Tuesday, September 16, 2014

GAME CHANGER - UPDATED

UPDATE!

After participating in Kindle Unlimited for a month I declare it AWESOME! All previous concerns have been washed away by solid evidence of sales = $, even sales from KU. No more worries...though I had fun cutting my books up. LOL

So apparently Amazon has made some changes for authors and subsequently it's become more popular to write only novellas, which are 70-160 pages, or about 17,000 - 40,000 words.

Basically, Amazon has made it so that it's easier and cheaper for people who LOVE to read to buy as many books as they like for only $10.00 a month, Kindle Unlimited. That's a great deal! The only thing is, we author's only get paid when someone has read at least 10% of the book...If your books are anywhere between 300-400 or more pages, like mine, you may not get paid for a long time...10% being 30-40 pages in.  And if we consider that most people read a couple chapters in a sitting, then get back to the book some time later...if ever, yeah you may never see a dime.

Which brings me to the other reason shorter books are becoming more popular. People's time constrains. We have busier lives and shorter attention spans. For the over worked and over stressed folks, shorter is better. I am one of those people, so I totally get it.

As for me, I'm seriously considering breaking each Paranormal Washington novel into 3 books, making 4 books 12....For Example:
Fatal Retribution: 400 page Urban Fantasy.
Because of the ebb and flow of the action it brakes up nicely into 3 books.

DARKNESS: book 1. 132 pages
BASTION FATAL: book 2. 121 pages
RETRIBUTION: book 3. 146 pages

They'd each make quick juicy reads alone, rather than a lengthy meal, but I'd have to do a bit of rewriting to be sure each section is a stand alone novella. IDK, so many people have already read the biggens...They're sort of out there, on their own now. I think the best thing to do is focus on my next project.

On second thought, I don't have to make the larger novels unavailable. I can simply publish the smaller versions along side the bigger ones. Everybody loves options! But again, I need to focus on my current projects....Man, I really hate the business side of being an author. I love research and writing and talking with fans...I can absolutely go without marketing and sales. 

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