Happy Monday, Aledan Merfolk!

Last week I said I had started the process of getting my ebooks into Kindle Unlimited (KU), which included pulling them down from all the other retailers, including my own website. And I’m pleased to report, the migration is complete! For the next 90 days, the StO and StO2 ebooks will only be available on Amazon and in your local library (print books are still available at all your favorite retailers, as well as signed copies direct from me!)

To be fully transparent, I never wanted to be exclusive to Amazon, which is what KU demands. This summer, they loosened their restrictions a bit, and allowed ebooks in KU to also be available in libraries. And after Facebook changed its ad algorithm in September, my sales came to a screaming halt. I stopped ads since I was losing money, and tried my best to drum up organic sales using social media, but it’s not as easy as it used to be (those algorithms have also changed, and the market is saturated right now). When I received my sales report for all of the non-Amazon retailers, I realized I hadn’t made a single sale outside of Amazon and libraries in months.

Since I could keep my ebooks in libraries, and haven’t made an ebook sale to any other platform despite my best efforts, I decided to try KU for their 90 day exclusivity period. If it doesn’t work out, I don’t loose any money, since I wasn’t making any money on the other retailers anyways. If it does work out, I’ll be making a little bit more than I would in organic sales. Either way, since I can keep my ebooks in libraries, I’m now willing to try.

No matter what happens with the first two books, this doesn’t affect the third book at all. Seek The Shore is still available for preorder on my website, as well as the retailers that take preorders. It will be for sale on all retails for at least a month once it’s released. After that, it will depend on how well the first two books do in KU. If no one reads them, I’ll be putting them back to all the retailers. If people start reading in KU, I’ll consider adding StO3 to KU after a month.

I’ll let you know how this little experiment goes after the first 90 days. And if you or any of your friends read books on KU, please read StO there!

Have a great week, Merfolk!