In one of my first posts, I explained why I chose self-publishing over the traditional publishing route. Originally, I had decided to publish on Amazon using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and was going to explain my choice in this post. But as I was looking up information to complete the post, I got overwhelmed with information and went back to the drawing board, in a way.
Overwhelming Information / Tough and Confusing Choices
I am still planning on publishing using KDP but it limits the author to Amazon. What about the other retail channels like Apple iBooks, Barns & Noble Nook, Kobo, and others? Are they worth considering? That was one choice I was facing before going ahead with formatting my manuscript and publishing it to KDP. That and a few other choices I came across since I first heard about KDP.
What follows is a summary of the overwhelming type of information I came across in the past few weeks and the kinds of choices I am facing before moving forward to publish Resurgence.
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)
Last year, I was searching for information on how to self-publish and came across a book published in Wattpad about KPD. It was an interesting read and pushed me to look further into the platform.
The more I read, the more I was interested.
KDP provides a free and easy way for an author to publish an eBook directly on Amazon and recently, even a paperback with limitations on which amazon stores offers it (not yet available for Canada’s store).
KDP Leverages Amazon’s Strengths:
Largest retail channel of eBooks
Powerful search engine that serves as a marketing tool
Can’t beat their distribution, even for those who don’t have Prime
Amazon marketing ads
Reviews play a part as well and Amazon makes it easy to leave those. To be fair, the only other place I’ve shopped online for books is Indigo so I can’t speak for other eBook retail channels like Barns & Noble (Nook) and Apple iBooks. And at that, I’ve only used Indigo years ago to buy printed books, not eBooks. Since I have a Kindle, I get my eBooks from Amazon.
Kindle Select / Kindle Unlimited
Given that I had chosen to self-publish using KDP, I’ve been planning my first book launch and one decision came up about whether to enroll my first book in Kindle Select or not. Kindle Select makes the book available for those who subscribe to Kindle Unlimited and allows the author some special promotional sales. But going this route means making the eBook exclusive to Amazon for the period the book is enrolled in Kindle Select (blocks of 90 days, with automatic renewal if the author doesn’t pay attention to stop the renewal).
There are advantages to Kindle Select. If your book gets read, you get a portion of the Kindle Unlimited global fund. I won’t go into the details of how it works, I could use a whole post and more just on that topic.
And of course, the disadvantage is having to keep the eBook exclusive to Amazon. If the eBook hasn’t been published elsewhere (like Barnes & Nobles Nook or Apple iBooks), you can simply wait until you take the book out of Kindle Select then distribute it through other retail channels. But if you have published to other retail channels, you now have to remove the book from those retail channels before you can enroll your book in Kindle Select. This is a hassle.
There are some authors not tied to the exclusivity of Amazon. For example, I found J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter eBooks on Kindle Unlimited but also available elsewhere. This makes sense. If Amazon didn’t have some known author, where would the incentive for readers to subscribe as more than half the titles are from self-published authors? In my case, most of the authors I read are not available on Kindle Unlimited. I don’t subscribe to it either as it would take too much time away from writing. Obviously, readers who subscribe to this service know by now that it doesn’t offer most known authors and they they subscribe and discover self-published authors.
My brother subscribes to the service and he’s now less inclined to buy books from authors he used to read. He’s not turned off by the authors being self-published and that's likely the case for most subscribers. And with Kindle Unlimited, if you start a book and don’t like it, you just get a different one.
Amazon or Wide Distribution
Another decision I must make is whether to keep it simple and offer my book through Amazon or offer it through other retail channels even though Amazon has the biggest market share. The other major retail channels, among less popular ones, are:
Apple iBooks
Barnes&Nobles Nook
Kobo
Google
By sticking to Amazon, I would be reaching the biggest market share but I can also be leaving behind a market where my book might take off. Each retail channel has its own promotional tools and being exclusive to Amazon means decreasing opportunities of promoting my book. On the other hand, offering a book in multiple retail channels increases the effort of keeping track of the book within each platform, as well as the effort it takes to build awareness in each channel rather than a single one.
Is it worth the effort?
