#FUCK AMAZON

[middle-earth-mythopoeia]

Uh, guys? Don't confuse your crappy televised fanfic for the story that Tolkien actually wrote.

Galadriel was never "under Sauron's thrall." That's something ROP made up. In Unfinished Tales, she was the only one in Eregion who suspected that Annatar was lying about being an emissary of the Valar. Celebrimbor was deceived by him. She was not. She was certainly not "under his thrall." No, not even because she had Nenya.

Yes, when Frodo offered her the One Ring, she was tempted. It could have given her the power to prevent the fading of Lothlórien. But when she makes this speech in the book, and in the Peter Jackson movies, it's her own thought, she's not repeating something that Sauron said to her once:

“You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!”

These are Galadriel's words. Her words. Not Sauron's. And she was tempted by the One Ring because she could have been a more powerful queen, not Sauron's queen. Like, you guys really took one of the most powerful and complex female characters in Tolkien's works and you made her story all about a man and his power over her and his manipulation of her. Fuck off.

And stop tagging ROP as Lord of the Rings.

[xiaq]

Story time: Amazon can go fuck itself, and other genteel thoughts.

Good evening. I’m angry.

Up until now, I’ve purchased the majority of items I can’t thrift from Amazon because it’s easy and cost-effective, despite the moral qualms I have about the company. Previously, support was simple. If an item was damaged or a package didn’t arrive, you hopped on chat/the phone, provided proof, and they gave you a refund or return label.

But some shitstain from on high has introduced a new “incident report” process when something goes wrong. You submit your details, you wait 72 hours, and then they give you a refund. This would also be fine. If it fucking worked. But I have, at this point, irrefutable evidence that this is not actually how the process is intended to work. It’s meant to drive you so far up the wall that you either die from a stress-induced heart attack, or rage quit, and they get to keep your money.

In the last several months, I’ve had to submit three incident reports for damaged and undelivered items (I’m also encountering a lot more issues with item delivery, but that’s a different story).

ALL THREE TIMES, the process has taken weeks rather than days because ALL THREE TIMES they conveniently “had no record” of multiple incident reports I submitted despite the fact that I had confirmation emails each and every time.

Now, I’m a petty bitch, so even though the hours I was spending checking in, waiting on hold on the phone, being passed from agent to agent, was not worth the $10 and $20 refunds I was trying to get them to honor, I wasn’t going to give up. This last time, though. Oh they really tried.

So. My item isn’t delivered. I submit an incident report on the 12th and get my confirmation email of the submission on the 12th. I haven’t heard back by the 14th so I call and check. Shockingly, they have no record of my report. I submit another one, get another confirmation email. I call back the next day to check they received it. They have not. I beg them to let me forward the confirmation emails I have. I ask what else I can do different. They tell me to submit a new report and hang up on me. I submit another report. I receive another confirmation email. I call the next day. Can you guess? They have no record of it. This time, I ask for them to stay on the line with me while I submit a new report and confirm it’s been received. He confirms receipt and promises I will receive a response by the 21st. I record this conversation because I have a suspicion.

Hello. It is the 21st. Have I received a response? No. I call back. THIS ASSHOLE, who I’m pretty sure is reading this shit from a script, says, (are you ready for this) “There’s no record of an incident report, you’ll need to submit one.” I insist that I had confirmation in writing and verbally. She insists it does not exist.

So I tell her. I now have four confirmation emails. I have a recording of an Amazon support person with their credentials assuring me with the product number stated, that they’ve received my report. I also have been recording this conversation. And if she cannot assist me, I will be posting those emails and both recordings to every social media platform I have, filing a BBB complaint, and checking with my lawyer to see what options I have for legal action (do I have a lawyer? Of course not. But she doesn’t know that).

Immediately, she is backpedaling. “Oh, let me check again, maybe I missed it.” Less than 30 seconds later she’s back on the line. “I’m so sorry for the misunderstanding, I do have your report here. I will process a refund now.” Shocking. I am shocked.

IT SHOULD NOT TAKE THIS MUCH EFFORT TO GET A COMPANY TO HONOR THEIR PROMISED LEVEL OF SUPPORT.

Jesus Christ.

