In July of 2025 I took a big leap, I pulled all of my books from Kindle Unlimited and published wide. In this post I’m going to talk about how sales are going so far, if I have an regrets, and if I’d ever go exclusive again.
First, the obligatory explanation of ‘wide’ publishing. Since Amazon is the big daddy of book selling, it’s pretty much the foundation of most author’s sales platforms. They offer two publishing options, KDP and KDP Select.
Publishing with KDP is what you choose if you want to be able to sell your eBooks anywhere you like. KDP Select gives you access to Amazon’s very popular subscription service, Kindle Unlimited. BUT! If you go with KDP Select you are forbidden to sell your eBook anyplace else, even your own website. This is elfin wizard-level cursing, do not break the rules or legions of flesh-eating orcs will descend upon you. (By that I mean you’ll get your author account suspended, and that’s almost as bad.)
If you’re interested in a few more of the ins and outs of why I decided to leave KDP Select and publish wide, I have dedicated posts that you might find helpful. Here’s part one, and here’s part two. Okay, update time. Let’s jump in.
Marketing
Marketing books can be tricky, to put it gently. You’re talking about authors, often people who deliberately spend as much time as possible alone and invent other people to interact with because, frankly, it’s easier. Now you take these same introverted shlubs and compel them to talk about themselves and their books.
It takes practice and a lot of education. And it takes a long time before it starts to work. A lot of authors don’t like doing it because it feels boastful and unnatural until you figure out that you’re not trying to annoy anyone into reading your books, you’re building a platform where readers can get to know you. At that point it becomes more fun, but it’s always hard work.
Some authors believe that marketing is intrinsically easier within KDP Select, but is it?
Marketing within KDP Select:
I’ve read that Amazon does, in a way, give some preference to books that are in Kindle Unlimited (KU). These books can be filtered and promoted to anyone who has a subscription and is searching for available titles, for instance. And many suspect that Amazon suggests KU titles before ones outside the service. I don’t know how true that is, but I do know that the simple fact of being in KU did hot-buttered nothing for my books or my rankings on Amazon.
Regardless of whether you’re wide or exclusive, your books won’t sell unless you put a lot of effort in. So, KU doesn’t get you out of marketing, and you are throwing yourself into one of the most densely populated competitive environments that exist for authors.
Now, the tradeoff for pushing and shoving against fellow writers is that there’s a big audience to vie for. Amazon is a coy and cagey wench when it comes to disclosing how many subscribers they have for KU, but it’s safe to say it’s a lot. So, the effort can potentially pay off, but it’s not automatic just because you’re enrolled. You still have to do the work.
Marketing with wide publishing:
My personal experience has been that there are more options and less competition. Kobo is a standout when it comes to giving authors opportunities to promote their books. Since joining in July I’ve had the opportunity to run 13 sales promos and have seen decent results with just about all of them. It was definitely more successful than my Kindle Countdown deals.
But wherever you publish, you’ll still need to dabble in promos, ads and anything else that proves effective for you. Marketing is never easy regardless of platform, but I did find that wide marketing was more effective for me.
Wide Publishing Sales
Marketing is pointless and disappointing without sales. So, let’s look at those.
Have I sold more books since going wide?
The short answer is, yes. While I’m not earning wubzillions, I have sold way more books since I pulled them from KDP Select and put them up just about everywhere else. Amazon is still my most successful outlet, but that was always expected.
I am very impressed with Kobo books so far. Canadians seem to read a lot, and they’re willing to buy books. It’s revived some of my faith in the future of literacy. Interestingly, I’ve also reached several new countries through Kobo; not everyone likes or has access to Amazon. And I have had a month or two where my Kobo sales were actually higher than Amazon, so you never know.
Apple and Barnes and Noble are next in line, but they honestly don’t move as many books for me and they’re trickier to deal with. Apple asks some invasive questions and they don’t seem to fully understand how GST works (that’s a big deal if you live in Australia). And B&N have no access or provisions for international authors. They really miss out there, but that’s their business.
I reach those sellers, along with several others, through Draft2Digital. It works okay but the marketing options are slim. It might be better for you if you are US based and could more easily publish direct.
What about KU?
That is the question. That’s what makes authors hesitant to leave Select, no more access to Kindle Unlimited subscribers. Was I foolhardy to go? It’s hard to say. It really isn’t a straight yes or no.
