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Why does Women Writers have all those
Amazon.com links-- and why do they want my money? Don't I pay
more if I buy the book with your link? Who gets the money? Why
are you trying to get rich? The web should be free, right?
You've seen them all over the site-- those links that send
you to Amazon.com to buy a book, or a movie, or whatever else
they  happen
to link. You've probably wondered what the point is, and why
you should support Amazon.com's business. Isn't it better to
buy the books from someplace else, or to go to one of those tiny
independent bookstores, especially those feminist ones, or to
click through with our link, then clear your browser and go find
the book yourself from a different, not-direct link? (When you
do that, I don't get credit for the referral). If you just "click"
on the book and then don't buy it, I don't get anything.
I used to wonder the same thing. I can recall going through someone's
link and thinking-- I don't want to pay extra, so I'm going to
find this book elsewhere. I've felt awkward about putting this
plea you're reading now on the site before cause I really didn't
want to feel like a greedy capitalist-- but this site does cost
money, and as Virginia Woolf pointed out in A Room of One's
Own, what a woman writer needs to write is "500 pounds
and a room of one's own, with a door, and a lock." I've
got the room here, and the door with a lock, but I actually pay
money to bring you the content on this site. Sounds crazy, huh?
Here's my plea for you to buy your book from the link I made.
Why?
If you like the content this site provides, did you ever wonder
where it comes from? This website is put out by little old me.
I pay a minimum of 20 bucks a month to host the site, more if
I get lots and lots of readers. That's out of my starving-graduate-student,
add-it-to-tuition-and-books-and-the-credit-card-bill-pocket.
I don't make any money from any of the authors who post their
work here. I don't get paid a salary from some big company (a
lot of people think this is my job-- no-- it's my hobby-- a hobby
that takes about forty hours a week sometimes!) Sometimes our
book reviewers get a free review copy of a book-- but a lot of
the reviews are done from books we buy for ourselves, then choose
to write about.
When you buy a book that you're going to get ANYWAY
through a link that I built with my associates ID, (when you
get to the LONG URL at Amazon) I get a tiny percentage of Amazon.com's
money as a referral fee. You, the buyer, do not pay more for
the book you get-- and I get between 5-15% of the cost of the
book. So if you buy a book that you pay 5.99 for, I get a "finder's
fee" of between .29 cents and 1.50. I don't get anything
for just a "click"-- only when you actually buy something.
Right now as I write this, on a month when a few of you buy stuff
(a good one) I get about 10 bucks a month. That's not bad, really,
and I truly, truly appreciate it. But a lot of people click through
the links and then don't buy anything using the link I made.
There's literally thousands of you clicking a link, then not
buying your book with that link. I know some of you just decide
to go to the library, cool-- do that. I grew up too poor to buy
books, and the library was my salvation. I want you to get this
content, and I don't want you to feel guilty-- so don't.
But...
If you're going to buy the book anyway, please use the link
I made, putting the item into your shopping cart on the first
Amazon page you arrive at after you leave my site, right away.
(It is very easy to remove them later if you change your mind.)
Putting the item in your shopping cart without clicking to a
new page triples my commission without costing you any extra.
If I could get more referral fees, it will make it so that it
doesn't actually COST ME MONEY to bring you this content. And
if I could make more than what the site costs to host, I could
dream of paying the writers on the site! I could maybe get some
really really cool articles from people who don't write for free!
I could pay for scholarships for those high school girls who
sometimes write to me asking for money! WOW! I could have free
giveaways of books like The Feminine Mystique (etc)!!!
Essentially, this website IS a tiny independent feminist bookstore.
So when you buy a book with Amazon that you're buying anyway,
you're supporting feminism. And you're being subversive by doing
it through corporate America. Wowser. I will never put those
annoying pop up ads on the site, which is how most websites that
make money do so. So this amazon.com system is the one way I
will try to actually pay for the work done here. It's less obtrusive
than the pop ups for stupid casinos and stuff.
I promise I will not go and get rich on this. I doubt that
I could with amazon.com referrals. But if it did happen, I promise
right here, in writing, to use the money to help women writers,
or students, or something politically-minded.
When you think of feminist empowerment, don't dismiss the
big corporations as not doing the job for feminists. Because
I am a feminist-- I am trying to change the world, really. But
the corporation that is sponsoring me can and would pay me to
do this PERSONAL & POLITICAL work. Think of the clout we
here could have!!
Click those links! If you buy those books, use us as your starting
point! It will turn this site into one that can have the POWER
of those 500 pounds and a website of one's own.
If there's not a link to the book you want, you can use this
box to search for ANYTHING on Amazon... and I will get credit
if you buy something. This is a great way for those of you who
buy a lot of books from amazon to contribute to this site-- use
the search engine below all the time for your purchases, and
you'll help us a ton!
You can just donate cash if you want:
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Or use a search box to buy whatever. (Especially if you're buying,
like, a car or something.) |
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Here's your chance to get started. If you don't see
a book you like, click the "reload" button because
the Amazon.com recommends system will post new choices.... but
you can also do this through individual links on the book reviews,
too...
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