B and I will be finding different local places to purchase items we tend to buy via Amazon now, because I have every intention of ending our Prime membership. It looks like between Costco and Target we should be covered.

Anyway. No point to this except to rant. Thanks for reading if you got this far. I’m going to go lay under the weight of my dog and try to get my heart rate down.

[scarlettgauthor]

A plea

Readers! Billionaire-haters! Comrades! I have a request for you, from the bottom of my self-published indie author heart:

Please buy your books from places other than Amazon.

I am not saying do not buy books. I am definitely not saying pirate books (authors need to be paid in order to keep writing). I am just asking you to shift your purchasing to a non-Amazon platform. Any of the non-Amazon platforms.

We all know that Bezos is using his bajillions of dollars to make the world an actively worse place. We know he's sucking up to Trump because all billionaires are the same, and all they care about is their money. We know he's at least partially to blame for this second Trump presidency. I think the world would be a much better place if Amazon didn't exist.

I hate Amazon and Bezos as much as it's possible to do, but I literally can't survive as a self-published author without selling on Amazon. I earned $1094.26 in royalties (through Draft2Digital) in January, and $863.46 of that was from Amazon sales. Even with the criminally low royalties I get from Audible because I choose to sell elsewhere instead of locking myself into their monopoly, I get between $200-300 a month in royalties from them as opposed to $75-150 a month from Author's Republic, which publishes my audiobooks to everywhere else on the internet.

I hate depending on Amazon, but I can't quit Amazon unless readers do.

My plea to readers is this: Get off Amazon. Get off Kindle. See if you can buy books directly from the independent authors you like (like through my shop on my website!). If you depend on Kindle Unlimited or Audible subscriptions to keep up with your voracious reading habits, try your local library instead. You can get so many books and audiobooks through Libby!

If I was getting 80% of my sales through avenues other than Amazon, it would be easy to take the financial hit and drop them. Currently it's the other way around, and unfortunately I do still need money to live.

I know for many people doing a complete Amazon boycott is not possible. I still occasionally use Amazon for stuff like printer toner, or camp chairs for a concert on short notice, or other housewares I would be happy to buy in an actual store except that in-person shopping has been so degraded by Amazon that's no longer an option. I'm not perfect, and I'm operating within a system that is stacked against me.

But books aren't any of those things. They're not two-day free delivery on groceries and pantry staples for a disabled person who can't safely leave the house. They're not a houseware that you'd have to drive a full hour to buy in person from the one shop that still has it available. There are so, so many other options available in the world for book purchasing, even if you don't have access to a cool local bookstore.

Even if you can't get to a Barnes & Noble.

Even if you don't have a good local library.

There are OPTIONS.

(I, for one, love Bookshop.org, but just look at the Books2Read link for Red, the Wolf, and the Woods! There are 14 non-Amazon retailers, plus I sell direct! Bookshop has just launched ebook sales to support local bookstores, too!)

Please, consider changing your book shopping habits! Ask your friends to change their book shopping habits! It's a small thing, but it's a small thing that means a big improvement for authors, and for the world.

Thank you.

[never-forget-viva-la-pluto]

Holding an indie movie release hostage and demanding that a show the creator was just an acting job in stay in the top 10 for 30 days is bad enough, but they 1) didn't get contracts to let it be released outside the usa and 2) They didn't advertise it properly and 3) They made him sign NDA's so he couldnt properly advertise it himself is some of the most heinous bullshit and i hate that this doesn't even rank in the top ten worst things Amazon has done

[badaziraphaletakes]

I haven’t put my finger on what exactly it is yet, but something about Amazon initially wanting to cancel GO instead of firing NG and continuing with it, and the subsequent decision to only make a shortened version, gives me the ick, in a way that the cancellation of his other shows doesn’t.

Something about the fact that he offered to withdraw (though admittedly, we don’t know exactly what that meant) and they were still going to drop it.

The message that sends feels… weird. It feels wrong.

I’d welcome hearing people’s thoughts.

[leftisttiktok]

Let’s kill the horse

[eekahchu]

🗣️12 days until The Edge of Sleep leaves Prime!!

