I should be writing. I have a two book duet plotted out that I'd like to get started on, but I can't get this problem out of my head.
You see, I'm wide (meaning I publish on all major book selling platforms) but Amazon accounts for the majority of my sales. To the point where I wonder almost daily if it's worth being wide. And so…an open letter to the other big publishing platforms.
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Please – for all that is holy and sacred in Romancelandia – do something!
Why are you letting Amazon create a monopoly in the ebook publishing industry?
As an independent author, I don’t want to put my books in Kindle Select/Unlimited. I don’t want to have all my eggs in one basket. I don’t want to give one entity that much power over my business. And yes, writing is a business. I worry about marketing and promotion and sales and after two years, I’m wondering if I’m missing out by not having my books in KU. Actually, that’s not true. I know I’m missing out by not having my books in KU, but I continue to throw money at advertising, hoping my sales on your platforms will increase.
Give us alternatives!
If you created a similar, all-you-can-read platform to KU, without requiring us authors to be exclusive to only you, we would FLOCK to it. I would sign up today.
If you created a reading platform that let readers read as many books as they wanted for say… $4.99 a month, but they could only have five books checked out at a time…they would flock to it! They aren’t reading all five/ten books at once anyway and as soon as they finish they can return one book and get another.
I may not be speaking for all indie authors or all readers, but I’d hazard a guess I’m speaking for a big chunk of them — we want alternatives.
Amazon changed their payout rates on ebook sales because iBooks provided authors with a more viable alternative. Why aren’t you doing the same with KU? Why are you sitting back, watching money from a billion dollar industry flow out of your platforms? eBook sales are not diminishing — this theory has been debunked year after year — why aren't you grabbing onto your slice of the pie?
This letter may be futile, It may not get any traction or a response, but I had to get this off my chest. In fact, I’ll do it again.
Please, please, give us an alternative.