Unlike Alexa, Home Assistant runs locally rather than sending commands over the Internet for an Amazon server to interpret. It also means my data will remain local, and less likely to be intercepted or abused. It can run my existing Alexa devices, allowing me to cancel several subscriptions for those services.
Speaking of data abuse, Meta was recently caught intentionally downloading (and seeding!) terabytes of pirated ebook torrents to train its new AI model. As a writer whose work was most likely part of that huge amount of stolen data, this absolutely infuriates me. I’ve stepped away from all Meta platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Threads, etc) and while I occasionally post on Mastodon and Pixelfed, I have switched almost exclusively to Bluesky.
Likewise, Google, once known for its “Don’t Be Evil” slogan, has made billions off of our data and manipulated the world with its opaque search engine algorithm. As with the others, I’m breaking up with Google. It’s become a toxic relationship. Their searches are manipulated, their email and data storage services mine your data and put ads in your inbox. Their services may not cost us money, but they certainly aren’t free. As the old saying goes, “If you’re not paying for a service, then youare the product.” I’ve recently switched to Proton for my email, cloud storage, and calendar. The company hosts its servers in Switzerland and is bound by that country’s strict data protection laws. While they have a free tier, it’s paid for not by selling your data to advertisers, but by the margins from the subscriptions of thousands of others like myself. I own my domain name, and route my email through Proton, which offers secure encryption to the point that even Proton has no idea what my data is, just that it’s there. In addition, I also have access to a password manager that relies on that same encryption technology, as well as a network of VPNs to further ensure the security of my information.
My goal is to end my use of Amazon entirely. These are significant first steps toward that goal. The unfortunate reality is that they’ve succeeded in dominating so much of the market, that many of their competitors have gone under. I’ve forgone the “benefits” of an exclusive relationship with Amazon for the sales of my books in favor of selling widely, but the truth is that Amazon still holds nearly 90% of the market for books in the United States, which is my primary market. I’m aware of the irony of decrying Amazon while continuing to sell my books through their site. I hope that, in time, enough people will switch to other sources for their goods that Amazon’s effective monopoly will become a thing of the past, but unfortunately, that time is not yet here.
