Lindsay - March 25, 2021In Episode 80, we went over some of the pros and cons of going exclusive with Amazon for ebook publishing versus opting out of that program and making your ebooks available in all stores.
For this week’s episode, we finished up going over who KDP Select / Kindle Unlimited might be best for and who a wide / non-exclusive (or hybrid) approach might be best for. Then we answered listener questions on the subject.
Here’s the list of questions:
- In Part 1 of KU vs. Wide (Episode 80), Lindsay mentioned she often starts a series in KU and then takes it wide. What is your launch process and pricing strategy for taking the series wide? Do you put the whole thing out at once on the other retailers, or release a few and put the rest on pre-order? Do you do permafree or a 99-cent book one? Lastly, do you have any suggestions on trying to get promotions for the other vendors?
- Regarding marketing wide, which platforms do you market on? Do you just use Facebook, or do you advertise on the individual platforms, or are there other strategies?
- I’ve seen some authors go into Kindle Unlimited for a period of time, then going wide, then back into KU, rinse and repeat. Have any of you tried this? What are the pros and cons?
- I would love to see if a book’s primary genre impacts success wide vs KU for new authors.
- Have you noticed any difference with best price points comparing Wide to Kindle Unlimited? I suspect, if there is any difference, that you have to have a lower sale price in Amazon if the book is in KU… but I have no clue if that is true.
- I’d be very interested in some numbers around how much of your audience continues to buy your books after you leave exclusive and end up going wide. I know there are differing anecdotes and beliefs, and my gut feeling is that it is really only the diehard, core fans who will, but it would be nice to know that for sure.
- The “general” wisdom is that KU readers are not loyal and won’t buy your books at full price. Do you find that to be true? Also, are they a dead weight on your newsletter? And do you try to separate them in any way? This is not related to KU, but if it’s not too personal a question could you share the size of your newsletters?
- Is it recommended that books that are kept in KU be long books (say 100k + words) to make the page read rates worth it? Or can shorter books also make pretty good money in KU?
- I’d love any firm data on if/when Bookbub deal ads actually accept KU books vs wide. Also data as to how long it takes to establish a series wide and if (might be genre-dependent) it can make more that way.
- Right now I’m in KU. Is a drop-off in page reads the only indicator to consider going wide? Since so much is talked about the next book/series being the best thing to grow your readership, should a new author wait several series before pulling? (Assuming no major changes in the landscape)
We had more great questions that we ran out of time for, but we’re planning to include them in a future episode.
In the meantime, you can ask questions or talk to others about publishing and marketing in our Six Figure Authors Facebook group.
Thanks for listening, and thanks to Joshua Pearson for producing the show!
