All-In Or Wide?
Not to get all Coke/Pepsi on you, but this question keeps coming up. It follows the same tradpub vs selfpub argument format. One side is right and the other isn't.
We don't do well with nuance, it seems.
The terms refer to whether a self-published author goes all-in with an exclusive arrangement with Amazon or sells to the wider markets in addition to Amazon or even without Amazon.
Proponents of going wide cite the aggregated amount of non-Amazon revenue as a primary focus. It's a good one. Probably the right one. The amount is always larger than Amazon's contribution to their bottom line.
Writing can be expensive. Finding the best path to generate revenue never goes out of style.
Some will prefer the argument about diversification of risk. If one market goes away, they're at less risk of a revenue collapse. Perhaps they focus on the various genres they write and some markets do better with different genres.
It makes sense. For somebody writing in diverse genres like billionaire romance and international thriller, niches might work better.
Still others will take the ethical line. They won't do business with Amazon because of the way they treat their workers and suppliers. You really can't fault somebody for trying to do good in the world.
All-in people have a different perspective. They see the golden handcuffs as a worthy price to pay. They believe that the benefits in time, effort, and income outweigh the liabilities of dining with the devil, even with a short spoon.
Different people, different writers, different goals. They all make sense. To them. Not so much to others.
The key piece to this puzzle involves how each of us came to the conclusion we have.
Me? I started wide when I began publishing text editions of my books early in 2010. I stayed wide until late 2015.
For me, the decision rested on a single observed reality. Over that period, my sales increased a hundred fold. The contribution from non-Amazon sources shrank from 10% to under 5%.
When Amazon started the re-vamped Kindle Unlimited program, I looked at my non-Amazon numbers and decided to give it a try. A 90-day commitment felt like the right experiment to make. It didn't cost me much to give up the non-Amazon sales. (Sorry to both my iBooks readers. You were great.)
Honestly, coming back from being wide took a lot more than 90 days and I couldn't get into the exclusive program until I could get all the little international stores to pull the books. I eventually resorted to filing the equivalent of DMCA takedown notices on a couple.
When I finally got into KU, the improved revenue kept me there. I never left. The 90 days turned in to years.
But that's me and my experience.
Others have had the opposite experience with not finding much traction on Amazon, so they move to wide. Perhaps it's because of the length of catalog or the genre niche. Perhaps they're basing their decision on the risks involved with a single point of failure or the ethical issues of dealing with Amazon.
What ever the reason, they're right. For them.
Maybe we could just take a step back from the us versus them crap and just admit that we're all writers who want to get our stories to readers the best ways we know how.