Kobo has its own subscription service that is along similar lines to KU. For a monthly fee, Kobo Plus allows subscribers to read (and/or listen to) as many books as they can, provided those books are enrolled in the program. The pay out for authors is different, we get paid by minutes consumed rather than pages read. Much like KU, you likely won’t earn as much as you would if you sold a book outright, but that’s just how the game goes.
The best part about Kobo Plus is that I don’t have to be exclusive to them. So, while readers are digging in to my series, hopefully binging to their heart’s content, my books are still available for sale everywhere else. The downside is that their market is much, much smaller.
But what about the money?
So far my lowest monthly payout from Kobo Plus has been more than my highest ever payout from KU. I’ll say that again because it sounds strange. My worst month in Kobo Plus paid me more than my best month in KU. Yeah.
Again, in the interests of transparency, that was helped by a successful Bookbub deal back in August 2025. But I’ve maintained good read through rates in the months since. Would my KU page reads have been even more impressive? I’ll can’t really know, because Amazon refuses to play nice with others.
Marketing and Sales Conclusions
The main thing, in my opinion, that sells authors on KDP Select, and its exclusivity clause, is access to KU. That’s the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for most. And it can be very good and very helpful especially for newer authors that want to get started or ones that write in binge-prone niches.
So, what this discussion all boils down to is this: Have I made more money with wide sales than I did with KU?
Yes. In the first 6 months after I left KU I made over 4 times the amount I earned in the entire time my books were enrolled there. And that is looking at wide sales only, I’m not counting the books I’ve sold through Amazon.
And while marketing is never easy, it’s been more successful for me because there are more opportunities and less competition. I’ve seen results with lower spend than I ever did on Amazon. And yes, I’ve done Amazon ads and taken the courses and optimised my keywords and all that jazz. I’ve never found much success with them and, again, the high competition is making them increasingly expensive to even attempt.
This is just my experience. If you’re kicking all sorts of butt in KU, that’s awesome, congratulations. Certain genres and authors clean up big time in KU, if they can get seen and find an audience. If something is working for you, you may feel no need to mess with it.
The real pain in the bum is that I can’t compare KU without pulling my books from all the other platforms. It’s not something to do on a whim.
Will I Continue Wide Publishing or Return to KDP Select?
A bit of both, to be honest. I don’t know what the future will bring, but as long as it’s viable, I really don’t want to swear off all sales platforms in favor of only one. If Amazon ever drops the exclusivity chokehold, I’d happily enrol all of my mystery books again. But I seriously doubt they’d ever do that.
The best way to ensure fairness to both authors and readers is to make sure that all power doesn’t sit in one set of hands. That would be immeasurably helped along by more authors taking a hard look at their KU earnings and seeing if it would be viable to diversify. Also, if more readers made the leap and bought books somewhere other than Amazon. Even one book purchased now and then could make a difference if enough people did it.
The hard part is getting enough people to do that. We need to keep more bookstores in business. It will benefit everyone, but only if a lot of readers are on board. So far, success is mixed.
My next move
I need to write stories, regardless of whether or not those works get published. It’s how I’m wired and I work in harmony with it. However, I take it very seriously and I treat my writing career as a business. To keep a business viable, you have to be willing to adapt, and I am.
Therefore, after a lot of thought and a few reality checks, I’ve decided that I need to keep an open mind and be honest about what is and isn’t working. My mysteries are doing reasonably well on Kobo, so I’m happy to keep them wide for now.
On the other hand, my fantasy romance, Saradess, is pretty much only selling on Amazon. So, I’ve decided to go ahead and enrol it in KU for a while. I’m hopeful that a hybrid approach will also yield more useful data.
So, while I still believe that publishing wide has been good for most of my books, it hasn’t suited all of them. I’m willing to put my Chloe Fenwood books in KU for a trial period and see what happens.
As far as my mystery books go, I’m tossing up about whether or not to try my next series in KU to get a more accurate side-by-side comparison. Since it’s still in the planning stages, I’ve got time. So, we’ll see what happens, but I’m really pretty happy with my wide publishing at the moment. Like any business endeavor, I’ll be tracking results and adjusting if and when necessary.
For anyone who’s interested, I’ll post further updates as things play out.
Have a thought to share?