Ask the Author: Timandra Whitecastle
Answered Questions (7)
Timandra Whitecastle
Great question, thank you for asking!
Like most Indie Authors, Amazon‘s Kindle Direct Publishing service has allowed us to publish our stories to a wide audience that we likely would never have had.
When you publish a book through KDP, you can decide if you‘d like to enroll in a programme called Kindle Select. Your books can then be read through Amazon‘s Kindle Unlimited subscription service. A borrow of your book through someone’s Kindle Unlimited subscription counts as a sale. For every page someone in KU reads of your books, you get a small amount of money. So you could earn money through a sale of your book OR through someone reading your book in KU.
This option comes with a choice, though. If you choose to enroll your book in Kindle Select, you must be exclusive to Amazon according to their Terms Of Service.
So why do many indie authors choose with exclusionary option? Why did I? Books in KU have an advantage when it comes to store visibility. Visibility turns into sales (and borrows count as sales).
Additionally if you’re enrolled in KU, you have a number of powerful Marketing Tools given to you through Amazon that make visibility easier (but can only be used once every 90 days). These tools are, for example, five to seven days of setting your book to 0.99, so having regularly occurring deals that typically shift a fair number of your books. At the same time, if you do this, you get to keep your 75% of each sale. Instead of being financially crippling, you can actually make a plus on your week long 0.99 deal. Which in turn makes it easier to keep afloat financially, and write and publish more books.
The downside is: you have to be Amazon Exclusive in order to have access to these perks.
Remember, I said you have to make a choice to enroll or not. The thumb on the scale that tips towards Amazon rather than publishing wide (so on Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, etc) is that most indies make more money by being exclusive to Amazon than not. (There are exceptions, of course.)
So from a book business perspective, if you want to earn money through writing and publishing books on your own, without the massive marketing might of a traditional publishing house behind you, it makes most sense to enroll your books in KU.
Keep in mind, too, that Amazon is the biggest book retailer worldwide and even owns this site, Goodreads. Millions of readers read through Amazon, for ease. It has enabled many of my indie author friends make careers out of their craft, a route which for many who dream of being published authors would otherwise not have been a viable option.
So on the one hand, yay for Amazon. On the other ... I wish there were a true alternative.
I hope this answers part of your question, even though this isn’t exactly an exhaustive essay on the pros and cons of publishing through Amazon exclusively.
The answer to the other half of your question is this: I’m restructuring my website right now to offer signed paperback editions in my own tiny store. These copies, because they’re signed, do not fall under Amazon’s Terms of Service.
The best way to get my books outside of Amazon is me :) If you’d prefer an ebook, please get in touch with me personally via: tim [at] timandrawhitecastle [dot] com. We can work something out together.
Thank you for reading!
Like most Indie Authors, Amazon‘s Kindle Direct Publishing service has allowed us to publish our stories to a wide audience that we likely would never have had.
When you publish a book through KDP, you can decide if you‘d like to enroll in a programme called Kindle Select. Your books can then be read through Amazon‘s Kindle Unlimited subscription service. A borrow of your book through someone’s Kindle Unlimited subscription counts as a sale. For every page someone in KU reads of your books, you get a small amount of money. So you could earn money through a sale of your book OR through someone reading your book in KU.
This option comes with a choice, though. If you choose to enroll your book in Kindle Select, you must be exclusive to Amazon according to their Terms Of Service.
So why do many indie authors choose with exclusionary option? Why did I? Books in KU have an advantage when it comes to store visibility. Visibility turns into sales (and borrows count as sales).
Additionally if you’re enrolled in KU, you have a number of powerful Marketing Tools given to you through Amazon that make visibility easier (but can only be used once every 90 days). These tools are, for example, five to seven days of setting your book to 0.99, so having regularly occurring deals that typically shift a fair number of your books. At the same time, if you do this, you get to keep your 75% of each sale. Instead of being financially crippling, you can actually make a plus on your week long 0.99 deal. Which in turn makes it easier to keep afloat financially, and write and publish more books.
The downside is: you have to be Amazon Exclusive in order to have access to these perks.
Remember, I said you have to make a choice to enroll or not. The thumb on the scale that tips towards Amazon rather than publishing wide (so on Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, etc) is that most indies make more money by being exclusive to Amazon than not. (There are exceptions, of course.)
So from a book business perspective, if you want to earn money through writing and publishing books on your own, without the massive marketing might of a traditional publishing house behind you, it makes most sense to enroll your books in KU.
