A to Z: Going Indie: Q is for Questions

 

Welcome to Blogging A to Z! My theme this year is Going Indie. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to check out the other participating blogs.  

So, I had (and have!) so many questions about indie publishing. The wonder and the curse of publishing in 2026 is that there are so many options. So many paths you might take, tools. you might use, ways you might go about the whole thing. That's freeing and paralyzing at the same time…because how are you supposed to know what's "right" even when you just mean "right for me"? 

So, I ask questions. I reach out to other writers and ask what they do and why they do it the way they do. Sometimes those answers mean I try what they were doing, sometimes they don't. 

For example, SEVERAL romance writers advised me to go with Kindle Unlimited since so many romance readers are book gobblers and they LOVE those one-fee services. They say I'm shooting myself in the foot by not having my book available in that program. 

But I hear from so many other writers that KU is a worse and worse deal for writers every year. I mean, I know "the house always wins" but do they have to win by such a LARGE margin? Makes it so some of us can't afford to play at all. I'm not willing to let Amazon exploit me for their profits if I'm getting so little in return.

So, I asked a lot of questions, and settled on what they call "going wide" which basically means that I'm not enrolling in KU or any other exclusive agreements, but am making my books available broadly. 

Is it a good idea, going this way? Time will tell, I suppose. All you can do is keep asking questions and making the best decisions you can with what you know at the time.