Sunday, July 8, 2012

To Kindle Select or not to Kindle Select

That is the question many of us authors ask, myself included.  Do you put all your eggs in one basket?  Or do you spread yourself around a bit?  There are pros and cons for both.
Decisions, decisions.  Don't you just hate them?
This morning I woke up feeling good and decided I was going to do it.  Unpublish all my books from Smashwords, effectively withdrawing them from Apple iStore and Barnes and Noble.  I am going to sell my soul to Amazon.  What had put me off taking the plunge all these months, was the idea of giving a company the monopoly.  It just didn't seem right, morally wrong in way.  What right did they have to demand exclusivity of my creativity?
For over a year I have had my books on Amazon and all the Smashwords partners.  With Amazon I have sold close on 30 000 on Kindle.  Through Smashwords, a couple of thousand.  Where should my loyalty lie?
When my Kindle packed up this week, I contacted Amazon Customer Service on chat.  Within 2 minutes they offered to replace my Kindle at no cost to me.  They shipped the Kindle that same afternoon and it arrived the next morning.  That is five star service.  I thought I deserve to give them some loyalty in exchange, but pulling my books from Smashwords?  That's a large step.
Amazon uses categories to attract new readers to your books.  Readers who might not have found your books  by looking at only one category you might not initially have thought of.  Amazon also has a search inside feature and best of all, your book is advertised on the book pages of many other books with the 'Customers who bought also bought...'
Will this work for me?  Only time will tell.  Am holding thumbs that it will work for me.  So from now on Stop the world I need to pee; The Case of Billy B; Not Telling; Defective; Survival Tips for the Suddenly Single and C U @ 8 are exclusive to Amazon.

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