Middleman Platforms
I’m coining this term to refer to platforms such as Draft2Digital and Smashwords. I only looked more closely into Draft2Digital. Initially, I liked what I saw. You can essentially publish your eBook through them and they take care of submitting it to the distribution channels like Amazon (a recent addition) and other major retail channels (you choose which ones). It means getting your sell data in a single place. The service is free to use and they get paid on each sale of the book.
I went as far as watching the tutorial. I felt it was just a little too limiting. It has interesting automated end matter management, like an “Also by” page that is automatically updated in all published books when you publish a new one. It does seem to simplify formatting by taking care of the table of contents and with an easy interface but I couldn’t see anywhere that I could add something like a list of characters. I suppose I could make that part of the book. It’s simple but not perfect.
Such a platform removes a lot of hassles of managing a published book in multiple places and it seems relatively simple to do the formatting, an advantage for those without the patience or skills to format their own book for each channel. Less hassle means more time to write. But it comes at the price of a cut of the sale of each book. Given that each retail channel in turn takes a cut of the book, that’s another portion that leaves the author’s hand.
The missing flexibility is making me hesitate as well as giving away another portion of my book sales. Overwhelmed yet?
To Offer Print or Not
The other decision that came up was whether or not to offer a print version of the book. I didn’t have to go far to realize I rather wanted a print version, if only just for friends and family who told me they would prefer getting a signed copy from me. And I can’t deny, that I’d like to dedicate a bookshelf to my own physical books.
And what will frustrate readers is getting to an author's page and seeing that the format they want isn't available, which can turn into a lost sale. There are still a lot of readers out there who must absolutely have the print version.
Of course, if I choose to offer the print version, guess what? More decisions to make.
Print Channels
So I offer a print version. How do I make it available to my readers? I looked into the following print services:
BookBaby offers author services for a fee as well as distribution. Based on what I read, it seems simple enough and for those without the patience or skills to format a book themselves who are also willing to invest a little or a lot of money will get reasonable services. You choose the package that’s right for you.
IngramSpark is a print and fulfillment company with international reach. It does not offer any author services to help get the book to its final state. The work to get the book formatted is in the publisher’s or author’s hands as the service is available for more than self-published authors. Its strength is in the quality of the book and its international reach outside the United States in delivering a book in a reasonable amount of time compared to CreateSpace outside the US.
CreateSpace offers print services, with the author choosing whether to distribute to Amazon only or for expanded distribution. The profit margin is better for books sold through Amazon than the option of expanded distribution. It will likely take longer for a book to get into a reader’s hands outside the US. Again, no author services, formatting the book is the responsibility of the author.
KDP broadened its reach by offering the option to make a paperback available along with the eBook version. Just recently, I received an email from KDP saying that proofs are now available (which CreateSpace has). As CreateSpace is owned by Amazon, it’s likely only just a matter of time until KDP replaces CreateSpace for printed books. Another point for consideration. But the paperback is not yet available for distribution to Canada.
The most consistent recommendation I saw was to use CreateSpace to make the print version available through Amazon and to use IngramSpark to make it available in other retail channels.
Which Format to Offer When
Last, if I decide to offer multiple formats I must then decide whether the formats should be made available at the same time or which one should come first. This decision comes with its own overwhelming information as making people aware of the book must be taken under consideration as well as whether I choose to enroll the book in Kindle Select or not. I will wait to make a decision about the timing until I answered the previous questions and I decide what marketing and promotion I’ll do for Resurgence.
Information Overload
What to do? So many decisions! Each night I was going to bed more confused than ever from the information I was getting. I was overwhelmed with information, consisting of articles and blogs, 30 or so authors saying what they did and if it worked or not; sites where I got the feeling the goal was more to sell me something (often biased); or blogs that compared platforms or retail channels based on different criteria.
I wasn’t seeing what made each author decide their approach, as if they did what I was doing, checked to see what others did, looked at reviews and somehow, decided on an approach.
In my research of the past week, I just wasn’t getting what I needed to make an informed decision.
Until a few days ago.
What I found will be the topic of my next post.
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