Exclusively Exclusive
Amazon’s market share in 2015. Last year it was 83%. Now it’s probably more.
The wild west days of indie publishing are drawing to a close. In the past, a reader would write me, let me know where they wanted to buy my books, and I was always happy to make it happen. That usually resulted in a new but small stream of revenue. Even back then, Amazon dominated my eBook sales. Over the last couple of years, I’ve watched those other revenue streams dry up until they became a trickle. That’s where we’re at now. If I log into my Google Play dashboard, it proudly informs me that me top selling title earned $18 in the last 30 days. Wow. That’s not even enough for me to purchase a paperback copy of the same book.
As many of you know, I enrolled the entire Something Like… series in Kindle Unlimited earlier this year. I’m still analyzing the results, but it would seem that doing so pulled my sales out of a nosedive. I’m impressed enough that I plan on enrolling the rest of my full-length novels in Kindle Unlimited over the winter, to see what happens. I know, I know. Amazon has a bad reputation for a variety of reasons. But those warehouse employees who work under subpar conditions stay with the job because they need the money. So do I. I’m not a household name. I write in a genre that already has limited appeal, and when you factor in that authenticity is more important to me than penning a trendy romance novel with shifting mpreg reverse harems or whatever… Well, quite frankly, I’m surprised that I’ve managed to keep this plate spinning for so long. I need to not only go where the money is, but also where the readers are. It’s impossible to separate one from the other while still making a living.
If you want to buy my non-Something Like… books from somewhere other than Amazon, I’ve provided links below of the titles that will be going exclusive starting on November 1st. I’ve also slowly been uploading my paperbacks to Ingram Spark, which will eventually mean that when you buy a paperback from anywhere but Amazon, it will be printed by a company that isn’t associated with them. Although I’ll earn nearly twice as much when you buy my books from Amazon instead. The devil is nothing if not seductive!
Soon to be exclusive titles:
newest »
I was just having a conversation with someone about the essential role Amazon plays in supporting niche markets. They have their problems but I'm glad Kindle Unlimited is working for you.
