First, for the record, I still don’t miss Smashwords. Getting out of that was the best decision I could’ve made.
I did KDP Select for a little while, and that was great, but I got so many requests for books on other platforms that I decided to give Draft2Digital a try again. Here are the results.
First: KDP sales have not suffered from leaving Select. This past year, I’ve made over $600 just on Amazon, which – given that I’m not actively marketing – is a pretty good deal.
I’ve had a few sales on other platforms, and that makes me hesitant to leave those platforms. This month there was one in iTunes, two in B&N, and one in Kobo – and that’s it. Would those readers have simply not picked up my books if I’d been only on Amazon? Hard to say.
Researching, I came across this nifty article:
Firstly, yes KDP Select certainly does increase ebook sales. Plus, by gaining access to Kindle Unlimited readers via KDP Select, page reads should start to happen in the first 90 day period.
Secondly, there is still a flow-on benefit in a second consecutive 90 day period.
But lastly, leaving your ebooks permanently enrolled has limited benefit, as sales and page reads seem to slowly fade away. It would be better to consider returning to open publishing as it could be a better option.
I did find that Select sales dropped off before I jumped ship, so this might be true. If that’s the case, then I should jump back into it in a while to see what happens. We’ll see! If I keep getting sales on other platforms, I might not.
I will keep you updated, fellow writers. After all, we are in this together.