Keep in mind, too, that Amazon is the biggest book retailer worldwide and even owns this site, Goodreads. Millions of readers read through Amazon, for ease. It has enabled many of my indie author friends make careers out of their craft, a route which for many who dream of being published authors would otherwise not have been a viable option.
So on the one hand, yay for Amazon. On the other ... I wish there were a true alternative.
I hope this answers part of your question, even though this isn’t exactly an exhaustive essay on the pros and cons of publishing through Amazon exclusively.
The answer to the other half of your question is this: I’m restructuring my website right now to offer signed paperback editions in my own tiny store. These copies, because they’re signed, do not fall under Amazon’s Terms of Service.
The best way to get my books outside of Amazon is me :) If you’d prefer an ebook, please get in touch with me personally via: tim [at] timandrawhitecastle [dot] com. We can work something out together.
Thank you for reading!
Timandra Whitecastle
Hey Kat! Thank you for your kind words!
The plain truth is I’m *still* working on Book 3 Mother of Slag. I‘m hoping to get everything wrapped up by the end of the year, though (this will depend to a large degree on the schedules of my editor and cover artists!) since it’s really been too long!
I know it’s hard after THAT cliffhanger ending (sorry!) but I’m wrapping up this trilogy in this last book and I want to do it justice (i.e. make it the best book I’ve written to date!)
Wish me luck ;)
The plain truth is I’m *still* working on Book 3 Mother of Slag. I‘m hoping to get everything wrapped up by the end of the year, though (this will depend to a large degree on the schedules of my editor and cover artists!) since it’s really been too long!
I know it’s hard after THAT cliffhanger ending (sorry!) but I’m wrapping up this trilogy in this last book and I want to do it justice (i.e. make it the best book I’ve written to date!)
Wish me luck ;)
Timandra Whitecastle
Hey Alex!
I‘m glad you’re enjoying the Living Blade series!
As to Book 3, I‘m on it. I‘d love to say when it‘ll be out, but I just had to push the tentative release date (May/June) further back :( I‘m hopeful it’ll be out this year!
Thanks for the question!
I‘m glad you’re enjoying the Living Blade series!
As to Book 3, I‘m on it. I‘d love to say when it‘ll be out, but I just had to push the tentative release date (May/June) further back :( I‘m hopeful it’ll be out this year!
Thanks for the question!
Timandra Whitecastle
"I was raped. No one believed me."
Timandra Whitecastle
I don't have too many mysteries in my life (that might be a reason why I love making them up). But here's a little story that's true and could be a plot for a book, I guess - just not a book written by me :)
My parents separated just after I was born, and were divorced before I turned two. Since my mother is German and my father English, we stayed in Germany while he returned to his country.
Years passed, and my mother re-married, had other children, and I slowly grew aware of the fact that my stepdad wasn't my real dad, though he was the only dad I knew.
My granma had kept some photos of my parent's wedding, and on a few of the pictures of me as a baby, there was this man holding the tiny infant - a man on photos who looked like me but I didn't know.
My mother told me stories about my real dad when I was old enough to ask questions. Scary stories. Made up ones - conflicting with each re-telling. As a teenager, you question most things your parents tell you, but growing up with the awareness that your mother is outrightly lying to your face does things to your malleable mind.
When I turned 18, I still had never heard a word of my real father, but I started to search for him anyway. I wanted to know where I come from. My stepfamily is the most loving, welcoming, awesomest family I know - but ... when people saw pictures taken of my stepsiblings and me, they immediately saw the familial bonds between my sister and brother, and then ... 'who's that girl? The one with the long face and glasses?'
In fairy tales, the eldest sister is never the one who gets the fairy tale ending. I wanted to know, for better or for worse, who I am.
But I had difficulty finding my father. I called a lot of registry offices in England, round about where he used to live, where his parents used to live ... but got little in actual results. Years passed. I made efforts, again and again, even found an address online, wrote a letter - it came back unopened. Recipient unknown.
Yeah, my problem exactly. Story of my life.
Until two years ago ... out of the blue, my mother sent me a private message over Facebook. Attached, a link to a Facebook profile: this is your father, was all she wrote.
Now - the shock. Could I believe her? It seemed like the truth for a change. And what to do with this information? I hadn't known this man, hadn't met him for over thirty years. And suddenly I had the means of direct communication. What should I say? What would he think of me? Did he even? Who knew?
After a few weeks, I plucked up the courage and wrote him a short message over Facebook...
I'm so glad.
I have two fathers now, my stepdad and my real one. The latter made me who I am by being who he is; and the other made me who I am by giving me all his books to read. I am indebted and grateful to both.
