I have recently come upon some great information about avoiding exclusivity in the distribution of self-published books.
When I initially published TOTB, I was super excited to be distributed through Amazon, and to take advantage of its Kindle lending program through Kindle Select. So much in fact that I took for granted other great distributors such as Smashwords, who from what I can tell so far, is really geared toward working for the little guy (Why only publish on Kindle? Because it took me a minute to realize that a ton of people don't have/use Kindle, and there are plenty of folks who don't like dealing with Amazon).
At first, I had already made up my mind to re-enroll in Kindle Select when the first 90-day period was over, mostly so I could do more free promotions of the book in Kindle format. Unfortunately, when you enroll in Kindle Select, you must promise Amazon that they are the sole distributors of your book for that entire time. My initial post-publishing ecstasy is beginning to wane just enough for my better brain functioning to return, and now I believe that this is definitely not the way to go.
Smashwords is (according to their FAQ's page) about one two-thousandth the size of Amazon right now, and this is one of several reasons that I want to support them with my business. It would be a dark future for indie authors indeed if Amazon ended up being the sole distributor for self-published ebooks, wouldn't it? Self-published authors would then be dependent on Amazon, and then we wouldn't be so indie anymore. We would be at the mercy of their policy-changing whims. I'm not too worried about that happening any time soon, but it is possible.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I'm very much looking forward to making my book available to people with all kinds of e-reading devices (and not just Kindles), and I'm excited to soon be part of the Smashwords community. Now all I have to do is wait for this pesky 90 day period to end...
I completely understand what you're going through, having gone through this myself. After my first release, I cut off the KDP Select and added my book on Smashwords and Barnes and Noble.
ReplyDeleteHowever . . .
I saw little to no sales through those channels, while my Amazon sales stayed the same. So, I went back to KDP Select. Many authors love Smashwords and have great success through them. I didn't. I love my free promotion days and though the sales bump they used to provide indie authors has lessened quite a bit, I still see greater sales by being able to use them.
I also cut off my expanded distribution on CreateSpace. It wasn't worth having to charge extra for my books for me. Yes, I miss out on a certain population of e-readers, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for now. Maybe if I ever become a bigger name in fantasy out there, I'll change my mind. For now, I'll stick with Amazon.
I don't mean this to be advice, though. It's just my own experience.
I also decided against using expanded distribution channels. I found that when I unselected them, the third-party sellers who were offering my book on Amazon eventually disappeared, which was kind of nice. I guess one thing that will probably bring me back to KDP Select will be when I release more volumes of my series, and then I'll want to do as many free promotions of the first book as possible. Smashwords will be interesting to experiment with, though. We'll see how it goes. Thanks for your perspective!
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