I’m Breaking Up With Kindle Unlimited
As an author and a reader.
Let’s go back to the beginning, and by the beginning, I mean when I discovered Kindle Unlimited. I’ve had a Kindle since 2010, but only KU since 2021. I loved it. I could pay just $11.99 and read all the books I wanted. And for a while, that really worked for me.
Kindle Unlimited was where I first read Sarah Adams and so many other incredible indie authors, so as I looked into self-publishing, I knew that I wanted to put my books there. It would give people an opportunity to give me (a brand new indie author) a chance. And for a little while, it worked.
I was making okay money, at least enough to pay for cover artists and editors. But things started changing. Maybe it’s the market. Maybe it’s the state of the world. Maybe it’s the fact that I don’t write ‘clean’ books and I don’t feel like I really fit in the ‘closed door’ space—which a lot of closed door readers read in KU, which is awesome. Just…it hasn’t been awesome for me.
I know that with publishing, everything changes all the time. There are ebbs and flows, high income months and lower income months.
But here’s my reality:
My books aren’t doing well in Kindle Unlimited. Unless I share a reel (or two) every day, it seems like the needle never moves. While I don’t write for money, I can’t keep writing and publishing unless I’m making something.
So, I’m starting over in a way.
Now is a good time, since there isn’t a lot of money coming in at the moment, moving my books to other ebook platforms doesn’t feel as scary in as it did in the past (because yes, I have done this in the past, the only thing different this time, I know in my heart I’m not coming back to KU.) I used to make hundreds of dollars a month (from sales and KU), but readers aren’t reading in KU (or the Amazon reporting for page reads is messed up), and I make less than $100 most month. I feel okay starting over and building a new way of publishing for myself.
I want more readers to find my books and right now, I need to expand my readership by moving away from Kindle Unlimited.
It’s hard to describe the love/hate relationship I have with Kindle Unlimited. It’s where I got my start, where so many of my readers found me and helped me kickstart my career in a way. But, I also hate that Amazon pays authors a minuscule amount per page read. I hate that if my books are in KU, then they can’t be available anywhere else. I hate that. It truly bothers me that Amazon has the monopoly over that.
And as a reader, I’ve started feeling off about reading in KU. I love supporting authors that way, but I also noticed that in the past two years I’ve downloaded hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of books on Kindle Unlimited, and I’ve read very few. Having the ability to have 20 books at a time, changing them whenever I want has changed how I pick up books in a way that I don’t love. I used to be more intentional about picking up a book. Reading the ones that came in from the library or the ones on my shelf first. Buying an ebook or two a month, and actually reading them.
Which is why I won’t be using KU as a reader any more either. It’s simply not worth the money (I don’t read enough with my current schedule, so financially, I’m losing money since I could be spending $4.99-6.99/month on one ebook that I’m actually reading.)
I’m ready to learn a new way of marketing, find new readers, and expand my audience.
In a recent reader survey I sent out, 50% of my readers said they used KU and 50% said they purchased books or borrowed from the library. This was not the stat I was expecting. Based on this survey in previous years, I thought my KU readers would be higher. But because it was such an even split, I don’t feel hesitant to pull my books from Kindle Unlimited and put them on all platforms. I’ll run sales throughout the year, I’ll have special pre-order prices so that everyone can afford to get copies of my books, without having to be exclusive to Amazon.
So, my books are leaving KU. Two already have. Below are the dates of when my books are leaving:
Only a Game — Out now and only $2.99 on ALL platforms until October. Grab it from your favorite retailer here.
The Luck of Finding You — October 15
The Rules of Mistletoe — Out now, shop all retailers here.
Begin again— October 11
Part of forever — Sept 22
Disclaimer: As of right now, Off Trail Love and The Holiday Assist will continue to be in KU, since they are part of multi-author series. But all future books will be published on all ebook platforms.
