Last year I wrote a newsletter talking about why I loved itchio. More than anything, I wanted to talk about options besides Amazon and the importance of building an healthy indie ecosystem outside of it. Between ICE escalation and our own Carney’s propensity to throw billions at AI and anti-immigration laws, it’s obvious we’re not out of our toxic billionnaires era (look.. I have to joke about it okay).

All this to say: what I said back then about divesting from Amazon is more important than ever. I want to talk about the current landscape a bit more. But first, I did have a book release!

It’s Lost Traditions’s big day! Join the Wagon Crew on its 7th Nerezia adventure as they cross cursed marshes and find a ruined monastery still rich with the history of Keza’s people. It’s good times with magical weather, elemental magic training, and a not-so-friendly possession! Yay.

Get Your Copy!

The six first books are still in a bundle, and will be this way until February 12, so you still have three more days to pick them up at a 33% discount (or all together for $12).

Back to this, yeah? The thing is, if you look for Lost Traditions on Amazon, you won’t find the ebook. I pulled all my ebooks from Amazon last May and never looked back. The only remaining format is paperback, and that’s because Ingramspark, who distributes my paper copies, is all or nothing. I can’t pull out of Amazon without stopping distribution from them entirely.

I am not the only indie author doing this. An increasing number of us are doing our best to divest from Amazon despite the undeniable hit to our discoverability and income. So how do you find us?

Fellow author and Common Bonds editor Em Ishii has started a newsletter specifically meant to showcase authors who are leaving Amazon. Go sign up to it! It is still in construction, but it’s a promising path to carving out a space for us.

I did also want to quickly touch on other options out there. There’s a lot of them so I’ll try to stick to the main point. A lot of these options have their own issues. There will never be a perfect solution, but I think we all must do what we can.

All of this below is for ebooks. Ebooks remain the bread and butter of most indie authors, especially since if you aren’t printing/selling direct on paperbacks, your options out of Amazon are limited and bring a lot less income. If you’re a paperback buyer, find an indie bookstore to support! If you’re an audiobook lover, check out libro.fm.

Itchio: First, I want to underscore that as much as I loved itchio and wish it was better, it has proven very unreliable with payments to other creators, and near impossible to reach with customer service about this. I’d recommend looking at authors’ websites for direct shops first (mine is hopefully coming this year). I don’t think we should entirely stop shopping there, especially when it comes to bundle; if authors are using it, they’ve made the decision it was worth the risk. I haven’t add any problems yet, thankfully.

Bookshop: If you are in the US or the UK, Bookshop has started distributing ebooks over the last year, and recently accepted self-published works. You can choose an indie bookstore to support with each purchase, too. I think they only let you read in their own app? Which, urgh, but something to consider nonetheless. Indie ebooks rarely get to indie bookstores!

Kobo: Kobo is a fairly big store and company. They never made big headway in the US, but out here in Canada, it’s Amazon’s biggest competitor. It has its own ereader (I’ve been reading on Kobo for a decade now) that connects to Overdrive, it has its own subscription program (Kobo Plus), and it has in-house promotions indie authors can easily access. As far as reproducing Amazon’s convenience, this is the closest one.

I hope this is helpful to you all! Remember that there are no perfect solutions. We all live in different circumstances, with different needs. Partial divestment is better than none, from readers and authors both. Be kind to each other, kick Kindle out, and happy reading!