Tag: amazon boycott

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what's lit

Noname’s Book Club Has Declared National Fuck Amazon Day

Amazon.com has developed a reputation in the book industry as a monstrous e-retailer sapping profits for indie bookstores. Consumers can’t help but get addicted to the effortless ordering and two-day shipping, but the socially conscious Noname’s Book Club is celebrating National Fuck Amazon Day aka Library Card Registration Day—a day to support the free literary resources such as libraries already in our communities.

Today on Jan. 11, readers of color are encouraged to sign up for library cards to access free books in their communities. Some libraries may charge $1 for a card, but users can access a number of books for usually three weeks in person or on their e-readers. Some people are even canceling their Amazon memberships since the corporation has long had a reputation for snatching business away from indie bookstores, including those owned by entrepreneurs of color in communities of color.

Noname says it’s not only about supporting local libraries and indie bookstores but really a “stance against corporate greed.”

With more literary groups, especially those serving communities of color, joining the fight against Amazon, 2020 could be a year of readers looking for alternative ways to access books without supporting the corporation.

If you’ve given up on Amazon in the name of books, then let us know in the comments.

Personally, I’m not ready to forfeit my Amazon membership. I like my two-day shipping on my specialized beauty products and vitamins that are hard to find in brick-and-mortar stores. Also, in college, Amazon was a godsend for many students looking for cheaper textbooks. It’ll be difficult to check out necessary textbooks from libraries for an entire semester and pay full price when a lower price with shipping is available on Amazon. But Amazon probably bought out the smaller used textbook sellers long ago, so there’s another example of corporate takeover.

The top book publishers could be considered as corporations. Libraries pay authors for their books, and publishers are getting a cut of that check.

MIXED BAG OF PLACES TO BUY BOOKS

Years ago, I had already changed my bookish spending habits by buying most new books from indie bookstores such as The Ripped Bodice and Skylight Books in Los Angeles and Vroman’s in Pasadena. I bought a few from Amazon via used book outfits who work with Amazon to make a profit online.

Some self-published authors I meet in the field want you to buy their books on Amazon because of the chunk of sales the corporation promises them. Amazon has improved its self-publishing platform over the years, making it somewhat of a haven for authors who want to control their book sales. In short, when you’re an avid reader, you buy and rent books from all over. Most of my books are from Goodwill Industries, a nonprofit that could be seen as acting as a corporation, and other thrift stores.

I check out tons of library books in person and on my Kindle. Through Kindle on three active library cards, I use Overdrive which connects you to all your libraries in one place. How e-books are shaping the book industry has also been a topic of conversation, especially with Amazon dominating in that sphere, too. My neighborhood library blocks away from my home is always crowded, but when it comes to the books, it seems underutilized because I usually get the hottest books of the moment easily. With libraries being a public space and used for quiet time, I wonder if enough patrons are checking out the books the libraries invested in.

AUTHOR EVENTS AT CORPORATE AND INDIE BOOKSTORES

I’m into meeting authors for a second and getting their autographed books. I’ve bought a few books from Barnes & Noble at the Grove for author events. That’s another issue: authors, regardless of fame, who should partner with indie bookstores to be their main bookseller or venue when they come to your city.

One great example is Elaine Welteroth, millennial media maven who released More Than Enough last year. During her stop in Los Angeles, she chose to have the event at the California African American Museum and the main bookseller was Eso Won Books, the only black-owned indie bookstore in the area. Another example is Marie Forleo, author of Everything is Figureoutable, who came to the Skirball Cultural Center with her Book Soup as the preferred bookseller.

AMAZON’s HANDS ON THE BOOK INDUSTRY

Noname and her book club are making waves with spreading the message of corporations establishing their own book businesses on top of taking a lion’s share of overall book sales. Amazon is building a book empire with signing on celebrities as authors and delivering Audible titles at record speeds, for example. Hopefully, the movement will bring more dollars back to our local libraries and the literary entrepreneurs of color who’ve opened businesses to purposely serve their communities.

Categories
what's lit

2019 Literary Lookback: The Rise of Noname’s Book Club

Noname

Rapper Noname started a book club this past summer and has amassed a strong following with mostly millennial readers looking to discover a variety of books from authors of color.

With its August launch, the book club selected two books: Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby. Two books remained a constant over the months, with the latest twin picks being The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon and Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi.

The book club blossomed on social media—now having almost 67,000 followers on Twitter and over 38,000 followers on Instagram—and then moved to in-person meetings in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Photos from the meetings and from members make up most of the timelines on the two social media networks as well as vintage and stock photos of black people reading books. Letting members know they are seen and supporting their reading goals shift the book club, though helmed by a celebrity, away from the celebrity book club model that usually keeps the conversations online and seldom acknowledges members.

From cult classics to the words of emergent authors, Noname’s Book Club highlights books that speak on human conditions in critical and original ways.

That’s Noname’s Book Club’s mission statement, and it shows in the actions the group has taken to make an impact on the diverse consumers the literary industry tends to ignore.

supporting black-owned bookstores

The book club sends members to black-owned bookstores in seven cities to purchase the picks and some holding in-person meetings. One example is The Reparations Club in Los Angeles, which has quickly become home to many black creatives since opening earlier this year.

boycotting Amazon

Buying from the independent bookstores came from the book club’s stance on not buying books from Amazon. The boycott movement, popular with many indie booksellers and especially black literary groups, is to bring money back to those booksellers, especially the ones catering to consumers of color since they are usually not the top indie bookseller in their regions. Amazon has been blamed for taking necessary book sales from indie booksellers, especially with the e-retailer giant gaining a stronghold in the publishing industry creating its own books and other media based on books.

connecting with public LIBRARies

This month, the book club partnered with the Los Angeles Public Library to help members find the selected books free of charge. The book club posed the question of what should be its next partnership, and many followers chimed in, with Binghamton, New York getting a lot of votes.

In less than six months, the book club has made a major impact in magnifying the visibility of readers and authors of color, so the next year may bring more advancements in celebrating these literary stakeholders.