To Keep on Amazon or Not To Keep...

[Alexa]

Some of my books are about to come out of their KDP enrollment period, and I'm really struggling on whether to not renew and multi-publish via Smashwords or keep them on and enjoy the daily income of Pages Read (which I really love). Any suggestions / insights?

[Tara Woods Turner]

Congrats on the page reads! From what I understand from many authors enrolled in KDP page reads comprise the bulk of their income. If that is the case for you I am not sure you could make up the loss on all the other sites combined. Of course, you can always get out of it for three months and jump back in. I'm tempted to say that is the only way you can truly make an informed decision. Some authors experience a summer slump while some see increased sales due to the 'beach reads' effect, so make sure you know how you tend to trend. Hopefully other authors with more experience than me will jump in here with better advice. Best of luck to you.

[Alexa]

Tara wrote: "Congrats on the page reads! From what I understand from many authors enrolled in KDP page reads comprise the bulk of their income. If that is the case for you I am not sure you could make up the lo..."

Thanks for the advice!

[Nancy]

I seldom have KDP pages read, at least for me the service hasn't helped me all that much and today my first novel has been taken off from KDP. I'll leave the sequels in the program for now

[Joel]

I've had my first novel enrolled in KDP Select for two quarters. I ran a freebie for 4 days within the first month and got about 75 downloads which put me in the top 10 of my micro niche for about a week.

But NONE of those people wrote a review and only one person rated the book (2 stars, yikes) and the rankings quickly tumbled making me doubt the value of giving it away.

The next quarter I ran a week long Kindle Countdown deal where I reduced the price (from $3.99) to 99 cents for 4 days and then $1.99 for 3 days. I got ZERO sales from that even though I promoted it with all the same websites that I used for the freebie announcement. The real irony is that I was just starting to get some good reviews (Reader's Favorite) and my full-price sales were picking up and the discount just stopped it dead in the water...

So, now that my KDP contract has expired, I've decided to put it on Smashwords and see if I can pick up a few sales on Apple, B&N, Kobo, etc.

I'll let you know how that goes...

[TaM]

Thanks for that info, Joel! Super helpful... though not inspiring... :( lol

[Ava]

All of my books (except for one that was rejected by a few marketplaces) are wide, on Amazon, Kobo, B&N, Smashwords, Inktera, and Apple. I am confident that I make more via all the marketplaces other than Amazon than I would via KU pages read.

In fact, Apple is starting to be a bigger payout than Amazon. It could happen this month for the first time.

The trick is that it takes a bit of time to get traction on the other marketplaces, but when you do, it works out well.

A benefit to the "other" marketplaces is that the competition there is much much lower than Amazon, so it's easier pickins. : )

[Entrada]

The plus for Smashwords is that they will "send" your book to a lot of different places that used to be difficult to get into - like Apple. Of course, they take a cut but it is less time consuming than setting up all these accounts yourself.

[Ava]

And if your book is $0.99, they'll get you more commission on the sale than you would by going direct. And virtually all my books are $0.99.

[Helen]

My backlist books went wide from the start. Some via Smashwords or Draft2Digital, others direct with the estore. However, books with a publisher have either been pulled from KU after the initial period or not being put in to start. The reason is the lower pay every time the algorith changes even as page reads increases. For the past year, returns were consistently better without KU.

[Alexa]

Lydia wrote: "Smashwords isn't as well known to readers as Amazon is. Amazon sells itself. The key to marketing it basically doing it yourself. That being said I managed to sell 14 books on Smashwords and all I ..."

Congratulations! And thank you for the comment! 🖐

[Sean]

I've got two books out on Amazon, both in KU.
Book 1: is in horror / dystopian categories and was priced at $4.99
Book 2: is in humour/satire and was priced at $1.99

The interesting thing was book 1 got no purchases but some KU reads. Book 2 got some purchases but no KU reads.

Either its about the genre with some genres having more KU subscribers because people tend to read a lot and the subscription pays off or its because KU readers are selecting books with higher list prices to read for free.

I think KU is a big problem in the launch period if you buy promotion or advertising for your book because the sales page for a KU book has a huge orange button selling KU subscriptions and a tiny text 'buy now' link for the book itself. If most of the people who see your external advertising don't have a KU subscription you are selling KU for Amazon rather than your book.

[Kat]

This is something I've debated. I've wondered if genre makes a difference and considered trying one of my books wide for a while just to see what happens.

[Errin]

I think genre makes a huge difference, but times (and algorithms!) are always changing, it seems, and I think the writers who experiment and reach will be the ones to find their own inroads to their reading public. Going wide gives you more presence, more visibility, and it's more expensive to execute. I don't regret doing it... but it's hard, sister!