Why I’m Publishing Wide

This is a topic I went back and forth about. It’s a really hard choice to make, and I understand why authors have made a different decision to me. 

Going exclusive with Kindle Unlimited does remove barriers to entry for a lot of readers and gives newbie authors, like myself, the opportunity to reach lots of news readers. Going wide does mean you have the potential to reach a wider audience - hence the name lol - but it’s not guaranteed. Plus, there’s the fact that people will have to buy your book to read it (unless it’s a library read) and we are in a cost of living crisis, where even £5 is a big chunk of change for people.

Ultimately, my decision came down to one thing - libraries.

I am a library reader first and foremost, and wanted both the physical and e-book copies of Venturing North to be available to libraries. 

I’m also a Kobo reader. Here in the UK, Kindles don’t have access to Libby so you need Kobo and it’s built in Overdrive function to have easy access to e-books on an e-reader. There is the option to use your phone but I’m already too attached to that thing and any reason to put it down is welcome!

There’s also the option to enroll books in Kobo’s Kobo Plus subscription service. The main plus for this is it doesn’t have KU’s exclusivity clause. Venturing North will be there and I definitely encourage people to try Kobo Plus for their free trial period. There aren’t as many books on there as KU but it’ll encourage authors to put their books there and maybe put pressure on the Zon to do the same. (And pigs might fly, eh?)

I will admit, it has been MUCH harder than I anticipated. Each platform has its own processing time, and the Zon is a well oiled book machine at this point. Kobo was equally as pain free. The popular aggregator I used had me in “publishing” limbo for a week and my still isn’t available on some library platforms, which was literally the point. Don’t even get me started on Google Books. I’m sure I’ll write a longer, more in depth blog post - warts and all - about my publishing journey once everything is up and running. 

Anyway, this decision isn’t set in stone. I’m going to see how this series does wide and reassess it for future books. I also think certain genres might work better there (I may be cooking up a contemporary witchy book set in Scotland). Basically, KU is such a great resource for readers but I just wish it was better for authors.