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I've been going back and forth with this. Amazon reviews are most important to authors, I believe? I have tried going wide with other retailers with a few books, but I keep putting them back on Amazon KU, not just because I make more monthly sales, some from pages-read, but because I'm hoping for more reviews there. Is it worth it to go wide if you want your readers/reviewers to post on Amazon? I just wondered what other authors thought. Thanks so much!

I have only been wide for a short while and I don’t have much Amazon revenue to lose. I did it because I don’t want to be reliant on one retailer - I have heard some stories of Amazon closing author accounts for seemingly no reason and then that would be your whole income stream gone. I do know it takes quite a while to get traction wide. I am YA so am hoping some trendy young people who don’t like Amazon will be on Apple or Kobo etc, and discover me!

Jane wrote: "I have only been wide for a short while..."

Thanks, Jane!

I took the risk you are talking about with my second book, A Secret Lies Deep, after going solely with Amazon with the first. I was experimenting, like I see most of us are, in finding the best way to get noticed and read. I tried Smashwords with the second because they had no restrictions on where you can distribute and they actually place authors books on multiple distribution channels. Well, I found I did less well by this method, pulled my book from Smashwords, and went back to Amazon. My sales on Amazon are near 550 books and I do get extra pennies for pages read at times. So, although with Amazon you are forbid to go outside their distribution, I'm more comfortable there. It's not perfect. And like most other authors, it is disappointing when readers don't wish to leave reviews as I think we all have the hope that more reviews will mean more exposure.

JAKe wrote: "I took the risk you are talking about with my second book, A Secret Lies Deep, after going solely with Amazon with the first. I was experimenting, like I see most of us are, in finding the best way..."

It is difficult to know whether it's better to stick with just Amazon or go wide. I've got 4 books - two just Amazon and two that are wide.

If you stick just with Amazon, you have marketing options (free days, Kindle Unlimited page reads, and Kindle Countdown deals) that can get your review numbers up, even if they don't really help your immediate income. It might help in the very long-term. The two Amazon only books have had the most sales numbers, although probably not income since many of those were free or heavily discounted.

If you go wide, the advantages are that you're more likely to get a BookBub deal if you're accessible through other booksellers (B&N, Kobo, AppleBooks, etc.) as well as Amazon. I believe they prefer this so that they can get more subscribers overseas where Amazon is not as dominant. Anyone I know who got a BookBub featured deal in the US did quite well with it in terms of income, and probably reviews since the US is the largest wealthy market. BookBub also has international only deals. I did get one of those last year which really helped my sales and probably resulted in the growth in its reviews that year, even if the cost of the deal was a bit more than I made in sales. I had no complaints though!

Would I have had more sales and income if I'd gone solely with Amazon for the two wide books? Probably more sales (and hence reviews) since free days, KU, and Kindle Countdowns would have been available, but that would have also limited income. I do know some people switch back and forth between Amazon only and wide distribution. Something I may consider doing.

I've read (probably David Gaughran) that the normal number of sales to reviews is about 200 sales to get 1 review. My numbers are under 100 sales for each review. I think it helps that I have an Author's Note at the end of all of my books that concludes with a request to leave a rating or review on Amazon or Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ.

Thank you, JAKe and Eileen! I appreciate your replies and info. I suppose it's a guessing game and depends upon book whether KU or wide is more beneficial. Interestingly enough, I've kept one book on KU for a year because monthly income from pages read has been steady (more than pennies). I decided to go wide with it last weekend when KU ended, and surprisingly book sales went up this week. Huh.

Gail wrote: "I've been going back and forth with this. Amazon reviews are most important to authors, I believe? I have tried going wide with other retailers with a few books, but I keep putting them back on Ama..."

I think most readers who will review do so on the platform where they purchase. If your goal is Amazon reviews, I don't see the logic in going wide.

Thanks, Eldon. Your first sentence pretty much answers my question. Reviews are only part of my goal, but I was curious about that aspect of going wide.

Keep in mind that how many readers are at *other* retailers than Amazon differs by genre. In some genres, KU has a very dominant position. In general, KU seems to favor romance and erotica (in many forms) where the books are short (so the monthly fee is way better for a reader than buying tens of books) and fantasy where the books are long and cost more to purchase (and thus the amount of pages increases the payout for a full read).

It may be worth looking into your genre specifics. Look up the books in top 100 in your genre and see how many of them are in KU. If many - the genre favors KU. If few, it probably favors direct purchases.

