Going Wide: Self-Publishing Your Books Outside The Amazon Ecosystem

by M.K. Williams

The next book from the Author Your Ambition Series:

The buzzy term in the self-publishing space right now is, "wide." I was doing this before it was a thing. As more authors hear about the benefits of self-publishing on multiple platforms, I find myself on the receiving end of many panicked emails. While the concept is easy to understand the execution requires planning and patience.

For those who want to get their book out to as many readers and retailers as possible, I have the tools you need to create than plan. I've condensed my years of experience and best advice into this short and actionable book to help you go from Amazon-Only to Wide Author.

This book will cover strategy, platforms, opting out of exclusivity, and marketing for success. Get your free planners throughout the book to help you make and stick to your plan.

Ready to go wide?

162 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 1, 2021

About the author

M.K. Williams is the author of multiple science fiction books, short stories, and self-publishing guides. A truly all-American author, she has lived and worked across the country and now finds herself beneath the sunny, and often rainy, skies of Tampa.

Published works include Nailbiters, Architects, The Games You Cannot Win, Escaping Avila Chase, Interview with a #Vanlifer, Enemies of Peace, The Infinite-Infinite, The Alpha-Nina, Author Your Ambition: The Complete Self-Publishing Workbook for First-Time Authors, Self-Publishing for the First-Time Author, Book Marketing for the First-Time Author, How To Write Your First Novel: A Guide For Aspiring Fiction Authors, and Going Wide: Self-Publishing Your Books Outside The Amazon Ecosystem.

She also writes as Mary Kate Williams. Published works include Heifer, Bystander (January House Literary Magazine), and Howler (Broken Alidade Literary Magazine)

A third pen name is Kate Williams. Fake Out Make Out is her sports romance debut.

You can follow her on social media on Instagram (https://instagram.com/1mkwilliams/), YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/MKwilliamsa...), and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/1mkwilliams/) for exclusive insights into her writing journey and the elements that inspire her work.

For more information on her work please visit: 1mkwilliams.com

Reviews

[Levi Hobbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short 3.5 hour book you can listen to on Spotify that covers publishing wide in pretty exhaustive detail. Extremely practical and detailed. In fact the one downside is that because she provides so much specific information to each of the distributors outside of Amazon, things can quickly become dated. However she seems to update the book really frequently to account for those and keep it really up to date. You can tell she has lots of experience with the subject matter and there’s basically no filler in this book which is exactly how I like my non fiction. Really the only missing thing is that she doesn’t break down the different royalty rates on different platforms which I find bizarre, but she tells you everything else, including things like whether they issue a 1099 for taxes, what’s the status of their customer support, even nitty gritty stuff like that.

[M.K. Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you so much for all of your help in getting the book this far. Now it is ready to go out into the world and help more authors :)

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[Taryn Moreau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Overview to Going Wide

Going Wide is a great place to start to figure out if you should go wide, and how you want to go about it.

It’s fairly comprehensive when it comes to listing platforms and aggregators, and gets into everything from selling direct to getting reviews on other platforms.

This book should help you form an effective plan for going wide.

[S.D. Huston · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re thinking about going wide with your books or you’re not sure how to exactly go wide, then this book is an invaluable tool to have. M.K. Williams has been a wide-selling author for many years, and she brings all of her first-hand experience and research to this book in her no-nonsense tone which echoes the M.K. Williams I know from her YouTube videos. This book is not about abandoning Amazon—it’s about increasing your reach as an author, which this author explains in detail.

There are many gold nuggets of advice, but one of the surprising ones was never say to a bookstore owner that your book is available on Amazon (read the book to find out why!). This advice is invaluable, just like so many other tidbits in this book.

I plan to go wide with my novel, but I’ve been hesitant as I’m just starting on my self-publishing path, and there are so many things to learn. However, this book maps out a way to go wide and be successful. By the end of this book, I had a solid plan tailored to my future visions of going wide, and I have more confidence now in making this decision than I had in all my many months of researching the best plan for publishing my novel.

I recommend this book for any self-published author considering going wide or those who don’t know where to begin!

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Travel guides tell us how to navigate new places, but also inspire us to make the trip. "Going Wide" is a travel guide for self-publishing your book beyond the Amazon realm. Yes, Amazon has good qualities and benefits, but the publishing world is much larger. M.K. Williams takes us on a tour of the possibilities of your book beyond Amazon. The benefits and challenges are laid out before us. If you decide to take the journey into these other realms, this guide gives practical information you'll need. Even if you aren't sure if you want to explore beyond the borders of Amazon, "Going Wide" will help you make an informed decision. (I received an advanced copy for the opportunity to give an honest review.)

[Kyle Landis-Marinello · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Going Wide" is packed with helpful information about how to publish on all of the available platforms. And it's presented in an entertaining and easy-to-understand way. It's a quick read, but covers an enormous amount of material. My favorite part was the discussion about how to get your book into libraries. If you're an author (or even if you're just thinking about being an author), you don't want to miss this book.

[Kathleen Celmins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was REALLY instrumental for me when I was figuring out the whats and wheres and what-nots of self-publishing. What I found most helpful was the permission to SKIP some platforms and double down on others. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who's self publishing, and it's a resource I'll go back to time and time again.

[Jim Lowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to publish wide, then this is the book you need.

There are other books on going wide as an Indie Publisher, but because the book publishing industry changes so rapidly then most of them avoid the nuts and bolts of the processes and practicalities of publishing your eBook, print book and audiobook wide, instead they philosophise and look at mindset, which is fine, but ultimately not that useful. This book is braver and different. It has lots of useful planners and step-by-step guides which means it will be metaphorically next to me as I extract myself from exclusive contracts and publish wide with my next series.

M.K. Williams is going to have her work cut out keeping up with the industry changes as even in the time I’ve had this copy, Spotify has swallowed up Findaway, but hats off to her for getting this out there!

[Daniel Root · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great self-help book from M.K. Williams.

[Daniela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Too bad I didn't find this book earlier. It is a great book for anyone who is starting the process of self-publishing a book.

M. K. Williams is very honest in saying that her writing comes from her own experience as an USA citizen. That sincerity is something I really appreciate. In my case, I’m from Latin America, and it seems like the platforms (especially the ones in the USA) are allergic to Latinos.

But little by little, I’m figuring things out, and this book has shown me a range of options I didn't know about.

Her YouTube channel is very good. Thanks to several of her videos, I’ve been learning about the publishing process and identifying mistakes I made, like accepting Amazon’s free ISBN, haha.

Thanks to all the information on her YouTube channel, I decided to read her books.

Thank you, M.K.

[L.G. Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic value - The whole "Author Your Ambitions" series has been a spectacular read for me. Being able to learn from years of self-publishing experience has been incredible, through the easy to uptake writings of MK Williams. It took me about a month of casual reading to work through the series and about 20$, for a trove of knowledge that I'm confident took much more than all that to accumulate. Thank you so very much for writing this series that assists other authors like me :D

Cheers, -LG

[Rian Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was essential to me as I go through the process of going wide. I highly recommend it for any author who is about to go through this transition in their career.

[Jamie Schultz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really helpful in giving me good information to make a plan for publishing my book!

[Kari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, direct, fun, incredible useful. Thank you, M.K Williams!

[John D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've appreciated the entire series, and this volume in particular. I've read it twice in audio and purchased the hardcopy so I can go back and reference the details.