And that, children, is the story of How I Met My Father.
My parents separated just after I was born, and were divorced before I turned two. Since my mother is German and my father English, we stayed in Germany while he returned to his country.
Years passed, and my mother re-married, had other children, and I slowly grew aware of the fact that my stepdad wasn't my real dad, though he was the only dad I knew.
My granma had kept some photos of my parent's wedding, and on a few of the pictures of me as a baby, there was this man holding the tiny infant - a man on photos who looked like me but I didn't know.
My mother told me stories about my real dad when I was old enough to ask questions. Scary stories. Made up ones - conflicting with each re-telling. As a teenager, you question most things your parents tell you, but growing up with the awareness that your mother is outrightly lying to your face does things to your malleable mind.
When I turned 18, I still had never heard a word of my real father, but I started to search for him anyway. I wanted to know where I come from. My stepfamily is the most loving, welcoming, awesomest family I know - but ... when people saw pictures taken of my stepsiblings and me, they immediately saw the familial bonds between my sister and brother, and then ... 'who's that girl? The one with the long face and glasses?'
In fairy tales, the eldest sister is never the one who gets the fairy tale ending. I wanted to know, for better or for worse, who I am.
But I had difficulty finding my father. I called a lot of registry offices in England, round about where he used to live, where his parents used to live ... but got little in actual results. Years passed. I made efforts, again and again, even found an address online, wrote a letter - it came back unopened. Recipient unknown.
Yeah, my problem exactly. Story of my life.
Until two years ago ... out of the blue, my mother sent me a private message over Facebook. Attached, a link to a Facebook profile: this is your father, was all she wrote.
Now - the shock. Could I believe her? It seemed like the truth for a change. And what to do with this information? I hadn't known this man, hadn't met him for over thirty years. And suddenly I had the means of direct communication. What should I say? What would he think of me? Did he even? Who knew?
After a few weeks, I plucked up the courage and wrote him a short message over Facebook...
I'm so glad.
I have two fathers now, my stepdad and my real one. The latter made me who I am by being who he is; and the other made me who I am by giving me all his books to read. I am indebted and grateful to both.
And that, children, is the story of How I Met My Father.
Timandra Whitecastle
This is a tough question as there are so many great fictional couples that work for me in different ways.
I don't typically read romance stories. At least, I don't actively go looking for them. I could say I like the classic couples: Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy for Austen's perfect writing; Catherine and Heathcliff for their destructive passion in Wuthering Heights, Jane and Mr Rochester, for seeing who Jane Eyre really is.
Also, I really, really, really like Captain Carrot and Angua in Pratchett's Fifth Elephant.
However, one of the best 'love' stories for me has always been Palahniuk's Fight Club. There's a great dysfunctional love triangle between Tyler and the narrator and Marla Singer: 'I want Tyler. Tyler wants Marla. Marla wants me. I don't want Marla, and Tyler doesn't want me around, not anymore. This isn't about love as in caring. This is about property as in ownership. Without Marla, Tyler would have nothing.' (p.14, Owl Books)
They're a trinity of broken souls, all looking for something in the other person to complete them, but in the end (of the book), there's this great scene where it's Marla who truly understands what the narrator needs and she brings all the support group people along with her.
But yeah, I think that's my favorite fictional couple, and now, you must excuse. I think I need to read Fight Club again ...
I don't typically read romance stories. At least, I don't actively go looking for them. I could say I like the classic couples: Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy for Austen's perfect writing; Catherine and Heathcliff for their destructive passion in Wuthering Heights, Jane and Mr Rochester, for seeing who Jane Eyre really is.
Also, I really, really, really like Captain Carrot and Angua in Pratchett's Fifth Elephant.
However, one of the best 'love' stories for me has always been Palahniuk's Fight Club. There's a great dysfunctional love triangle between Tyler and the narrator and Marla Singer: 'I want Tyler. Tyler wants Marla. Marla wants me. I don't want Marla, and Tyler doesn't want me around, not anymore. This isn't about love as in caring. This is about property as in ownership. Without Marla, Tyler would have nothing.' (p.14, Owl Books)
They're a trinity of broken souls, all looking for something in the other person to complete them, but in the end (of the book), there's this great scene where it's Marla who truly understands what the narrator needs and she brings all the support group people along with her.
But yeah, I think that's my favorite fictional couple, and now, you must excuse. I think I need to read Fight Club again ...
Timandra Whitecastle
I'm so glad you loved it! Thank you very much! Book 2 of the Living Blade series is called On the Wheel and will be out early 2017.
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