You can usually send the author money directly. It may not be "click a button" convenient but lately rarely is doing the "right thing" so easy, annoyingly. But

You can usually send the author money directly. It may not be "click a button" convenient but lately rarely is doing the "right thing" so easy, annoyingly. But it's not so bad. I recently read Adrian Tchaikovsky. If I wanted to send him money, I google his name, end up at his website, and at the bottom is a contact page: https://adriantchaikovsky.com/contact.html https://adriantchaikovsky.com/contact.html there's his agent's address at the bottom, where I can easily mail cash. This works for most authors. In the past I've emailed small creators, such as authors or music producers, and simply asked them for their cashapp, paypal, or venmo, and sent them money that way. Many small producers already have this info on their website or instagram for this exact reason.