Ten things authors can do to show solidarity with Amazon workers

If you're an indie author that wants to support Amazon workers to get a better deal, there are lots of things you can do to help.

1. Follow activists and share information on social media

If you're hustling to get your name out there you're probably active on one or more social media platforms. In amongst your own personal and promotional stuff, you could consider sharing and reposting information being shared about Amazon union activities, or issues being faced by workers.

If you have a decent social media following, sharing info on social media for worker advocacy groups will help increase their reach.

There are lots of unions and worker advocacy organisations out there doing good work for Amazon workers, and spreading the word helps them out. There could specific things that unions and worker advocacy organisations might need help with too, like sharing particular petitions, donation requests, campaigns or info about upcoming in-person rallies. But you won't find out about it unless you're following them and paying attention.

Sharing a petition is just about the easiest form of activism you can engage in. It's quick to do, and you don't have to write a detailed explanation of what you think and why because it's already done for you.

If you want some ideas about what organisations to start with, check out our worker and activist groups page.

2. Put a statement on your author website

If you have your own author website you could consider putting some information on it to encourage your readers to support Amazon workers. It could include:

• a link to a petition

• a link to somewhere your readers can donate to a union or worker advocate organisation

• a blog post or a section of text on your website explaining the issues Amazon workers face, and letting your readers know that you support Amazon workers to receive better pay and conditions, and to unionise to get it

• a simple graphic or tile saying you support Amazon worker rights (we have some you can use).

It's up to you what kind of information you choose to put on there. Even if you're not asking anything of your readers directly, just increasing their awareness of the issues can help.

3. Put a message to Amazon workers on your book cover

You may have seen an article in The Verge in 2019 about author Mike Monteiro, who added a message to the front cover of his book aimed at Amazon warehouse workers. He's quoted in the article as saying, “We were discussing how to get messages in front of people and I realized ‘Oh, huh. I have this thing that Amazon workers see every time a book gets ordered. Let’s put a message there.’”

The message reminds staff about their right to organise and provides a short link to a site where they can find more information about it.

4. Talk about it in your newsletter

I'm guessing there's a good chance you have an author newsletter. If you don't you might want to consider it, because writers often say it's the foundation of their marketing efforts and one of the most important ways to grow an audience.

In a newsletter you have space to go into more detail than you might in a social media post, and you have a captive audience of people who have chosen to subscribe. So next time you release a newsletter maybe you should think about putting in a section to share info about the plight of Amazon workers and what your readers could do about it.

5. Contact your elected representatives

Ultimately private companies are going to do what's best for their bottom line unless they feel like they don't have a choice. So while it can't hurt to add to the public pressure for Amazon, the most effective way to get positive change may well be through regulation.

Amazon gets away with a lot of the stuff it does because workers' rights have been gradually watered down for the last 30 years or so in many countries around the world. Encouraging your government to take steps to level the playing field through legislation is important not just for Amazon employees but for workers everywhere.

6. Contact Amazon

Maybe you could just go straight to the source and contact Amazon directly. Amazon don't need to, and won't, pay any attention to an individual. But Amazon depend on their customers and their suppliers (and that means you!). But the more people that show that they're not happy with Amazon's practices, the harder it will become for Amazon to ignore them.

Be careful though! You don't want to give Amazon any reason to suddenly notice that one of your books breaches their terms and conditions, or that there's some other reason they can ban you.

7. Donate to an organisation supporting Amazon workers

If you donate to a union or worker organisation in a visible way that connects to your work as a writer, it not only sends money their way, but also creates an example that other people can follow.

Some ways you could make a donation relevant to your work as an author are by:

• donating an amount per book sold - just choose an amount you think is appropriate and feasible

• making a donation for every book sold via a platform other than Amazon, to encourage your readers to move to different platforms

• making a donation for every book sold via Amazon, so that every time Amazon makes money an Amazon worker union does too.

You don't need to commit forever, and maybe it's better if you don't. You might want to donate to a few different causes, or your financial situation might change so that a donation that used to be affordable no longer is.

One way to do it could be on a month-by-month basis: for example "I'm donating a dollar for every sale this month." This has the added bonus of meaning that you get to restate your pledge publicly each month. That may just seem like bragging or virtue-signalling, but I think it's actually an important way to make other people aware of why you're doing it and why they might want to consider it too.

8. Encourage your readers to donate

You could also encourage your readers to donate. One really good idea I've seen is called 'Amaz-Off', and it's based around the idea of people offsetting some of the money they save getting cheap deals through Amazon, and using it to support workers.

For example, you see a product that costs $10 from most places, but you can get it for $5 on Amazon. If you buy the product but then donate say $2 of what you've saved, then you're supporting workers' movements while still coming out better off that if you bought the product from somewhere else.

9. Use your writing

You're a writer, right? So your most powerful tool could be your writing.

It could be an essay, a blog post, or maybe even working in some of the issues faced by workers in the plot of your book. Using your writing is a way to evoke feeling in your readers, and make them really understand what it feels like to be exploited. It could be much more powerful than all the facts and figures in the world.

10. Boycott Amazon altogether

This option's not for everyone, I know, and I want to be clear that I'm not trying to suggest that you need to. Not all authors would want to boycott Amazon, and even if you do want to you might not be in a financial position where that's feasible.

I'm not boycotting Amazon myself, both because they're my main source of sales, and because I'm hopeful that advocating for change could be more useful than just walking away.

But if that seems like the right move for you, make sure you do it visibly. Silently taking your books down off Amazon won't help anyone; Amazon won't notice you're gone, and you'll just cost yourself potential revenue without achieving anything. So if you're boycotting Amazon make some noise about it: post on your social media, put info on your website (if you have one) about why your books aren't available through Amazon.

And if you want to boycott Amazon check out this list of other platforms you could consider for selling your work.