Kindle Unlimited Vs Wide

Summary

An author's personal experience suggests that going "wide" with book distribution, rather than exclusively using Kindle Select, can lead to increased earnings and reduced risk despite the initial ease and potential earnings of Kindle Unlimited.

Abstract

The author, with a background in writing romance novels, initially followed the common advice to enroll in Kindle Select, which led to modest earnings that only covered phone bills despite having twenty books published. However, upon releasing the next book "wide," meaning distributing through various retailers beyond Amazon, the author observed significantly higher earnings from sales on different platforms. The article emphasizes the risks of relying on a single platform, citing the potential for account suspension and the dangers of a monopoly. The author advocates for diversifying income streams by publishing on Amazon but also exploring other retailers, suggesting that the era of easy money on Kindle Select is over. The fear of Amazon's algorithm changes affecting income is also highlighted, reinforcing the importance of not putting all one's eggs in one basket.

Opinions

Kindle Unlimited's Kindle Edition Normalized Page count (KENP) pays authors between $0.004 and$ 0.005 per page, which may not be financially sustainable.
Relying solely on Kindle Select for income is risky due to the possibility of account suspension or termination.
The self-publishing industry has become more competitive, with even those from non-writing backgrounds entering the market.
The author expresses a fear of unexpected changes in Amazon's algorithms, which could negatively impact earnings.
The article suggests that the time for easily making significant money through Kindle Select has passed.
The author recommends against monopolies in the book distribution market and encourages authors to consider multiple retail platforms.
Despite the challenges with Amazon, the author does not claim that Amazon is inherently bad but rather suggests a balanced approach to book distribution.

The Most Asked Question By Authors

This has been a long debate about whether to go for Kindle Unlimited or wide. Let’s have some deeper insights and bring an end to this.

I have been on Amazon for so long. Like almost three years but has started publishing recently. I write romance so of course, the best advice anyone can give is to just go into Kindle Select. And I did it without thinking much. At first, I made a few sales and a few reads but nothing more. After having twenty books, the royalties were such that I could pay only my phone bills. (Remember people are making more but it depends on a lot of other factors). Then with my next romance book, I went wide.

And the results?

I was earning more in sales than in Kindle Select. I was earning from other marketplaces I didn’t know about. The same book was being bought from different retail stores.

Kindle Unlimited Edition Normalized Page count (KENP) pays between $0.004 and $0.005 per page.

In Kindle Select, daily I was earning in cents and the danger of depending on a single platform for money is not good.

Account gets suspended and terminated. We all know that. I don’t have to go deeper into this because we have lots of stories on the net. Some were scammers but some were legit. Some did things that their competitors were doing but when they did the same, it lead to their account getting banned. (Software problem or something else, only Amazon knows it).

Previously, it was easy to write books and publish them on Kindle Select because people were less in the self-publishing industry. People were mostly going through traditional publishing. Now, you’ll find that even those with a software background are publishing books on Amazon. Why is that?

Because there was some easy money. Even if you go all-in with Amazon, you’ll be earning good money every month. But that time has gone. Say goodbye to that.

I wake up every morning with a fear that their algorithm must have captured something that even I don’t know. People develop fear when they earn money from one income stream.

Does it mean Amazon is bad? No!

Publish on Amazon but go wide. You can test Kindle Select but renew only when you see sales, otherwise, this world is big and still there are many retailers that we even don’t know the name of.

And above that, no one is ever in favor of a monopoly.

If you want to know more about making money through writing shorts, then you can check out my book “Small Ebooks, Big Money”. Happy Writing Journey!