KU, wide or both?

Yeah, I wouldn't think that was a wise strategy, putting half a series in KU and the other half, wide. I've seen peeps on Koards ask about doing this over the years. The strategy is to try and get the best of both worlds. But I would think it would be better to have one full series in KU. And one full series wide. Splitting them up is a terrible customer experience.

I used to be wide, but now I'm all in with KU. I'm not sure yet if it was a good decision or not. I get reads every single day. I earn way less on each read than I would per read. I'm at $50 for the month though which is high end for me. So I don't seem to be losing any money, which is weird. And the daily kachings are pleasant. Even when they're only for 1 cent.

Wide author here and you couldn't pay me to go into KU.

Go wide or go KU. Some authors do both but makes no sense because the KU readers and wide readers are totally different. Many wide readers don't even read KU books because much of what is in KU is written according to what KU readers like. Wide readers tend to like different kinds of books. I'm a wide writer and wide reader.

Also, you will piss readers off. I am a wide reader. I am not a KU subscriber nor do I buy books in KU. I don't even buy books on Amazon anymore. I buy ebooks from B&N. Amazon is a mess. I can barely stand to look at my own product pages on there let alone browsing for something I like to read. The categories are a junk pit, the so-called bestselling charts a fradulent joke, no thanks. I would rather go where I can easily find books and they are where they belong. Back to my point about pissing readers off. Say I stumbled across a permafree book or something on B&N and I want to read the rest of the series and it's only on Amazon. I'm not reading the rest and I'll probably blast you in a review for putting a free book 1 somewhere and the readers can't buy the rest there. You might think, "Oh, they can just buy it on Amazon." Wrong. Most wide readers DO NOT buy books from Amazon. That's why they are considered the "wide" audience. They have their favorite retailers and they are not Amazon. Another reason they wouldn't buy the KU books is out of principle. They will be pissed that the author had the nerve to put a book permafree on other retailers but then try to gouge wide readers and make us pay for the entire series when the KU folks get it free? AND on top of that they got the permafree book too??? No. They didn't pay for jack! Just think about that for a minute. Wouldn't you be pissed wondering why YOU had to pay for something and subscribers don't especially when the author teased you with a freebie on another site? You've lost a reader, and another, and another. Customers look at that stuff and they don't like it. You can't price gouge one segment of readers then give another the series free and expect the other to support.

On the flip side, the majority of KU readers don't buy books. Period. People wanna say they do but many don't. That's why they are in KU. So they don't have to spend any money! Why would they pay 9 dollars for a subscription to get all the free books they could ask for if they are going to also buy? The ones who do buy only buy trade-published books. They will spend money for those but use KU for indie books. Good luck thinking you are going to get someone from KU to BUY the rest of a series. It's the same thing, you will get them hooked , they see the rest isn't free for them to gobble up and they will get beyond pissed.

Nah. Be either all-in or all-out and have a plan for either to give yourself the best shot at being successful.

Just my 2 cents.

I know an author who is wide who has been saying she is going into KU now because her sales have dried up. She seems to think switching is the answer but I could give her tons of advice as to why her books aren't selling. Bad covers, bad branding, etc. Yet she wants to act like it's being wide that's the issue. No.  Sometimes it's  the books that's the problem. I can't tell you how many authors struggle wide especially and go into KU and end up doing no better or worse. Sometimes the author has to take a good long look at their work and not think that just because wide didn't do well it's the other retailers or readers that's the issue. No. Sometimes it's your books. Sometimes it's you didn't market well enough or not enough. Sometimes it's that you didn't research wide enough to get to know how the retailers work. Every retailer is different. Now, I'm not saying that switching can't sometimes be the answer but many people who switch due to lack of success through one outlet end up the same on the other. KU is no magic bullet and Wide isn't either.

I've also seen this a lot from KU authors going wide because their page reads dropped. Uh, I also have to say if someone is finding it hard to make waves in KU where they are giving books away then it's a big problem with the books. Going wide is not going to help because wide readers are ten times pickier than readers in KU  so if you can't please readers who get the books for free, why do you think your books will do better wide?

I just wanted to make that point because all the time people switch to one from the other as if that's the answer when Stevie Wonder could see there is an issue with their books or a lack of marketing, etc. 

Marketing is another thing. Some authors go  into KU thinking they can just sit back and cruise up "bestseller" lists and not market. ROFL! Wow. KU authors have to market more than wide authors and spending tons of money on AMS just to be seen in the store. Good luck with not marketing. 

dmayo I'm still not sure why you unpublished from amazon just to go wide. You can still publish through KDP and be wide, as long as you're not in select. Having your ebook and paperback both through KDP allows easy linking, which makes the ebook more attractive.

But since your ebooks are through D2D it would make the most sense to me to do your paperbacks through them, as well. But even with your paperbacks on amazon you can still also create D2D paperbacks, since dead tree books cannot be exclusive. But I understand not wanting to make the effort if you're unsure if it will be worth it.

But trying things for yourself is the best way to figure out how well it will work for you. Not that hearing others experiences isn't awesome. It's one of my favorite parts about forums. But every author is unique, their books are unique, and their experiences will be unique, as well. To a certain extent, anyway.

I've only done KDP paper so far since I was too lazy to try out D2D for paper, but I'm trying to get into puzzle books, so I will likely give it a go. I want to do lulu, as well, because they have more options than trade paperback. And sell on my own website. Not being lazy is a good thing, I am trying to remind myself.

I have only sold one paper book, so far. I don't have very many out. And my covers are horrendous due to cover image issues + hating paper books and not caring. Ebooks are soooo much easier in every way, and they sell way better, too. But not always. It depends on the genre/niche. Some readers still prefer paper. But I think generally ebooks will always outsell paper.

I'm wondering what ones advertising options are if they distribute to amazon through D2D? Do you have any? Sure, there's always Facebook ads and BookBub. But I'm not sure if you can still use on-site advertising or not?

dmayo You don't have to delist from amazon to get out of select. You just have to wait for your 90 day term to expire and be sure to untick the automatic enrollment box. Even if you delist your book, you're still supposed to wait until your select term expires before publishing elsewhere. But it's no big deal. I just wanted to make sure you knew that.

It sounds like amazon will link your d2d book, that's good to know! By details they mean, the cover, the title, the sub title, the author name, every detail listed on your amazon page for ebook and paperback must be the same on both. If your ebook has a sub-title that isn't on the paperback the linking would be rejected. Or if you had words on the paperback that weren't on the ebook, etc. At least that's what I think they mean.

Hurraaaays for getting to hold a physical copy of your book. That's always a thrill!

Congrats on your continuing publishing empire.

The only thing that mightr make sense to me is publishing the latest book in a series into KU for 90 days to fish out that pond, then going wide in all cases. This means the wide readers might have to wait or read on a Kindle app if they really want it now, but it does give the majority of KU readers a chance to get it into the queue. Even so, I'd not say that's optimal.