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Exciting New direction - Going Wide + Permafree!

Hey Folks.

So, paradigm shift for me starting today. My novels moving forward will be wide across a variety of vendors: Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes.  The Fall of Man trilogy is already wide, Obey will be wide late January, and my next novel will launch wide.

Links to my books on various marketplaces can be found here.

In addition, the first book in my The Fall of Man trilogy, Days of Judgment, will be permanently free. It's currently free on Kobo, B&N and iTunes and will be soon on Amazon (next few days I'm hoping).

So what do these changes mean for me and my current and future readers?

What's Lost

  • Kindle Unlimited (KU)

    Unfortunately, none of my novels will be in the Kindle Unlimited store (although Obey is there until late January, so grab it while you can if you are in KU). To be listed in KU you have to be exclusive to Amazon. As discussed in other posts, that just isn't a comfortable choice for me anymore.
  • Promotions / Sales
    I'll likely not be running promotions on my books moving forward. Days of Judgment is the promotion by offering it for free.

    This is a huge burden off my plate. Running sales and promos is time-consuming and distracting from the writing process. I'll never say never here, but for the next year I don't see running any additional promotions.

    I also like this idea because I hate selling something at different prices at different times. It's unfair to certain readers. It really bothers me that my most ardent fans often pay full price when I release a novel, only to see it go on sale later.

    So no more of that! :) 
What's Gained
  • Available on all devices

    The obvious benefit is that readers on any device will now have access to my work.

    Also, I'm Canadian and Kobo is big up here. Now all my fellow Canucks can get my books from their favourite source. (Of note: cannot praise Kobo enough for their customer service. They were unbelievably helpful during my sign-up process.)
  • Increased marketing opportunities 
    Marketing tends to be focused on two fronts. The first is paid, the second is word-of-mouth. To date, I haven't engaged in much marketing because within the Amazon ecosystem there was minimal ROI. But being wide, that now changes things.

    For paid marketing, this will open up a lot of opportunities. While in KU I basically could make a book free for five days per quarter (every 90 days). This obviously meant I could promote DoJ five days per quarter. Now? I can advertise it anytime I want. 90 days per 90 days if I so chose to spend the money.

    For word-of-mouth, this will also enable/allow readers to tell their friends about my work, who can then read DoJ for free.

    So from a marketing perspective this is a win-win-win - win for me, win for readers, and win for new potential readers. The only loss is I'm no longer accessible to KU readers, but such is life. 

Feeling Good

I'm feeling very good about this decision. Amazon will still be my highest-selling venue, but it's becoming a very complicated place where it feels like the sand is always shifting under your feet. That said, most of that is tied to KU. The direct sale side of Amazon is a pleasure to deal with. 

Still love a lot of things about Amazon, and they remain the dominant driver in the self-publishing world, but time to spread that love around a bit. 

We'll see how the next year goes. Feeling good though.  



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