The Forgotten Witch author Jessica Dodge had a somber message for those who participated in the Amazon boycott this month. She took to Instagram with what she believed to be the “dirty truth” about the protest.
“The dirty truth? This month’s Amazon ban didn’t hurt Jeff Bezos, it hurt me,” Dodge told her supporters. “It hurt indie authors,” she continued. “It hurt traditionally published authors. It hurt every small business that relies on Amazon to pay their bills.”
Amazon was among those corporations to roll back on its commitments to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives near the beginning of this year. Target also announced its decision to stop investing as much into DEI efforts to which consumers responded with a boycott that led to shareholders suing the company.
Some readers refused to join the Amazon boycott because of the company’s commitment to giving independent authors a platform. Others, however, opted to participate in the protest.
“I’m a full-time author. I don’t have a backup job or a billionaire cushion to fall back on. When the ban hit, my income dropped,” Jessica Dodge told her social media fans. “What did that mean to Amazon? Absolutely nothing. What did it mean to me? Everything,” she explained.
“I believe in standing up for what matters, but blanket bans like this don’t hurt corporations,” Dodge told her supporters. “They hurt the creatives, the makers, the dreamers behind the scenes. The ones who rely on every sale to survive,” the author said. “Please don’t forget who’s caught in the crossfire.”
Jessica Dodge is the author of three books (Misplaced Magic, The Forgotten Witch, and The Book of Lost Enchantments), which are all available for free to Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited subscribers. The Book of Lost Enchantments is one of her more popular books with a 4.5 rating on Amazon.