Flametoad

In case you missed the tempest in a teapot, over the weekend it came to light that Amazon had de-listed several hundred books, most of which fit into the category of gay/lesbian/bisexual literature. This was a nonsensical move, since Amazon did not de-list their wide selection of sex toys or any number of other items that could be considered way more controversial. However, a cry rang far and wide throughout the internet OMG AMAZON IS TEH EV1L! THEY H8s TEH GAYZ! ANGRRRRRRR! MORAL OUTRAG3! 

In the confusion that followed, it came to light that books can be marked as “adult” by other users and that the system can be manipulated. (What? There’s a dark underbelly to web 2.0? People can be pricks?) It also eventually came to light that Amazon (probably) didn’t purposefully de-list the books, but rather it was some sort of database mistake. The entire screwup has a name: #amazonfail, which was the name of the Twitter feed that has been mobilizing some segment of the internet community. (Google the term.) As others have pointed out, the biggest failure in #amazonfail has been Amazon’s PR response. If they’d jumped in and responded with sincerity early in the hoopla, it might have defused the situation. It is an excellent case study in poor PR.

Here’s where the unpopular opinion comes in. The second biggest failure (in my opinion) has been the response of publishers and writers, some of whose books were among those delisted. I’ve seen calls for Amazon to explain themselves, to “provide transparency” in how their system works, to create a new infrastructure for contesting books that have been marked as “adult”. I’ve read wailing and gnashing of teeth over how this event hurt sales, tanked book releases and is generally the end of the world. Here’s the thing, though.

Tough shit.

There is no constitutional right to have your book sold by stores. The freedom of speech doesn’t extend to forcing people to sell your work, let alone others to read it.(1) Unless you have a contract to the contrary, retailers can (and do) add and drop products at will. They can drop your product because it’s not selling well, because the packaging isn’t appealing, because the store’s buyer is having an affair with your competition’s sales rep, or because they simply don’t like the cut of your jib. Your grocery store probably adds new products and drops low-selling ones every week. Food manufacturers don’t throw a public fit and demand more transparency in how the stores are run. If you think your work is so important that it deserves special treatment, that doesn’t make you a special little snowflake… just a flake.

If your business plan involves putting all your eggs in Amazon’s basket, then perhaps we should be calling this event #businessplanfail. This should be a wake-up call to publishers who only distribute their books through Amazon. What the hell are you thinking? Diversify! It’s something we at 12 to Midnight realized years ago, and we’re just a bunch of yokels from Texas. In our market, a retailer called RPGNow was the market leader. They have been a generally good business partner, but we recognized that there were times when they made decisions beneficial to their overall business but detrimental to ours. We could have pitched a fit (and believe me, plenty of other publishers did), but instead we quietly resolved to take control of our own fate.

As retail competitors to RPGNow entered the field, we diversified with them so that we weren’t beholden to a single retailer. As it turned out, RPGNow merged with one competitor and enticed another to shutter their store in exchange for an affiliate program. It was a smart business move on their part (and exactly what I would have done), but it once again narrowed our diversification. Rather than ranting and raving about injustice and conspiracies to keep the indie press down, we opened our own online store and taken our e-book titles to print distribution. In a market economy, it isn’t the ones who create the goods who control the market. It’s the ones who control the distribution of goods. Just ask farmers and ranchers.

Come on people, you’re supposed to be running a business here! If I were an author signed with a publisher whose entire sales plan was devestated by being delisted from Amazon, I’d be seriously reconsidering my options. Writers create, but publishers exist to get books sold. If there is a silver lining in this mess, it is that #amazonfail has done authors the favor of pointing out which publishers are failing basic business acumen.

Now, don’t misconstrue what I’ve said to mean that publishers (or authors) have no right to be upset if a retailer (Amazon) drops their product. Of course it’s only natural to be upset. What I’m saying is that if the business is run right, then it should be a major inconvenience rather than a catastrophic loss.

(1) If that were the case, the masterpiece I wrote in junior high about a team of super-powered teens would have already made me millions.