A couple of days ago, I made a decision that will impact my e-books for the next 90 days. I enrolled all my Wasteland Chronicles books into Kindle Unlimited…which according to the terms, means I have to delist them from all other sites. That includes iBooks, B&N, Kobo, Google, among others. For the next 90 days, Wasteland Chronicles e-books will be exclusive to Amazon. In exchange, Wasteland Chronicles will be available through Kindle Unlimited and I’ll get access to a few promotion deals, including Kindle Countdown.
The reason for this decision? As an author, it’s important to try new things. Gaining new readers is the lifeblood of my profession. If I don’t gain new readers, then I’m out of a job. I’m a little late to be trying it — most other authors have given it a go already — but it’s only because, historically, I think competition in any marketplace is a good thing. It makes me a bit uncomfortable to see Amazon gaining an ever larger share of the market, but at the same time, it’s not surprising. Of all the major e-book retailers, their platform is the only that continues to evolve and meet the needs of readers on an unprecedented level. As much as I would like to see Apple or Google try new things to remain competitive…they simply are not.
I get a significant amount of sales from my non-Amazon platforms, and it will be interesting to see the extra Kindle Unlimited downloads will be enough to make up the difference. f, after 90 Days, the results are underwhelming, then I’ll make all my other books available for download again elsewhere.
I have no idea how this will turn out. Some authors experience a lot of success with Kindle Unlimited while others make more by publishing everywhere they possibly can. In the past, the latter was always my philosophy…and it was a philosophy that usually turned out to be true.
I’ve had thousands of sales on other vendors since I’ve started publishing, so saying no to that money, even for 90 Days, on an experiment seems like a gamble. But Amazon has always sold more than all of them combined, and this is more to satisfy my own curiosity. While Amazon has evolved over the 3.5 years I’ve been writing full-time, the other platforms have remained largely the same. Being Amazon exclusive used to mean you made less than someone who published everywhere possible — these days, that’s no longer true. It’s important to take the risks, and if those risks don’t turn out well, you can always correct your course.
So anyway…that’s the reasoning behind my decision. If you are a reader on a platform other than Amazon…my Wasteland books will still be available through the Kindle app, which you can download onto your laptop or iPad.
90 Days from now, I will be writing an update on this trial period, letting you know where my thoughts lie.