Tomas wrote: "Keep in mind that how many readers are at *other* retailers than Amazon differs by genre. In some genres, KU has a very dominant position. In general, KU seems to favor romance and erotica (in many..."

Great suggestion, Tomas! Much appreciated!

Like Eileen, I have some on KU and some spread. My genre is the science-oriented SF, like Andy Weir, but there aren't very many other similar authors out there. What I find is that Amazon is the best producer of sales, BUT the exclusivity with Amazon is only really valuable because you get promotion opportunities like the Countdown deals. Now the interesting thing about them is that whenever I run them, I have to promote the deal or it is a waste of time, but when I do promote them, I always lose money. The reason, I think, is that with such a special genre, I will be the only one in that genre on the site, which in turn means that readers that might be interested won't be interested in the other books on the site, say like romance. So if the site is mainly romance, my ad is a waste of money.

In my opinion, what is needed are sites for promotion that are restricted to certain genres. The difficulty is, the sites that make money will focus on romance because that is where most sales occur. So my conclusion is, if you focus on romance, or something equally popular, probably Amazon will work. The other outlets have difficulty in promoting them so it is difficult to get noticed because they list in order of sales and once again, romance gets the most sales. So in a difficult to get noticed genre, I think the decision of where to publish is not important; the problem is how to promote?

I've been Amazon exclusive for my fantasy books, since my first one about a year ago. KU did absolutely nothing for me. The only attention I've got is from advertising on other sites and directing readers to Amazon. So, for the New Year, I'm going to try putting my first book on wide, because it seems to me I can still do the same thing and also (hopefully) attract a non-Amazon audience. It's worth a try.

Gary wrote: "I've been Amazon exclusive for my fantasy books, since my first one about a year ago. KU did absolutely nothing for me. The only attention I've got is from advertising on other sites and directing ..."

That's my thinking, Gary. I'm giving it a try for two of my books. I have heard, and from Jane (above) too, it takes a while for books to move going wide, so I figure I'll give it a few months.

Gail wrote: "Gary wrote: "I've been Amazon exclusive for my fantasy books, since my first one about a year ago. KU did absolutely nothing for me. The only attention I've got is from advertising on other sites a..."

If you're able to do so, Gail, one of the best methods to gain traction is to put up a permafree book. This allows new readers to try you out at no cost to them. If they like what they read, hopefully they go on to buy your other books. Granted, this works best with series.

Eldon wrote: "Gail wrote: "Gary wrote: "I've been Amazon exclusive for my fantasy books, since my first one about a year ago. KU did absolutely nothing for me. The only attention I've got is from advertising on ..."

Thank you, Eldon!!! I am already doing that, partially, with the first book in my new series. While it pains us to give away books (at least for me), I know that is a great way to gather new readers.

Gail wrote: "Eldon wrote: "Gail wrote: "Gary wrote: "I've been Amazon exclusive for my fantasy books, since my first one about a year ago. KU did absolutely nothing for me. The only attention I've got is from a..."

You're not alone there, Gail. It pains me too lol

Eileen,
It was my understanding that if you did not purchase a book thru Amazon, one could not review it there. I think I'm right on this. That is why I ask any potential reader to review me through Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ. And yes I know that Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ is owned by Amazon, but I believe it is independent enough not to look where the book was purchased.

JAKe wrote: "Eileen,
It was my understanding that if you did not purchase a book thru Amazon, one could not review it there. I think I'm right on this. That is why I ask any potential reader to review me throu..."

No, you can still review books that you don't purchase from Amazon. I've done that lots of times - I listen to audio books I've gotten through the library and reviewed them. There are books I've bought from actual bookstores that I've reviewed.

However, it is difficult if not impossible to simply give a rating to books you haven't purchased through Amazon. Just checking now but it looks like you only get the option to review books. You can quickly rate any book on your Kindle, but not on the Amazon website.

How do you say "corner the market" without saying "corner the market"??

Eileen wrote: "JAKe wrote: "Eileen,
It was my understanding that if you did not purchase a book thru Amazon, one could not review it there. I think I'm right on this. That is why I ask any potential reader to re..."

Isn't the Amazon rule for leaving a review there...IF you spend $50 the past however many months?

As far as I know, Gail, that is still true. Friends think they have left reviews but nothing shows up.

I can't offer anything of interest re opting into a wider audience but I do know Indie authors who are saying they might not be writing any more books as the sales recently (both through Amazon and others) have been dismal. That might be the real problem.

