I’m not in a spot to listen to the audio, but Cory Doctorow is always insightful on these things.

Amazon has been fucking over the book industry and small authors since its inception…Amazon literally began as a startup that massively disrupted publishing. Any author that can diversify their small business (because most authors are one-person small businesses making modest livings or below-poverty livings, the Stephen Kings and J. K. Rowlings are rare) to get some of their work out of Amazon’s grip should.

And audiobooks sell well, so if you can sell them without handing a big ol’ chunk of profit to Amazon, you should try.

Some authors find a way to game Amazon’s system now and again to make profits, but it’s very perilous locking all your income to one predatory distributor. You never want all your eggs in one basket.

When I worked at Amazon, Cory Doctorow came to my office (we shared it with Audible) to give a talk about his book, and host a Q&A. He said that he publishes his audiobooks as albums on Amazon Music because that supported DRM-free playback when Audible didn’t.

He signed my Kindle with the phrase “If you can’t open it, you don’t own it” and drew a skull and crossbones.

Hard to argue with him. Glad I don’t work for Amazon any more.

I really want this to become a thing.