Come as You Are Party: The Publishing Dilemmas of a Stormy Mind

 

Image by Peter Fischer from Pixabay

I have trouble following rules.

Not the rules that make immediate sense, like don't kill people. I mean the rules that appear in terms of use contracts because these quickly start looking like "blah blah blah," so I skim them and don't retain the information. Then I find out that an author--you know, an acquaintance, not me or anything, is breaking the rules by having their book available on Kindle Unlimited and other platforms as well.

My acquaintance (who totally isn't me) erroneously believed that it's okay to have books available on multiple platforms and on Kindle Unlimited as long as the book isn't free anywhere except for Kindle Unlimited. A nice fellow author named Kris Bock informed my acquaintance (again, totally not me) that Amazon frowns on doing this except in the cases of big-name authors (like me, but not my acquaintance) who can do whatever they want because they have significant clout.

You can buy Kris' books (or read them free from Kindle Unlimited) through the following link. I wanted to give Kris a shout-out because she could have ridiculed my acquaintance, but instead she gave said acquaintance (who is in no way me) helpful information so they can correct the error of their mistake.

Now my acquaintance wonders if they should pull their books from Kindle Unlimited or if they should instead pull them from Draft 2 Digital and make them available only on Amazon. Kris said that since most of her sales come from Amazon, she publishes only on Amazon so readers have the option to borrow her books through Kindle Unlimited.

That made a lot of sense to my acquaintance, and it certainly would make things easier. However, unlike me, whose mind is as solid and unjumbled as a perfectly maintained brick wall, my acquaintance totally loves the idea of publishing their book on multiple platforms because it's so exciting to have all those links. Also, my acquaintance thinks that Amazon is pretty much Satan, but these days a lesser-known author has to sell their soul a little to build an audience so they make deals with the devil, otherwise known as billionaire Jeff Bezos.

The nice thing about Kindle Unlimited is it allows readers to borrow a book and try before they buy. This is a great feature for broke folk who want something new to read but may not have the money to purchase it. As a reader, I've certainly taken advantage of my Kindle Unlimited subscription.  As a reviewer, it drives me crackers when writers don't provide the option of either getting the book through Kindle Unlimited or providing a free copy, either as a Kindle gift or a PDF. It isn't like I'm getting rich reviewing books.

My acquaintance keeps the cost of their books low, so perhaps the Kindle Unlimited option really doesn't make that much difference. 

Dear Naughties, what would you do? Have you noticed a significant portion of your own sales coming from a particular channel? I can't answer this question because I'm way too important and popular. My books are available exclusively to ancient deities who pay a premium for them.

Ornery Owl is Totally Not Telling Tall Tales




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I try to get comments published as quickly as possible. I have ADHD and anxiety and sometimes I need to work myself up to be able to respond to comments. I don't always reply to comments on my blog, but I do try to visit as many people as possible when I participate in blog hops. I share your work on the monthly Roost Recommendations posts at ornerybookemporium.blogspot.com so others can discover your work. I do read and appreciate your comments.
Sorry, the Captcha is back and this time it's staying. I was inundated with spam comments when I turned it off. I wish butt rash on all the spammers out there.

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