What Would Martin Luther King, Jr. Do?

Where I live in the US of A, we’re celebrating a national holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday.

It’s a bit ironic, because it’s one of those so-called national holidays that isn’t celebrated in every state in this awesome country of mine.

Do I really need to supply quotation marks for you to catch the sarcasm? Ha ha ha … But I digress.

I’d like to note that yesterday I saw this article about Dr. King on Twitter.

And I really loved this excerpt from Dr. King’s speech in the article:

I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live. You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid.

You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a stand.

Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety.

And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.

You died when you refused to stand up for right.

You died when you refused to stand up for truth.

You died when you refused to stand up for justice.

Well … unlike Dr. King was at the time, I’m a bit older than 38. Ahem! Frankly, I’m not afraid of much. Certainly, death gives me pause, but I don’t fear it. There are things way more horrible than death, including death of the spirit.

Now, there are many things going on that deserve our attention. Like this whole business about SOPA. I don’t know much about it, but I’m hearing enough to where it’s giving me heartburn.

And here’s another article about it from the NY Times.

I’m more than a bit concerned because Anne Wayman, a freelancer whose views I respect, has weighed in against this.

Even The Bloggess has done a short video against it. Well, kinda.

So, I think this is a matter we should all be concerned about. In the US of A, anyhow. I know many of you out there in other countries have dealt with this very issue, and I’d be interested in hearing reading your thoughts on government control over the Internet.

Okay, so moving on … and I’ve blogged about this before. Repeatedly. On other blogs. Maybe someone will pay attention here. Who knows?

I’ve blogged until I can’t see straight repeatedly about Amazon. You can actually find all the links in this post.

Now, if you actually read the post, I state right up front that I’m not defending self-publishing and I am clearly not saying that Amazon is the only option for buyers and authors. It took a consumer, i.e., reader to see this.

That’s how wrapped up in their own little world some authors and people in publishing can get. Seriously! You’d think the entire Internet was geared toward selling and reviewing books and having their little debates about whatever stupid issue big thing is going on, blah, blah …

But there’s a great big world out there. Full of real people with real needs. Which is why I really liked this article.

And why I’ve gone out of my way to support indie booksellers on one of my blogs.

That post has spawned a series of posts about indie bookstores, including this one, which actually drew a comment from the owner. Yay!

So, whether I am Amazon’s bitch or not, what’s my point? My point is that Amazon may giveth, but the ultimate price of its generosity may be more than we want to pay.

I’ve also written on another blog that trying to set yourself up as your own book retailer on the Web is essentially something like this.

Now, Joe Konrath is an author who sells a whole sh*tload of ebooks, and he’s compared book content to nookie. He claims Amazon wants the nookie, so they’re willing to do what they need to in order to get it or he can sell his ebooks from his own website.

Have you ever heard of Joe Konrath? Would you go to his website to buy a book? Just based on his name? I would love to know. I’ve given talks and asked the audience (usually, mystery lovers or well-read people) if anyone has heard of him. People just look at me. They don’t know him. He’s well-known in publishing. That little world I mentioned.

But out in the real world, what would happen? How well would he fare without Amazon? Well … in his case, he has no worries, because he’s signed an exclusive contract for them to publish his books. So the whole I can sell my books from my own website argument doesn’t wash. He’s got the money all sewn up. And so do a bunch of other authors. An increasing bunch.

And now indie authors are hopping on the bandwagon. Amazon’s dangling the Lending Library money before them like the proverbial carrot.

Frankly, I have a different opinion about Amazon’s reasons for offering these incentives. In the hood, Amazon is like the local crack dealer. Here you go, everything you want, isn’t that nice?

Authors are high as a kite on the empowerment. Can you feel the Kindle love? Can you see the money pouring in?

Writers have always gotten the short end of the stick. Now, they don’t with Amazon. F*ck you, Big Six publishers! Ha ha ha … Big drama! Big whoop!

I’m stepping away from that tempest in a teapot, okay? To the extent such a thing is even possible, because you never know who’s Googling you, right? Plus I’m tweeting this.

Now, here’s a hypothetical for you. What happens when the crack dealer Amazon has run everyone else out of business? How nicely will it treat its authors and customers at that point? Hmm?

In the hood, a crack dealer usually jacks his product’s price right up through the roof. And if you don’t like it, you can go pound sand, buddy. Just try to survive on the street without his help once you’re hooked. Ha ha ha …

And what about the Main Street businesses? Will people even bother to leave their houses?

Because, of course, this affects WAY more than books.

Ha ha ha …

So, seriously, are we going to stand by and let Jeff Bezos take over the Internet?

And run Main Street out of business?

I fully understand the irony of publishing and selling through Amazon. However, I refuse to publish and sell exclusively through them for the above reasons.

I will continue to champion indie booksellers and other online publishers and retailers.

This might not be a popular position with many of my peers, but as Paul Downie likes to remind us, everybody votes for a dictator.

In conclusion, although my faith is based on concepts more nebulous than Jesus and the Bible, I do have a strong moral compass. This video is a tad long, but well worth it.

PS: I couldn’t be prouder to be a Maryland citizen today.

PPS: If the 1% are a diverse lot, it stands to reason that the 99% is amazingly diverse. So, everyone is a singular human being, right?

That's me, giving someone the finger!

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