A few months ago I posted on my Facebook Group and on the newsletter that I would be pulling my books out of Kindle Unlimited and going wide. I got a lot of support about it at the time, for which I'm very grateful. It's not an easy decision to 'go wide', as it's called. There is a certain safety in Kindle Unlimited. Something that makes marketing feel easier 'FREE in Kindle Unlimited'. I've had readers point out that they pay for Kindle Unlimited, but you get my meaning.
It's comforting to know that even if you're not selling a lot of books, people are still reading them.
The only issue is, I'm selling a fair few amount of books, not enough to live, but a decent amount and it's steadily growing. On the other side of things, my Kindle Unlimited page reads have plummeted since December. It's no longer feeling very comfortable, though the thought of leaving is certainly not comforting!
It seems readers prefer to buy my books, which is just... Wow! Thank you!
Unfortunately it means staying in Kindle Unlimited for the long term is preventing me from reaching my potential market. That's not to say I'll be forgoing putting my books in Kindle Unlimited. But before I go into that, let me tell you a little how KU works for us authors.
When we release a book into KU, we become locked into a 90 day contract. For 90 days we must have our book in KU and because of that, we can't have the eBook available anywhere else. The print copy can be distributed, if there is one, but not the eBook. It's that simple and that restrictive.
So, here's the plan.
At the weekend, I'll be putting all five of the Renegades books up for preorder wide. This will make them available on various platforms including B&N and Apple Books. On October 5th the full series will launch.
From January 19th, I'll begin removing the first five books in the Warriors series out of KU. That will take until April 17th. Then Starting April 5th, and continuing every Tuesday, I'll release a Warriors novel until the first five books are all available.
Technically, The Crime Lord's Fall isn't the last book of the Warriors series, but it will be the last before I take a substantial break so that I can alternate between the first five books of the Rulers series and the complete five book series of Klevian Warriors.
With the release of Rulers I am going to change things. Each book will only spend one 90-day span in KU and then go wide.
I hope that's not too complicated!
Apart from finding my readers, there is one other important reason I'm going wide.
A number of authors have been perma-banned from Amazon for no reason they can fathom. Even Amazon can't figure out why some of them are banned and once it's done, many of them can't be reinstated. I'm not comfortable leaving my entire career in the hands of a company so dependent on bots policing everything, that they have no idea what's happening and why, and no power to change it.
This way, if Amazon ever does drop their ban-hammer on me, my career isn't completely devastated.
For that reason, I'll also be putting in a shop on my website for those books that are out of KU. This will happen at some point over the next few months. First I want to get my first series established wide, then I'll start looking into adding a shop here.
So if, one day, you can no longer find me on Amazon, rest assured I'm right here, or you can continue buying my books through other retailers.
And now for the promised cover reveal!
These beauties will be available on Amazon at the weekend. Meanwhile, if you want to see them before that date, drop by The Author's Renegades, my Facebook Reader group, or become a member of this site. I will be putting the full covers up on Saturday.