Kindle Unlimited
If you are enrolled in Amazon's KDP Select program and have
concerns about Kindle Unlimited, I have a few thoughts I'd like to share with
you. I now have nine books in the Project series and am working on number ten.
Until very recently, all my books were
in the KDPS program. Then along came Kindle Unlimited.
KU cut the income from my books by half, almost overnight.
Half is a pretty big hit, which meant I needed to make a few business decisions. Remember:
Writing is a Business
How was I going to regain income lost with the introduction
of KU?
·
I could pull all the books out of KDP Select as
the contracts expired and begin posting on other platforms.
·
I could raise the price.
·
I could do both.
·
I could do nothing and hope for the best. (not a
good option!)
KDP Select has enabled me to earn a living writing. The
promotional advantages are the strongest feature and I didn't want to lose
those. Placing books on other platforms meant a long delay for results. It would
eventually produce income but take time for readers to discover my work. I decided to try a hybrid approach, while
still keeping everything on Amazon for the time being.
I raised the price of all the books except White Jade by a
dollar, making them $4.99. White Jade is the first in the series and will
remain at $0.99. I didn't really want to raise prices because I want the books
to be accessible to as many people as possible and a buck is a buck. I figured
a dollar less made it easier for people to purchase and gave readers a break. To my surprise, sales actually
increased after the change. The price increase has had no negative effect. Of course, I don't know why sales increased or if the price had anything to do with that,
but it's an odd coincidence.
Second, the latest books in the series, Eye of Shiva and Black
Rose are not enrolled and not available for free to KU subscribers.
Third, all except the first three books will go out of
Select as the dates for renewal pass.
My thinking is that KU subscribers will discover the first
three, like the series enough to continue and buy the rest. In that way all of
the first three books serve as loss leaders, although they still provide some
income. I encourage new readers and I protect the full royalty payments for the
later books.
I'm hedging on placing the books on other platforms, because
once I do, it becomes a real hassle to clear the decks for putting them back
into KDP Select. I'm taking a wait and see attitude. I want to see what happens
over the next couple of months to the royalty payments.
This strategy can only work because I have more than one or
two books out there. If I had only one or two, I'm not sure what I would do. KU
may be a very good thing for some, because the author gets paid and people can
discover the books. Discovery is everything, and Amazon has around 60-70% of
the market. Whatever best supports discovery is worth doing. On the other hand,
KU makes the book(s) look cheap. The price shows up as FREE and free books
aren't always good books.
What's your stratgey?
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