Hi Reader,

You ever get that feeling you're falling?

I did. And guess what? I was.

Apparently, I steered my little bookmobile right off a very steep cliff. Now, I'm scrambling to get the parachute to deploy.

What?

Just go with it. Pretend my bookmobile has the parachute option and I'm not just torturing metaphors willy-nilly.

A while back, I publicly declared I was done being a vassal of Amazon. I thumped my chest and pulled my books from Kindle Unlimited.

If you're not familiar, KU is Amazon’s gargantuan subscription service. Readers borrow books at no extra charge. The catch for authors: Amazon demands ebook exclusivity.

At the time, the second book had just been released and I already had over 2 million page reads. The Amazon algorithm loved me.

2 million! What's the new yacht look like?

Umm. No.

Authors in KU get 'paid' less than half a penny per page, which feels a little insulting. Plus, I was at the mercy of an algorithm I couldn’t control.

Then again, a lot of people were reading my books.

I ran the numbers and weighed the decision carefully. I chose to go “wide.”

Barnes & Noble. Kobo. Apple Books.

In other words, I decided to mess with something that was working really well.

How’d that go?

Badly. Nothing but crickets. My books struggled to get noticed on the other platforms.

New readers had been coming through a fire hose. Now they only trickled in.

Nothing I did seemed to correct the free-fall.

I’d underestimated what Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program did beyond being the golden goose that shat itsy-bitsy coins.

It helped readers find Emma.

And typically, once a reader finds her, they want to know what happens next.

Where did I screw up?

It wasn’t the idea of going wide. Many authors have done it successfully.

I think it was my timing. Or hubris—thinking I was bigger than I was.

It appears I hadn’t built a readership big enough to keep growing without Amazon.

So, we're pivoting. Hoping to recover that lost momentum.

As of this week, all three Emma Noble books are back in Amazon's Kindle Unlimited program.

They're waiting for you there. And if you like them...please tell a friend!

Thank you.

Find the Emma Noble Series on KU here

Happy Friday!

Andy

The Weekly Lift:

Matthew is a debut author that I met through The Briefing. We have a lot in common—we're writers, hikers, and sidekicks supporting wives with cancer.

He's also a great guy and a fine writer.

His debut, A Sirius Mind, launched recently and I had a chance to get my hands on an early copy.

If you enjoy heartwarming stories about a kid and his dog topped with a healthy scoop of violence, you're going to love it! I certainly did.
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Follow Matthew on Instagram here.

Find A Sirius Mind on Amazon here

Okay Reader, we'll stick a fork in it here. After all, it's called The Briefing for a reason.

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