The Kindle’s 2007 launch transformed one of the oldest breeds of creative workers—authors—into one of the newest: platformized cultural producers. Although most research on such workers focuses on careers birthed by social media (i.e., influencers, YouTube creators), many cultural producers work in legacy industries where traditional and platformized practices coexist, come together and influence each other (i.e., publishing, music, film). Both groups—born-digital and “confluencers”—must negotiate precarious labor conditions, but confluencers can draw on both digital and pre-digital networks and traditions to do so. This project shows how one such group—indie romance authors—draws on its history to create collective imaginaries regarding Kindle Unlimited (KU). These imaginaries offer an emergent, if weak, base of resistance to Amazon’s platform power. I contribute to literature on platformized cultural production by: (a) distinguishing among groups of platformized producers; and (b) showing how historic context informs strategies for negotiating platform power.
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This article looks at one group of confluencers—indie romance authors—showing how historic resources contribute to their collective imaginaries about KU. These imaginaries offer an emergent, if weak, base of resistance to Amazon’s platform dominance. I contribute to literature on platformized cultural production by; (a) distinguishing among groups of platformized producers and; (b) showing how historic context informs strategies for negotiating platform power. However, I also warn that drawing on legacy resources risks reproducing existing inequalities in cultural industries.
To build this argument, I first explain how the platformization of book publishing has altered the political economy of book publishing. Next, I show how Amazon creates a multi-sided market around books. I then draw on interviews with 19 indie romance writers to show how they form imaginaries that help them resist platform precarity.
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While most self-published authors make little to no money, indie romance is a dramatic exception (Coker, 2014, 2015; Holson, 2016; Larson, 2019; Meyer & McLean, 2016). Between 2009 and 2014, romance author median incomes grew 73%, while other authors saw a 42% decline. All of that increase came from self-publishing (Larson, 2019). In particular, authors of color and LGBTQ+ authors, historically excluded by traditional romance publishers, found a thriving, untapped market (Pryde, 2022).
However, even successful indie authors note that Amazon wields a double-edged sword. The company makes their careers possible at the cost of “algorithmic precarity” (Duffy, 2020, p. 103), a dependence on platforms that could decimate their visibility and income with a single search or policy tweak.
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