I am in the process of delisting my book from all ebook platforms with the exception of Kindle so that I can move over to KDP select and be on Kindle Unlimited. I absolutely hated to do this because it takes away my ability to be in libraries, but I wasn’t getting even that, so I’m going to have to go where I might get more traction.
I’ve never really wanted this project to be about sales, but sales have to play a part to some extent. I’ve always been more concerned about getting it read, getting it in front of the kinds of people that would get something out of it and trying to find a comfortable balance between those things. I honestly thought that being available on more platforms would be the better option for me, but it doesn’t seem to be, so I’m making changes.
There is no guarantee that those changes will make a bit of difference, especially since Amazon has now dropped me out of even showing up in results if you search for just my title (at least for a couple of pages anyway), which absolutely blows my mind. There are some seriously random and totally unrelated things that show up above me in the results and only because they have “unexpected” buried somewhere in connection to that item. Yay for algorithms telling us what we should be looking at instead of what we are actually looking for.
I am not giving up. I am trying to not be disheartened by this whole process. I just commented on a previous post and it applies to how I feel about it all at the moment.
“As a massive introvert, this is like facing a mountain with a roll of dental floss and a toothpick to help me climb and I’m standing at the bottom wearing a dress and heals.”
I’m just going to keep sending out my requests and copies of my book and hope that people follow through (thank you to the moon and back to those that have). I’m going to make whatever changes I think need to be changed when the way I’m doing things is no longer working. I am not giving up, just changing course a little bit, even if I feel like throwing in the towel.
TJ Fox: Sharing the Experience 
“As a massive introvert, this is like facing a mountain with a roll of dental floss and a toothpick to help me climb and I’m standing at the bottom wearing a dress and heals.”
I love this imagery. Is that a peak into your book?
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No, not really. The subject matter of my book is a lot heavier and didn’t lend itself to many places for snark, though I do have a couple.
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I’m sorry that things aren’t going the way you hoped in getting your book out to readers. I would have no concept of what it takes and just assume it’s an uphill struggle as an indie author from the beginning. If I’m understanding correctly, you will now only have the book available on Kindle? That does limit the audience doesn’t it. I’m a real book person so having your book in my hands was important to me while reading. I suppose I’m rather old-fashioned in that way. It’s just not the same on an e-reader.
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The only restrictions with Unlimited are ebooks. Those will only be available on Kindle. I will still have print books, thank goodness! I don’t think I could do it otherwise. Amazon holds something like 70-80% of the marketshare in books in the US, but not quite so large in other parts of the world, so it’s a hard judgement call in being exclusive or going to all platforms. When you go exclusive, you have access to promotions and sales offers you can’t get if you go wide. So many people just really won’t take the risk on an indie if they aren’t in KU. At least, that is what I’ve learned so far. Granted, I’ve only been doing this a few months, so who knows. I’m just keepin’ on keepin’ on.
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I like observing your journey. Though it sounds painful and hard for you, I think it gives me psychological preparation and mellows my mood writing wise.
So thank you for persisting, persistence is getting scarce.
Thank you for sharing as well; it helps ignorants like me get a practical perspective on how it actually goes down
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I’m glad my experiences can help. I tend to really debate posting about some of the negative aspects as I don’t want to complain, but it is still part of this whole process. Not everyone will have the same path as I do and their experiences will be different. Hopefully yours won’t be quite so hard.
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