Hopefully another platform will actually buy it this time but if you haven't seen it yet, GO WATCH IT before it's too late! ⏳

[hawkeye221b]

[rollerska8er]

Buying things in 1974: go to a shop that sells the thing you want. Buy the thing

Buying things in 2024: the shops that sell you that thing you want have all closed down due to lack of business. Go online. Look for the thing you want. Read reviews written in broken grammar about how it's really really good. Google the company name. Read through a bunch of SEO-optimised AI-written slop. Go back to shopping website. Place order. Pay delivery fee you wouldn't have to pay if the shop still existed. The item arrives. it falls apart after two uses. Fuck you

[friendlyneighborhoodmermaid]

Edge of sleep has fallen to number 9 on Amazons list.

LET'S GET THOSE NUMBERS UP BOYS

[middle-earth-mythopoeia]

I'm out of the blue here but why do Tolkien fans hate Rings Of Power? How is it damaging his work and legacy?

We don't hate it because it's damaging Tolkien's work or legacy, which stand on their own merits. We hate it because it's an awful adaptation that treats his world and characters horribly. We hate it because it's made by a company that utterly betrays Tolkien's values and showrunners who have arrogantly compared themselves to him as if they're on his level. Not only that, ROP is being shoved down our throats: it's all over online spaces, it's mentioned in Tolkien-related news articles that have nothing to do with it, and ROP images have even been plastered on the covers of Tolkien's books just to make more money for Amazon. I have more than a few criticisms of Peter Jackson's films, but they all pale in comparison to the criticisms I have of this dumpster fire of a show and the company that made it. ROP has tried to present itself as diverse, but it actually has extremely regressive writing and tokenistic casting, not to mention abhorrent labor practices because it's made by fucking Amazon. Its plotlines and dialogue and internal consistency are shit. Despite an absurdly high budget, its production value is also shit. Even if it were a standalone fantasy series that had nothing to do with Tolkien and we weren't comparing it to canon, the whole thing is embarrassingly, sickeningly bad. Does this answer your question?

[permdaydreamer]

okay so fuck Amazon. this is not about the strike, WGA/SAG-AFTRA aren’t the cause of this. this is about corporate greed and the purposeful and blatant silencing of queer/wlw stories and interests. so, in case anyone forgot, FUCK AMAZON.

[deramin2]

If you’re looking for audio books (like What Doesn’t Break), please check out libro.fm instead of Amazon.

You choose an independent bookstore and the sale goes through them, insuring a rich diversity of local booksellers remains in business.

DRM free downloads. It’s yours forever without restrictions. Or play it through the website/app.

Bookstores also have curation pages to help you find your next favorite book.

Playlists to help you find books on a theme, such as why Amazon is horrible, voting rights, Latino authors, or free audio books.

Excellent app for managing and listening to your audiobooks, including tags, bookmarks, playback speed, chapter menu, and sleep timers (I like setting the timer to stop at the end of the chapter so I can absorb things.)

They’re an employee-owned Social Purpose Corporation. They serve people over profits and aren’t incentivized to make the service worse to squeeze money out of customers, book stores, or publishers.

They are committed to uplifting historically excluded voices. You can find so many cool books being promoted there that mainstream bookstores like Amazon ignore.

Membership subscription like Audible to get cheaper credits, or buy books outright as you want them.

[highlyincorrect]

I am so tired of shows being treated this way.

The equation doesn’t even work any more. A show can be successful and beloved and reach number one slot in fifty countries- generate millions upon millions for their companies- but none of it seems to mean anything. The company will slash it, ruin it, delete it entirely.

What I don’t understand is who this serves. The fans are desperate, they’d pay anything. The author who we will not name (bc fuck him) has written a full script and agreed to step aside because even he understands the importance of this show. This isn’t just affecting us. Terry Pratchett’s memory is being slandered and demeaned. He had one wish and the money hungry pieces of shit down at Bezosville cant even give him that.

I don’t understand what more a show can do nowadays. It doesn’t even seem to matter anymore.

[nando161mando]

A Senate probe found Amazon manipulated injury data to make warehouses appear safer. It's twice as high as other warehouse jobs.

[leftisttiktok]

Class consciousness