Anna wrote: "As far as I know, Gail, that is still true. Friends think they have left reviews but nothing shows up...."

Thanks, Anna. And yet, the ebook market is booming since covid hit, even to the point of driving trad publishers to alter their contracts and agreements, I've read. I expect the problem lies with the hugely increasing number of authors.

If you are doing well with Kindle Unlimited (restricted to Amazon) then keep with it. Some people do really well with it and get a lot of reads while selling a few books.

I like going wide and am willing to wait for books to get traction. I'm not a fan of Smashwords due to the meatgrinder that you have to use to get your book on their site so I use Draft2Digital and love the support team there.

I've had sales all over the world and they weren't from Amazon. I'm still figuring out the advertising and general marketing, but I'm a firm believer in not putting all my books on one site only and the bigger the site gets, the less I trust it when they keep changing the way things work, payments, etc. so that it's harder to get off the bottom without money or a huge fan base.

Bottom line, do what works for you and keep trying to find what you like and makes it easier to attract fans. Also remember that less than 10% of the published authors are able to live on what they earn from writing books.

Thank you, B.,A.!! I agree about Smashwords. I'm a firm believer in D2D...it was a breeze uploading.

Eldon wrote: "Gail wrote: "Eldon wrote: "Gail wrote: "Gary wrote: "I've been Amazon exclusive for my fantasy books, since my first one about a year ago. KU did absolutely nothing for me. The only attention I've ..."

Eldon, at the risk of asking a really stupid question, outside of using 'tools' like netgalley, etc. (I'm using a few) to giveaway a book, how do you just offer it for free? Currently, my 1st in series is on KU, off in Feb. Does it need to be thru a site/reader magnet or whatever? I'm puzzled now how to just give it away if I choose to.

I have stuck with Kindle Unlimited so far but am planning to start a new humorous fantasy series soon with the idea of making the first book a free reader magnet in exchange for newsletter subscription. So although I will make the series available through Amazon, I won't allow them exclusivity (at least for the first book).
I may use this opportunity to experiment with D2D at the same time.

E.D. wrote: "I have stuck with Kindle Unlimited so far but am planning to start a new humorous fantasy series soon..."

Hi E.D. Happy New Year! I'm glad to hear you're going to write a new series. I went humorous with a new cozy mystery series, it's a lot of fun. But this giveaway the first book stuff is new to me and I'm not sure how it all works, even though I know it's beneficial.

Gail wrote: "E.D. wrote: "I have stuck with Kindle Unlimited so far but am planning to start a new humorous fantasy series soon..."

Hi E.D. Happy New Year! I'm glad to hear you're going to write a new series. ..."

If you’re wide you can make the ebook free on all the other sites and then get Amazon to price match. I think people then use something like Freebooksy to drive traffic to it. I am currently writing a prequel novella that I will do this with. I hate having to give something away, especially since I will still have to pay for edits and cover - but perhaps in the long term it will pay off if it brings people to my books.

Jane wrote: "Gail wrote: "E.D. wrote: "I have stuck with Kindle Unlimited so far but am planning to start a new humorous fantasy series soon..."

Thank you, Jane. It is painful to give a book away. Luckily my first book didn't cost much (pre-made cover that miraculously works, but still...). Reaching the broad audience seems like an impossible task, but who knows? Every effort takes us a step forward (hopefully).

Gail wrote: "Eldon wrote: "Gail wrote: "Eldon wrote: "Gail wrote: "Gary wrote: "I've been Amazon exclusive for my fantasy books, since my first one about a year ago. KU did absolutely nothing for me. The only a..."

Hi Gail! I believe Jane answered your question. You set the book free elsewhere and then ask Amazon to price match. No idea why they just don't let us set it to zero, but it is what it is.

Gail/Jane, happy New Year to you.

I have tried a method suggested by Dave Gaughran in one of his posts. I run a five day (or less) Amazon giveaway for the first book of a series, advertising it through Freebooksy and other sites (a different one for each of the days). I have tried this a few times. It is effective in getting your book to climb the Amazon best seller lists for the categories it is listed in, for the days of the promotion, and although the giveaway does also generate new sales and KU reads I have not covered the cost of the ads.

What I am planning with my new series is to only give it free to those who agree to join my mailing list for a newsletter I plan to produce (a reader magnet). Of course, people can sign up to get the book and then immediately leave the list. Hopefully some remain and those people can be sent advance notice of my future projects.

Great info here. Thanks everyone for your input!!

E.D. wrote: "Gail/Jane, happy New Year to you.

