My Take on Kindle Unlimited, and the Bradbury Challenge

In today’s Journal

* Kindle Unlimited?
* Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Kindle Unlimited?

Writer George K asked my thoughts about Kindle Unlimited, Amazon’s exclusive publishing program. If you enroll a book in KU, it’s can’t be sold anywhere else, including your own website, for a period of 3 months.

DW Smith and KK Rusch have always advised against going exclusive, but… even though Dean is always quick to point out that he started from scratch with the advent of the new self-publishing boom, that isn’t exactly the case. Or maybe his idea of “starting from scratch” differs widely from mine.

The fact is, Amazon is by far the largest seller of ebooks and a lot of other products, probably including print books.

That doesn’t mean they’re the only seller by any means, and I would never want to deny my books to readers who shop elsewhere or who don’t like Amazon for whatever reason.

So since George asked, here’s my take: I have always gone wide, period. I probably will continue to do so because that’s the habit I’ve created. Plus it appeases my lazy bone to get whatever I’ve finished off my desk and into the hands of readers.

I’m also not good at putting something up, waiting a specific period of time, then relaunching.

But speaking of that, DW Smith also strongly recommends running any short stories past however many print magazine markets you can in hopes of publication and a quick payday. That process can easily take much longer than the 3 months required by Amazon’s KU exclusivity program. It often takes at least 6 months after publication for rights to revert so you can “go wide” with your story.

So I’m just saying, letting KU have a novel for 3 months before releasing it to the wider reading public probably is not the earth-shakingly bad idea DWS and KKR and I (previously) crack it up to be.

I know several professional writers, many of whom I personally admire, who use KU first for three months and then go wide.

And frankly, if I were doing it all over again, that’s exactlywhat I would do as well, and yes, it’s what I recommend. If some things change for me I might well go to KU with new releases first myself.

Of course, you will need to be attentive and probably construct some sort of warning to let you know when the period of KU exclusivity ends so you would know when to re-launch your book wide. For those of you who are well-versed in electronic calendars, this should be a no-worry no-brainer.

“KU first” might be the best way to go to really get your books noticed in the first place.

Of course, don’t forget the attention-grabbing, genre-appropriate cover and the right sales copy (no plot, etc.). For that, I still recommend Dean’s How to Write Fiction Sales Copy.

You can buy the book ($10 for a soon-to-be-dogeared paperback), or you can slide back in time and read his blog sequence on the topic, beginning at https://deanwesleysmith.com/how-to-write-fiction-sales-copy-introduction-and-chapter-one/.

Hope this helps.

Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting

I gave you my spiel on the advantages of the Bradbury Challenge in yesterday’s post. If you want to jump in, probably the best way to do so is write your story right now, today. Then report it to me and you don’t have to think about it until next Monday.

During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported their progress:

• Erin Donoho “A Black Peaceful Space” 900 words YA
• Balázs Jámbor “Taking down the gods” 4500 words Space Fantasy
• George Kordonis “A Presidential Malfunction” 1678 words, Science Fiction
• Alexander Nakul “Blackcoin: the cryptocurrency of a new era” 1122 words Humor
• Chynna Pace “Estate Sale” 4873 words Sci-fi
• Christopher Ridge “It’s Family 1800 words Suspense Crime
• K.C. Riggs “Dung Beetle Blues” 933 words

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Some Updates” at https://deanwesleysmith.com/some-updates-5/. Sale still open until around noon today, Pacific Time.

See “Devastation left behind by Lahaina wildfire” at https://www.staradvertiser.com/2023/08/12/photo-gallery/devastation-left-behind-by-lahaina-wildfire/.

See “Three links for 2023-08-14” at https://mattpmn.substack.com/p/three-links-for-2023-08-14. Always interesting.

See “Getting Cozy” at https://killzoneblog.com/2023/08/getting-cozy.html. What is a cozy mystery, answered.

The Numbers

The Journal……………………………… 680

Writing of Blackwell Ops 9: Cameron Stance (novel)
Brought forward………………………… 4087

Day 1…… 1595 words. To date…… 5682
Day 2…… 2101 words. To date…… 7783
Day 3…… 2573 words. To date…… 10356

Writing of Rose Padilla (WCG10SF5)

Day 1…… 4283 words. To date…… 4283
Day 2…… 3963 words. To date…… 8246
Day 3…… 1463 words. To date…… 9709
Day 4…… 2445 words. To date……12154

Fiction for August……………………… 16872
Fiction for 2023………………………… 131419
Fiction since August 1………………… 16872
Nonfiction for August…………………… 11630
Nonfiction for the year……………… 161530
Annual consumable words………… 292949

2023 Novels to Date……………………… 2
2023 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2023 Short Stories to Date……………… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 73
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)… 221
Short story collections…………………… 31

Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Following the myths of writing will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.