Kindle Unlimited


So I did this today. Putting books two and three of my series into Kindle Unlimited was approximately as terrifying as writing book one had been. Which sounds totally ridiculous, because why would a marketing plan that targets readers be terrifying? Or, for that matter, why would writing a book about a free-running tagger (I fall in slow motion, according to my husband) who time travels to Jack the Ripper's London (haven't been there because - you know, we've moved on) be scary? Well, except for the part that I COULD SUCK AND NO ONE WOULD READ IT.

Since then, of course, a couple of people have told me Marking Time doesn't suck. And those people actually went on to buy Tempting Fate and Changing Nature, and apparently those don't suck either. But, writing the books is hard enough. Marketing them is its own monster under the bed, only able to be faced with one part luck, one part research, and three parts kind people who like to read time travel books.

The research I've done into KU, especially since they changed the payout system for borrows to a per-page rate, has been compelling, and much, much wiser people than I (Hugh Howey's blog post on the subject is excellent) have written extensively on the subject. But then, a couple of weeks ago, my lovely friend, Penny Reid and I were talking about the Yukon (my summer) and babies (her life) and raising kids to be decent, interesting human beings (a universal challenge), and she brought up KU.

"You should put your books in KU," she said, during a very rare pause in the conversation. "They're really long, so the money could work in your favor when people borrow them, and everything in my research has shown that Amazon promotes KU books, especially the new releases, more than wider releases."

I'm paraphrasing, of course, because I think my brain stopped on the I-should-put-my-books in KU part. But one thing to know about Penny is that when she researches something, she's not kidding. That woman's statistical brain is phenomenal and utterly intimidating, and all I can say is thank God we're friends, because her books are awesome, and I get to benefit from her love of numbers.

"But," I argued, (to Penny, on the phone) "my first book is free, and if I put it in KU it can't stay free." For anyone who doesn't already know how to make an e-book perma-free, it's all about Amazon's commitment to being the lowest-priced game in town, so even though they don't offer the option to make a book free, other outlets do. Then Amazon has to price-match your free book in order to keep their low-price promise to customers.

The conversation went back and forth about whether readers would discover the first book when they saw books two and three in KU, and if it even mattered. But always in the back of my mind was the fear that everything would fall apart, people would stop downloading the books, sales would fall off, and ... well, you know, cats and dogs would start living together and life as I know it would cease to exist.

Or, three months could pass (the commitment to exclusivity in KU) and I could change my mind.

So, because I'm a writer, I just wrote a whole blog post full of fears and concerns, with some dialogue, and honest self-doubt sprinkled in for good measure. If I were just cutting to the chase, like I finally did today, I'd say this:

Dear Readers,
I've put Tempting Fate and Changing Nature into KU. The paperbacks are still available anywhere, but for the e-books, readers will have to download the kindle app to read them. I plan to release Waging War in KU before my three months for the other books are up, hopefully capitalizing on the increased exposure Amazon gives to KU new releases. If you read on a Nook or a Kobo device, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, and I'll be offering several paperback giveaways at release time on Facebook. The jury is still out on whether I'll ever put Marking Time in KU, because free is free, and, well, people like free so they still find it.

Oh, and thank you for your patience with Waging War. That's the subject of a whole other blog post that I don't yet have the courage to write, but I promise, it's coming.
Warmest Regards,
April

Popular posts from this blog

IngramSpark vs. Createspace

To: Indpendent Authors: Re: Createspace vs. IngramSpark: A couple of weeks ago someone posted a link on Facebook to IngramSpark with free set-ups (I can't find it now - sorry), so I did some research into Createspace vs. IngramSpark. Everything I found said do both. Createspace distributes primarily to Amazon, but their expanded distribution isn't utilized by most bookstores because they don't give them a big enough discount. IngramSpark gives the industry-standard 55% discount to retailers, plus the option to return books, which makes ordering our books attractive (I just did a signing at a Barnes and Noble, and had to bring all my own books because they won't order through Createspace). They also have printers in Europe and Australia, which makes international ordering cost-effective. There is almost no money to be made for us on IngramSpark because of the discount to retailers. But it's the one way I've found to get into traditional brick and morta
Read more

Light a Small Lantern

Image
Reproduced by kind permission of the artist, Hassan Massoudy. "Instead of railing against the darkness, it's better to light a small lantern." Chinese Proverb. Hassan Massoudy on Instagram My husband just got back from working for six months in the Yukon Territory of Canada, very far removed from U.S. politics, natural disasters, hate crimes, mass shootings, and the growing sense of powerlessness among people who wish for something different. He'd been home only a few days when he pulled me away from the hearing of our children. "Where did all your possibility go?" His question was a direct punch to the solar plexus, and I knew exactly what he meant. I just hadn't put it into words because it had crept up slowly and insidiously, like a thin, poisonous darkness slipping under the door. Somehow, in the past nine months, my own sense of powerlessness in the face of all the negativity had become something smaller and more personal. Somehow, that po
Read more

An Apology, A Confession, and An Excerpt

I've been hiding. At first it was politics. The election and subsequent scandal upon horror upon disaster have left me feeling scraped raw and staked out on the mountaintop for buzzards to eat my intestines. So, yeah. I started hiding from Facebook and Twitter, because most days it felt like the news was just pouring acid into open wounds. I've read blog posts by other authors who said that they've had trouble writing in this political climate - they've had trouble feeling like anything they do could possibly make a difference. It's a sentiment I totally get, and something I struggle with too. I wasn't writing - or at least, not seriously or with any kind of intention. Maybe politics had something to do with it, maybe it was because I'd finished a series into which I had poured heart and soul, or maybe I was worried I wouldn't be able to pull off something new. In any case, I have 20,000 words of Bas' novel, the first couple of chapte
Read more