Reading is an important hobby for a lot of people. But what some tend to forget is that the people who write those books (the authors, in other words) are, well, people. They write to make money . It’s a job.
A recent TikTok trend has been severely cutting into the income of multiple writers, who are at their wit’s end over it.
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TikTok readers have taken to returning e-books thanks to a viral “hack.”
They’re doing this with Amazon in particular. Amazon has a policy that allows people to return e-books within seven days of purchasing, generally because of an accidental purchase or something to that effect.
But that also creates a very exploitable loophole.
For an avid reader, seven days is more than enough to finish a book. TikTok users have decided to buy a book, finish it quickly, and then return it within the seven days to get their money back.
The strategy went viral on TikTok as the #ReadAndReturnChallenge.
Though this “hack” saves the readers money, it cuts into the profits of writers.
Novelist Lisa Kessler, who writes under the name L.A. Kessler, posted a Twitter thread talking about how she actually owed Amazon money in June, because the number of people who were returning her books had skyrocketed.
“When you read and return a book, it COSTS the author…”
When a customer gets their money back, not only does it take the royalty away from the author, but that author is also stuck paying a “restocking” fee to Amazon.
When enough people read and return books from the same author, they end up owing Amazon money.
Unless you’re a big named author (like Stephen King, for example), you aren’t going to be making big bucks from books. In 2020, Indeed estimated that the average author makes around $49,000 per year .
But they could also be making as low as $15,ooo per year.
On top of having to now owe Amazon thanks to this viral hack, some authors may find it much more difficult to support themselves than ever before.
There are now calls for Amazon to rework their policy to eliminate this loophole.
A petition on change.org is calling for Amazon to stop people from being able to return e-books that have been 100% read. It currently has over 76,000 signatures, passing its original 50,000 goal.
Amazon has since delivered a statement addressing the issue.
“Amazon aims to provide the best possible experience for customers and authors,” a spokesperson said. “We have policies and mechanisms in place to prevent our e-books returns policy from being abused.”
“We’re always listening to feedback and we investigate any concerns we receive.”
As it stands, though, Amazon is the only one of the large book and e-book retailers that allows customers to return e-books . On top of that, e-books are the only digital items that Amazon allows returns for.
If this is a money issue for readers, there’s always a better way.
For instance, libraries exist. It’s possible to borrow e-books from libraries thanks to programs like OverDrive, and because libraries have to buy licenses for e-books , authors end up getting royalties.
