THE BUSINESS OF WRITING
Go wide
Following last month’s simple steps into self-publishing, Simon Whaley looks at taking a wider approach involving multiple platforms
The business of writing can seem complicated at times. In last month’s issue we explored how a simple approach to self-publishing can be achieved by launching a book on only one platform to begin with. For those of us in the UK and USA, that usually means choosing Amazon because they have the biggest share of the ebook market in those countries.
That doesn’t eliminate all decisions, because we still have to choose whether to enrol our ebook in Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited (KU) scheme. This is an all-you-can-read service Amazon offers to its customers for a monthly subscription.
However, signing up to KU requires us to abide by Amazon’s exclusivity clause, which prevents us from selling our ebooks on any other platform. Of course, if we’re taking the simple self-publishing route, this isn’t a problem, but what about the future? What if, once we’ve got to know the self-publishing business better, we might want to consider offering our books elsewhere? Is there a good business reason for doing so?
Amazon’s KU is not the only all-you-can-read subscription service. Six years ago, in February 2017, Rakuten Kobo launched its Kobo+ subscription service in The Netherlands and Belgium. It’s since expanded into other countries, including Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Portugal, Italy, and France, but it’s not yet available in the UK and America.