A Change is Gonna Come (Important Sales Information)

For the better part of two years, I have resisted enrolling my books in the Kindle Unlimited program, and have instead, in the parlance of the publishing times, "gone wide" with my work. This is about to change, and I wanted to explain a little bit about why.

Kindle Unlimited is a weird beast. For readers, it's a subscription service - they pay a set fee each month, and then can read anything that's in the Amazon Kindle Unlimited ebook "library". It probably feels something much like Audible or Spotify - pay a little to get access to a lot. A pretty good deal!

For writers, the situation is a little different. If writers enroll their ebooks into the Kindle Unlimited program, it is on the condition that they are not available anywhere but on Amazon, where readers can either read them through KU, or purchase them outright. If writers have ebooks currently distributed through other e-retailers or formats, such as Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play, etc, they need to withdraw those books from distribution before they're placed in Kindle Unlimited. Readers who want to buy that work from someone not-Amazon can't do it, and it's also not available to Overdrive/Libby/other actual library applications.

I am not super keen on this model!

However, while I believe distribution monopolies are bad, I also believe artists should be financially compensated for their labor, and right now, my current sales are not meeting that goal. Last time I checked, my hourly rate for my writing this year was $2.19/hour, which is much better than last year's $0.88/hour, but still, you know, a little low.

Kindle Unlimited has made the difference for a lot of my friends who are full-time indie writers. After two years of a sincere shot at wide distribution, I've concluded that it's time for me to try the alternative.

For most of you, this won't change a thing! Most of my readers purchase through Amazon in the first place, and those readers won't be affected at all.

However, I know I have loyal readers of the Olympus Inc. series who are not Amazon fans, so for you, here's how this is going to work:

  • In one week I will start the withdrawal process for the Olympian Arc (Persephone In Bloom/Aphrodite Unbound/Hera Takes Charge). By late December, I hope to publish all three books via Kindle Unlimited, where they will hopefully find wider readership. But you've got until Nov 23rd, NZ time, to buy them in non-Kindle formats if you haven't completed the set.
  • The Trojan Women Arc stays wide for now. Ask Cassandra is and will remain wide for the moment, Love, Laodice will be wide when it launches (your pre-orders are safe, non-Amazon readers!) and so will XO, Xena, the last of the Olympus Inc. books. Probably a few months after XO, Xena launches, I'll place that arc in KU as well. I will definitely give you a heads up before that happens!
  • My next indie series (a secret! But think Parks and Rec + magic) will go into KU from the start. This means the ebooks will be exclusively available from Amazon, either as one-off purchases, or through the KU "library". Depending on how things go, I may withdraw them at some stage and go wide again. I don't know! The future is unpredictable.
  • This doesn't affect any of my work with publishers (like the Movie Magic series) or my co-written work - only my self-published books.

I appreciate that for some of you, this may be a sticking point. Believe me, I understand. It's a choice I am making after deep thought (and a lot of whining, which a number of people have very nobly tolerated, thank you all very much!)

Regardless, thank you all for the support you've shown me and my work over the last two years, and I hope to provide more fun and good reads for you in the future.

That Healey Girl is the newsletter of Karen (or Kate) Healey, a romance and speculative fiction author who lives in Ōtautahi New Zealand and shakes plots loose by wandering along the river.