I worked at an Amazon warehouse one Christmas season. It was a nightmare. The first full shift I had to use my hands to lift my legs into my van to drive home because I could not pick my feet up off the floor. I cried walking from the vehicle into our house.

We were hired from various temp agencies with the same “some jobs will become permanent after the season” *ahem* stuff. We had to organize ourselves at the time clocks (there was a whole wall full of them) in order to all get checked in during that one minute as to not be considered ‘late’.

It was nice to have any money coming in at that time, but my father worked a job he hated and he died from stress at the age of 47. I was (and am) determined not to go down that way. I’ve got three children, and if they wind up getting married, I want to dance barefoot at each of their weddings! :O)

Fantastic post! And I love the reminder that we are all shaping our world, through our everyday purchasing decisions. Too many of us choose to look the other way. So many of us think that these things aren’t important. But we’re all able to influence big business should enough of us give enough care to change where we spend our dollars.

Thanks for this post. I had heard about Hatchette. The problem for
Amazon is that in this case they look like they are bullying because
they are the big profitable corporation with so many customers. It’s
like holding the smaller publisher hostage. But the problem is really
that anything Amazon does trickles down to the authors and writing is a
difficult process. In some ways, this mirrors the problem for
musicians. I suspect that what would be better for Amazon is to look at
their producers fairly because that’s what we try to teach our
children. On the other hand, because I mentioned this case to my
daughter (now a teen), I found out that many authors with whom she is
currently familiar come from Hatchette. Also, we went to their website
and found some of their children’s book authors and identified some
great books for my new nephew who celebrates his birthday quite shortly
after Xmas. (I need quite a few gifts right at that point.) So, even
though Amazon looks bad here, the good outcome is that I discovered new
books from a great small publisher and I supported my local small
bookstore by buying 2 books from them. I will continue to use Amazon
but I too hope that they will follow a more thoughtful, fair path.

This really gives us food for thought, Jen. Especially for writers who are trying to make a go with their book or e-book. Do you have any chance if you take your book off Amazon? And you probably don’t have a choice if you have a publisher.

I think it’s so important to think about what kind of world we want to shape. But, then we need to consider taking action instead of following the easy path.

[…] As my mentor Jennifer Louden says about the world she wants to live in: “where the big picture isn’t about how big you can get but how much wholeness you can create.&#8221… […]

[…] battle, wherein she asks (with a hat tip to the wise and wonderful Hiro Boga), “What world do you want to shape?” And I thought about it in the context of the online sphere, which is where I’ve […]

[…] Now, you may not feel the need to alter your online habits; but I think most of us are less than consistent when it comes to shaping the world we want to see. […]