Writing for the sake of the story

I’d like to welcome every one to my website.  It might still change a bit over time as the dust settles, but it will do what I wanted: serve as a location where you can learn about what I’ve written and where it’s available from.  At the moment, that is exclusively through Amazon Kindle, but this will change over the next year as I begin using other print house and sites.  

Rather than try explaining my reasons for this change, I’ll let Dale Roberts explain it as he lays it out much easier.

KDP’s changes have already affected my paperback version of Making Dull the Thorns.  At $4.99, the book was well below the $9.99 minimum KDP set.  Under this new policy, the least I could charge was $5.82, and that paid nothing to me.  The only way to guarantee  a profit and a 70% royalty was to increase the price to the $9.99.  I’m not a well-known author, and I set prices accordingly–giving new readers opportunity to read my works and develop a following.  This happens primarily via my e-books, and I keep those prices low so potential readers might give them a try.

Moreover, my e-books were enrolled in Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited membership.  I received micro-portions of a penny for each page read via that program.  This may sound ridiculous, but–it was worth it.  This enrollment is automatically renewed quarterly unless I select to turn it off.  However, while enrolled in Kindle Direct, I can not make my e-books available elsewhere and, even if I decide to opt out, I must still wait for that period to end before I can move books to other venues.

I published printed books because KDP encouraged it, and I had several folks who insisted they’d only read my books if I published them in printed form.  If they sold, they sold, and not many have sold.  Printed books aren’t covered by the exclusivity rules e-books were, but now that KDP is setting their sights on page counts and printing cost, and printed books aren’t my major sales, I didn’t bother moving them elsewhere.

Thus, I am deciding on Draft2Digital based on other author’s recommendations.  They have a wider distribution range, including brick-and-mortar and libraries that makes me hopeful.  I’ll still be available on Amazon, just not in the KU world, and my printed books may be limited until I feel there’s a bigger demand for them.

I want to write stories I want to tell, not sell; stories you want to read and will bring you back to see what else I’ve got.  If I wanted to make money from all this, I’d use AI (not the steak sauce).

Stay safe!