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Post by quinning on Oct 12, 2016 19:25:28 GMT -5
Initially, my plan had been to launch into KU. It seemed like an easy price to pay (minimum 90 days exclusive) in order to gain the possibility of exposure to readers in a low-risk environment. Being a new writer, I don't have a mailing list (though I plan on starting one for communicating the next and future books). Now with all the KU issues and Amazon issues, I don't know if that's still a reasonable plan.
Do I still go into KU knowing that I just have to eat possibly not getting paid initially in trade-off for getting my book maybe seen? Or do I go wide right out of the gate?
Thoughts?
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Post by ameliasmith on Oct 12, 2016 22:58:08 GMT -5
I went wide with my first book, but that was before KU, maybe even before Select (tail end of 2012). IMO, the best reason to go into Select is that it's easier to just keep track of one retailer, and it gives you access to a few easy promotional tools. In all likelihood, your sales aren't going to be that big right out of the gate. Hardly anyone's are. I know we can probably come up with a couple dozen KBoards superstars who hit it big with their first book, but statistically it's unlikely and you're best off focusing on writing the next book.
So yeah, I think Select can be a good way to go, but it doesn't make a huge difference in terms of sales, for most, and you could get lucky on one of the other retailers.
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Post by lou on Oct 13, 2016 8:18:47 GMT -5
In my genres, KU is the way to go. My sales were only 1/3 of my income for a long time. (this month, more like 40%) When I switched to KU, (with no fanfare/ads/mailing list notice) I made as much in page reads in a single day as I had made across all my titles, all vendors, in 12 months prior. So I'm a KU booster. (Now I'm nostalgic for that first month of KU with a million page reads. Man, that was fun.  ) If the commitment was for a year, I'd be cautious, but gee, it's only 90 days. |
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Post by scdaffron on Oct 13, 2016 8:34:15 GMT -5
I was wide when I started, but if I were starting now, I'd go into KU. I say this even as I'm planning to pull my books out and go wide again. With that said, KU is great for getting exposure on Amazon, which is what you need when you're starting out. With your first book, it's all about discovery. I have a series, and I can get new readers from my permafree. At this point, Amazon has screwed up my page reads royally. If they aren't going to pay me for page reads, I figure why should I be in KU? It's also possible that switching from wide to KU to wide again could be a "strategy" for all I know  |
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Post by Daniel on Oct 13, 2016 8:35:37 GMT -5
I've had my books in Select and I've had them wide. Some of them were wide for quite a while (2+ years), depending upon how long they were out. I never got traction anywhere but Amazon, so I pulled everything back into Select earlier this year. But that's just me. Plenty of authors do well on the other platforms.
My recommendation would be to sign up for Select initially to get access to Amazon's promotion tools. You're going to start with zero visibility, so you'll need all the help you can get. After 90 days, go wide to see if your book is among the ones that do well at other vendors. If you can manage to get a BookBub promo, that can make a huge difference to your visibility on the other platforms. I'd give your book another 90 days at least to get traction on the other platforms. If it doesn't happen, you can always go back to Select.
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