I hate Amazon, she said.

I hate Amazon, she said.

It was a strong word and I didn’t ask why.

Not that I didn’t care. She was asking how she could get copies of my books without going through the Zon.

I have read a litany of reasons people hate the largest online bookstore in the world.

Part of it was the impact it had on smaller bookstores.

Maybe they had the same hate for Barnes and Noble when they opened up a big box retail bookstore in their town.

Or Books-A-Million, which has now changed it’s name to BAM and sells more game and toys than books.

Or the now gone Borders.

Maybe she hated the Zon because it’s changing the way people do business.

Or maybe because the business decisions from Bezos down seem arbitrary to people who use it as a sales space.

I didn’t ask.

I cared though.

I’ve been impressed with Amazon since way back when.  It was an online bookstore run by a guy in his garage.

I signed on and have used it for years to get books delivered straight to me.

I still shopped at B&N and used book stores and BAM and Borders. I still went into small bookshops and perused and bought.

But I also built an incredible TBR through Amazon and found a bunch of authors I might not have ever read, including one of my favorites, Kevin Hearne’s HOUNDED (IRON DRUID SERIES).

I built my business on Amazon and the readers in it’s marketplace.

I love that it tore down all the walls between traditional publishing and indie publishing and let the readers decide what should be a best selling or well read book.

I know this because when I went to big box, I could pick up a lot of titles on the $5 shelves, and that’s how I experimented with new authors.

A lot of the stories sucked. Or rather, they weren’t my cup of tea.

Amazon removed barriers between readers and writers and helped me build a career out of being an author.

Some months pay better than others, but you could say the same for almost any small business owner out there.

And like some of the mom and pop bookstores who watched profit margins shrink as the Zon poached readers and the traditional publishing houses consolidated down to five, I’ve had to look at other ways to reach consumers.

Think about what competes for your attention. Here are mine in no particular order.

Kids. Netflix. Disney +. Books. Magazines. Housework. Job. Spouse. Exercise. Sleep. Eat. Clean. Facebook. Youtube. Instagram. Pinterest. News websites. How to websites. Writing. Marketing. Learning about business. Downtime.

You’re like a lot of everybody else in that we are being pulled in a million directions at once.

It’s an attention based business. Selling books has to compete with a lot of other activities and distractions.

Which is why I’m proud to announce an expansion.

Don’t want to buy from the Zon but do want to get paperbacks of the books I write?

I’m going on to Barnes and Noble website, plus ETSY as a storefront, plus FACEBOOK storefront so you have more options, more choices.

Reading is one of the things we love, and I want you to have access to my stuff, if you like.

Now even more stuff is coming.

January is halfway over and 2020 is off to a roaring start. There are books planned, stories written, trips to take and adventures to find.

I want you with me through it all.

Cheers,

Chris

PS. Grab this free copy of AS GOOD AS DEAD today, if you liked JUDGED BY TWELVE.

You can also check out:

 Battlefield Z Collected Adventures I if you haven’t added it to your library yet.

Plus:

Stories from the End of the World

Begin a New Journey with Series Starters Free in KU

Free Sci-Fi for the New Year