Yesterday, Amazon.com was down for over an hour, severely impeding my ability to check my book rank every 5 seconds. According to a PC World article, the crash was probably caused by preorders for the release of the Metal Gear Solid 4 game bundle for PS3. Translation: video gamers broke the Internet.

When I first saw the page error, my first thought was, “Oh no, I hope this doesn’t affect book sales!” I make a lot of sales on Amazon, both of my book and of recommended products. The crash made me realize how dependent I am on them for this stream of income. They’re such stalwarts of the Internet that you never expect them to go down. It’s like not being able to get to Google. It’s unthinkable!