The Journal: Going Wide vs. Exclusivity

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* StreetLib
* A Slow Start
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quotes of the Day

“Writing is a lot easier than getting up onstage and singing and dancing, I’ll tell you that.” Mel Brooks

A Long Quote on Wide Distribution vs. Exclusivity

In a comment, a reader recently asked Dean Wesley Smith, “[Can you explain] why authors should go wide instead of Amazon exclusive? I always click on the links of authors who comment here and noticed so many of us are devotees of most of your methods [but] we still go exclusive for fear of not being ‘discoverable’.”

Dean’s reply was the best explanation I’ve seen thus far:

“In Select, you are exclusive to about 3% of the worlds readers in English, and most of those readers don’t read for author, they read for free stuff. You do not build a long-term audience and it is not the readers who are buying your book, it is Amazon giving you money to help them promote their site. Nothing more.

“You go wide, with almost no work, you can get to over 80% of the world’s English readers and they know your name and buy your book with their own money, so you can build long-term readers of your work. And with even more work, and some time, you can get to about 91% of all English readers. (That last 9% or so is a tough road.)

“Anyone deciding on Select exclusive is making a very short term and bad decision for their writing. However, there are a couple other subscription services that are not exclusive and they are great. If Select took off the exclusive feature, it would be great. But as it is, it is stupid, plain and simple.”

StreetLib

For those of you who are still looking for your first ebook aggregator and/or exploring new “wide” possibilities, take a look at this StreetLib Newsletter that I received yesterday.

I also suggest you take a deeper look at StreetLib. Their distribution is wider even than that of D2D and broader and more significant than that of Smashwords. Something to consider, especially if you’re just getting started.

Well, I had a slower start than I would have liked, mostly getting back into feeling the chair and the keyboard, putting my conscious, critical mind in its place, etc. It feels really good to be in the story and excited about the characters again.

Talk with you again later.

Of Interest

See “The Daily Routines of 12 Famous Writers” at https://jamesclear.com/daily-routines-writers.

See “Engineering A Novel” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/12/engineering-a-novel.html. I don’t have to do any of that. My characters figure it all out.

See “Face Surveillance Was Always Flawed” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/face-surveillance-was-always-flawed/. Story ideas, perhaps, especially in this time when faux offense is given greater weight than honest intent.

See “This Guy Just Found a Faster Way to Multiply” at https://cacm.acm.org/news/240289-this-guy-just-found-a-faster-way-to-multiply/fulltext.

See “Mel Brooks Writes It All Down” at https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/mel-brooks-writes-it-all-down.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 470 words

Writing of WCGN 5: Carmelita Ramos (tentative title, novel)

Day 1…… 2602 words. Total words to date…… 2602

Total fiction words for November……… 2602
Total fiction words for the year………… 625884
Total nonfiction words for December… 470
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 19610
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 817764

Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 13
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 66
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

Disclaimer: In this blog, I provide advice on writing fiction. I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. To be crystal clear, WITD is not “the only way” to write, nor will I ever say it is. However, as I am the only writer who advocates WITD both publicly and regularly, I will continue to do so, among myriad other topics.