“How Amazon saved my life”

Jessica Park sings the praises of Amazon for helping her with her self-publishing career. Saved her life may be a bit too exuberant, but then again who am I as an author who uses traditional publishers to question that enthusiasm?

Jeff Bezos in his annual shareholder letter points to many Jessicas who have taken advantage of its Amazon Web Services, Fulfillment by Amazon and Kindle Direct Publishing to make a decent living. He could also have mentioned Amazon Affiliates who link referrals from their sites to Amazon and make a nice 4 to 6% on the order value.

Of course, it is not just Amazon. Apple, Google, eBay and others have done the same for countless small businesses. In my new book, I profiled Charlie Wood and Gerlinde Gniewosz as two highly qualified entrepreneurs in the Google and Apple worlds.

These new ecosystems are having a profound impact on the talent marketplace.

As my book says

When Apple shares 70 percent of revenues with a developer, when Google shares 95 percent of Chrome revenues, and they absorb significant marketing, credit card processing, and other fees, it is compelling to become an entrepreneur rather than go work for IBM or Accenture implementing SAP or other enterprise mobile applications.

And as Jessica says why work for a traditional publishing company?