When I first started
publishing with Amazon,
there were no rules about
what we could put at the back
of our books.
Amazon trusted us
to do the right thing.
Then a bunch of writers
did some reader-harming things.
They placed dangerous links
at the back of their books
or they told these Amazon readers
to buy from their own stores,
not Amazon,
or they did other things
that damaged Amazon’s reading experience.
Amazon no longer trusted us.
More and more rules were set.
Today, the information we can add
to the backs of our books
is extremely limited.
Because we abused Amazon’s trust.
“As any organization
hits a sufficient size,
it will increase rules
in order to
decrease responsibility.
Because they’ve gotten big enough
that they no longer trust
the people who work for them.”
As we build our businesses
and the number of partners/employees
grow,
we will have to establish
more and more rules.
If you trust everyone
you currently work with
(as I do now),
a multitude of rules might not yet
be necessary.