Returning to Kindle Unlimited
After a year of trying to sell my books wide through platforms like Smashwords and Kobo, I’ve made the decision to return them exclusively to Kindle Unlimited. The majority of readers I polled through my newsletter told me they either read my books on KU or purchased them outright.
Why Selling Wide Didn’t Work for Me
Selling directly also didn’t work as I’d hoped, even with professional delivery via BookFunnel. As a result, I’ve decided to close my Payhip shop for ebooks, though a limited number of signed paperbacks will still be available. My free ebooks will remain accessible on multiple platforms.
The Risk of Relying on One Platform
Going wide seemed like a smart move at the time. Many authors advocate for diversifying sales channels to avoid relying solely on Amazon, especially given the risk of account cancellations—even over minor, fixable mistakes. However, in my case, sales across multiple outlets were minimal. Without page reads or consistent income, I found myself questioning if it was all worth it.
Writing for My Loyal Readers
For a moment, I considered giving up. But writing is too much a part of who I am to walk away. My books have never gone viral, nor have I had a “bestseller,” and I’ve made peace with the fact that I probably never will. Instead, I choose to write for the small but loyal audience that enjoys my work—and for myself.
The Joy of Cover Design and Self-Editing
Aside from writing, my next favorite thing is designing book covers. While they may not be as polished as those created by professional designers, I take pride in how they reflect my stories. Over the years, I’ve improved both in cover design and self-editing, using tools like Grammarly®, the read-aloud function in Word, and feedback from a couple of trusted beta readers.
The Struggles of Dictation Software
Dictation has also become a necessity for me due to repetitive stress syndrome after years of transcription and data entry work. I trained the Windows 10 speech recognition program to understand my voice, but since upgrading to Windows 11, I’ve been pushed to try their “improved” speech tool. Unfortunately, it insists on capitalizing the first word of every phrase as if I’m starting a new sentence—an unnecessary frustration.
Sticking with What Works
Rather than retrain an entirely new system, I’ve stuck with the old speech recognition program. Windows 11 keeps threatening to remove it, but I’ve taken steps to prevent that from happening. Worst case? I’ll switch back to my Windows 10 computer just for dictation. I’m not giving up my speech recognition program without a fight!
Still Writing, Still Creating
At the end of the day, this indie author journey hasn’t been easy, but I’m still here, still writing, and still creating—because that’s what I love to do.