I have tried a method suggested by Dave Gaughran in one of his posts. I run a five day (or less) Amazon giveaway for the first book of a series, advertising it th..."


That does work you lose about 10% of the people if you do a joint promotion, but the rest stay if you keep them interested in your newsletter. I like Dave and Tim Grahl for marketing. They make sense and don't tell you that you can make a ton of money overnight. It takes time and effort to make back what you spend. Keep plugging away at it.

Gail wrote: "Does it need to be thru a site/reader magnet or whatever? I'm puzzled now how to just give it away if I choose to."

You can offer it free on your own website in return for folks signing up for your newsletter or writing a review. If you don't have newsletter subscribers yet (or even if you do & need more), Voracious Readers Only has a program where people can sign up for your newsletter in return for a copy of the book to read & review. Not everyone posts reviews, but enough do to make the program worthwhile.

Story Origin lets you set up reader magnets as well as review copies and has a group promotion program where you can join other authors in giveaways, etc. You can also swap single newsletter mentions with other authors. It's very inexpensive.

BookSweeps is another avenue--much more expensive, but you get many more newsletter subscribers each time (so best to use it once or twice a year to let their follower lists grow).

From my personal experience, most of the people who sign up through any of these programs will be with you for the long haul, giving you the opportunity to focus your giveaways to people who are already fans of your stories or have already posted reviews on one of them. Bonus: you also gain traction when your new releases come out.

BTW, I had no choice about my first book--traditionally published with KU alone. I used D2D & published wide for the following books & make more money through the library services on each one than I made all last year on the first book with KU.

Thank you so much, Gifford. What a great summary of information. I truly appreciate it! Extremely helpful. Cheers!

I've gone the Amazon exclusive route and Smashwords. At first, I found that I made more with Amazon than I did with Smashwords - a lot more. But then things fell off and I tried advertising on Amazon. All it did was empty my wallet without any meaningful return. I decided to write a series and completed Book 2 of the series in June. After it was ready for publication, I added the first two chapters to the end of Book 1 to drive readers to it. I have now gone back to Smashwords and utilized BookBub to advertise Book 1 rather than advertising Book 2. I've spent more than I've made, BUT I've covered about 75% of my advertising expense and got the book into the hands of readers, who, hopefully, will like Book 1 and grab Book 2. Meanwhile, I'm working on Book 3. When all is said and done - maybe 4 books(?), I'll make Book 1 free. The sales reports I just got showed a large number of sales from Barnes and Noble, as well as from Apple books - even got into libraries! I think the key is to try different things until you find something that works. One thing I've tried that I found to be a total waste of money are the offers to feature your book on Instagram or tweet books for a set fee. It might be cheap, but if you spend $35 and up, you want to at least see something for your money. I never did.

There's a learning curve to get your CTR (click thru rate) into territory that actually sells your book, but BookBub offers a lot of great advice on their blog. I've gone from a lousy CTR to a much better one and heading for even better now that I understand the dynamics of how to pair authors and genres to my books. Not to mention how to make an ad that makes people stop and take a look.

Ann wrote: "I've gone the Amazon exclusive route and Smashwords..."

Thank you very much for the info, Ann! I have failed miserably with Bookbub ads (and I practically have their instructions memorized!). But my new series (my first series) has done much better than my other books, in sales and reviews. Partly because I have offered the first book for free here and there. So far, I've had 12,000 downloads and 355 Amazon reviews for it - not anywhere near the 200 sales/1 review, as Eileen stated, but they're still trickling in.

Over the weekend, I did couple a 1-day Freebooksy for the 1st book with a $.99 Bargainbooksy for the 2nd book, and that worked rather well, recouping the entire cost of the ads.

As for Amazon vs. Wide - I keep chickening out and removed my books from wide after one month - I know it takes much longer than that to attract wide readers, but an author on FB gave me this suggestion/calculation: Figure out the percentage of sales income vs. pages read income on KU to decide whether it's worth leaving there or going wide. Currently, my books are about 60% KU pages read income to 40% sales income on Amazon. So, I may just sit tight until that percentage changes.

Gail wrote: "Ann wrote: "I've gone the Amazon exclusive route and Smashwords..."

Thank you very much for the info, Ann! I have failed miserably with Bookbub ads (and I practically have their instructions memor..."

I made a mistake in my post when I wrote CPR (Cost Per Click) when I meant to say CTR (Click Thru Rate). Sorry about that! Have fixed it for future people who run across my post.