Supporting Small Businesses

Like many writers, I’m on various children’s literature listservs. One of my groups began a discussion about how great it is to earn money from amazon via one’s blog. Some bloggers are earning a lot, too! It’s very tempting to sign up.
However, I remember a few years back when I still had my old web site. An independent bookseller reamed me out for having, among my booksense and other indy links, a link to amazon. My thinking was that I’d promote my books. Make it easy for people to purchase my books, and give them a choice of where to buy them. That was in my early days as an author and I wasn’t yet aware of the battle indies are forced to wage.
I support the independents like crazy. But when an author has one stinkin’ book to promote, it’s such a difficult fence to straddle. It’s hard enough, trying to promote our books. On the other hand, amazon needs no help. Everyone knows they can buy a book from amazon.com, but they may not be aware that they can buy a book from a local bookseller.
So I choose to support the little guys. I let my local booksellers know that they should tell anyone who orders my books that I will sign and personalized anything they buy. I drop off print outs of activities and games. I do lots of stuff that I hope will help support these smaller businesses. In times like these I hope it makes a difference.