Indie Central: Overcoming Your Fears by Sarah E. Burr

For nearly a year, I’ve been working toward releasing Flying Off the Candle, book three in the Glenmyre Whim Mysteries. As one of my indie-published series, this is the longest time I’ve gone between launching a book. Too Much to Candle came out in 2022, so my readers are long overdue for Hazel and Poppy’s next mystery adventure. 

One of the reasons for the delay is that I arrived at a crossroads last fall: to continue publishing my books solely through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform or pursue bringing my books to more readers through wide distribution. Wide distribution would allow this series to be in eBook and print across all book retailers, not just Amazon. I’ve used KDP successfully for years and really have no complaints. I’ve always been a big fan of their Kindle Unlimited program, which allows readers to “rent” books for a membership fee. Full disclosure: most of my monthly income came from Kindle Unlimited page reads at the time. For so long, that membership fee was $9.99, but several months ago, I received an email that prices were increasing. I shouldn’t have been surprised; it seems to happen every year for all the digital services I subscribe to, but for some reason, this price increase triggered me into action. It made me consider pulling my books from KDP’s exclusive platform.

So, I took to Facebook to ask my readers about their Kindle Unlimited usage. Did everyone use it as much as I thought they did? The answer very much surprised me: no. Most of my readers told me they buy their eBooks, get them from libraries, or prefer to read them on other platforms. Some even told me that they hadn’t actually read my books yet because they were only on Amazon. This fact-finding mission sealed the deal; it was time to consider my options for going wide.

I’ll admit I dragged my feet about this for a long time because the task just seemed so daunting. It wasn’t until I was having a conversation with a friend that I realized I was using the very excuse that is one of my biggest pet peeves: I was afraid to take the time to learn something new. Luckily, during this same timeframe, I came across Draft2Digital in my research. Draft2Digital is a book publishing platform similar to Amazon KDP, yet it distributes your work across all book retailers. Draft2Digital guides authors through a straightforward publishing process, whether through eBook, paperback, or audiobook. I couldn’t believe how simple they made it. I used to think KDP was as easy as they come, but D2D makes it even more streamlined. In the course of ten minutes, I uploaded my book file and was ready to publish. Ten minutes. If there’s anyone out there considering self-publishing but may think it’s too hard, read that line again: ten minutes. Self-publishing is more accessible than ever in today’s landscape!

I won’t lie; I was nervous that taking my books off Kindle Unlimited would mean sacrificing a significant chunk of my income. For this reason, I decided to “pilot” going wide with my newest series, the Book Blogger Mysteries. Let me tell you, I was stunned by the results. Instead of being paid ~.01 cents for each page read of my book, readers were kind enough to pick up copies at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, etc., and I was paid 70% of the cover cost! The difference was staggering. I couldn’t believe I had waited this long to make the jump. Not only did it help my bottom line, but my readers benefited from the change so, so much. With my indie books now showing up in library catalogs, I met a whole new community of readers, and it’s been absolutely fantastic. And to circle back to Flying Off the Candle, I’ve since been working to move the Glenmyre Whim Mysteries off Kindle Unlimited so that the entire series can be available to readers. Hence, the time delay. I’m sorry it took me so long to see the light!

Fear held me back for so long. If you’re in the indie space and thinking about “going wide,” I’m here to reassure you that the time you take to learn the ropes will be worth it.

Flying Off the Candle is available for eBook preorder at your favorite bookish retailer. Paperbacks will be available on June 11, 2024.