Are you all in with Select or are you wide?

[Cabbages and kings]

Are you all in with Select or are you wide for ebooks? And why?

And where do you go for print and audio, and why?

[R. C.]

Wide through Draft2Digital.

Note 1: Don't go wide if you rely on KENP Reads... Mine dropped to almost nothing.

Note 2: Stopped using Smashwords - IMO, it is antiquated technology that is too difficult to use.

"And where do you go for print and audio, and why?"

I prefer Lulu for print but have KDP print options also.

Audio was ACX-Audible but no more. Will put all future audio elsewhere.

Cheers,
R.C.

[alhawke]

Currently wide with everything. I'll consider launching again with KU in the future and, depending on my future books, I might return to KU for good for some material.

[Eric Thomson]

Been out of Select for 4 years.

Direct with:
Amazon
Kobo
Google Play
and via Draft2Digital for the rest.
I also run my own online ebook store.

Print is:
KDP Print for Amazon only paperbacks
IngramSpark for hardcover and expanded distribution paperbacks.

Audio books are published by Tantor Media

[Jeff Tanyard]

All my stuff is wide.  Direct with Amazon and Kobo, on everything else via D2D and PublishDrive.

[PJ Post]

It's really not an either - or kind of thing. It just depends on one's strategy and how to make each distribution channel work for you. My current series is wide, my new stuff is going to be in Select. When I get to the final books in my current series, they'll come out in Select too, and then migrate to a wider audience whenever that makes sense.

[cecilia_writer]

I have a short historical series (4 books) and a non-fiction book in KU and everything else (21 book mystery series, 6 book 1950s thriller series and a few odds and ends) wide via Smashwords. My best retailer outside Amazon is Kobo.

[notthatamanda]

Direct on Amazon, Google Play and Kobo. D2D for everything else. I won't put a full book in KU but I may take one 90 spin in KU to do the short story reader magnet, when I write it.

[Lorri Moulton]

I have my co-authored series in KU since it does much better there.  Also have two paranormal books in KU for the winter, but I may take them out this spring.  Everything else is wide.

[Writer]

Are you all in with Select or are you wide for ebooks? And why?

2 current pen names are 100 % Select, 2 older pens are 95 % Select.

Why? Because after a decade of wide, I've found Select more worthwhile for my particular books and methods. I'm all about putting my energy and ad money where I get my best results.

And where do you go for print, and why?

Just KDP Print.

Why? Paperback sales only make up about $10k of my annual earnings. That's enough interest to be worth putting almost everything into print, but not enough to make adding multiple printers a priority for me. If I ever do add another printer, it'll be Ingram.

[T. M. Bilderback]

Wide with everything. I don't plan on having all my eggs in one Amazon basket ever again.

[Simon Haynes]

I had almost everything in Select for a 12-14 month period, just to see what happened. Now I'm in the process of transitioning out of KU. 7 titles still in, 41 out.

I use Smashwords to publish on B&N and Apple, dating back to the days when neither of those companies allowed Australians to publish direct with them. Direct on Google, Kobo, Amazon.

I use KDP print for paperbacks, as well as Lulu for author copies and hardbacks. (Lulu print in Australia. KDP don't.)

I use Author's Republic for audio. That was the only way I could publish on Audible from Australia, and I waited about eight years for someone, anyone, to show up and offer this Smashwords-style service.

[LilyBLily]

Half in, half out. I write in multiple subgenres so it's not an either/or division. It's more about what suits the markets.
 

[JackT]

Wide via D2D except Kobo, Google and Amazon which are direct. Findaway for audios. Lulu for hardbacks and KDP for paperbacks.

[selyons]

Currently wide, with Draft 2 Digital for Apple and Barnes & Noble, direct to Amazon, Kobo, and Google Play. On ACX for audio. Amazon print for paperbacks. Amazon is 50% of my revenues. I've tried going all-in to KU, but didn't do as well, and nearly doubled my income when I went wide. I don't like KU, and can't figure out Amazon Advertising. I don't like the subscription model and will resist as long as I can.

[PaulineMRoss]

I'm all in with Select and plan to stay that way. I tried wide once for the best part of a year and found it a huge amount of hassle for zero benefit, apart from the eggs/basket scenario. If I'd persevered, I could have made as much money as in Select, but I decided I preferred an easier life. I've never yet had a reader grumble that my books aren't available elsewhere.

Oddly, I'm taking my audiobooks wide. They're still in Audible but non-exclusive, and Findaway gets them into all sorts of obscure corners, particularly libraries. 

[TimothyEllis]

I've never yet had a reader grumble that my books aren't available elsewhere.

Me either.

But I did get a lot of grumble when I pulled them out of KU for 6 months.

[spin52]

Everything wide with D2D. Best move I ever made.

[Lorri Moulton]

I need to change my vote because all my books are wide now. 

[LBL]

All in with KU, and barring Amazon's complete, improbable implosion, that won't change any time soon. The ROI just isn't there for me being up on all these other platforms.

[Hopscotch]

Same for me - much as I'd like to go wide, I'll stay all in until my Zon sales hit the tipping point where going wide promises more.  My track record so far says that will be in late August 2055.

[Vijaya]

Wide, even though I sell peanuts.

[R. C.]

Wide, even though I sell peanuts.

I'm working up to selling peanuts. Trying to attack customer to the sidewalk roaster...

Cheers,
R.C.

[Cabbages and kings]

I need to change my vote because all my books are wide now. 

Sorry, I couldn't see anything that allows people to change their vote when I clicked "edit poll".

[TimothyEllis]

I need to change my vote because all my books are wide now. 

Sorry, I couldn't see anything that allows people to change their vote when I clicked "edit poll".

Try it now.

The ability to change votes wasn't activated. Now it is.

[Cabbages and kings]

I need to change my vote because all my books are wide now. 

Sorry, I couldn't see anything that allows people to change their vote when I clicked "edit poll".

Try it now.

The ability to change votes wasn't activated. Now it is.

The following is all there is when I click "edit poll".

Poll Options:

Result visibility:
 Show the poll's results to anyone.
 Only show the results after someone has voted.
 Only show the results after the poll has expired.

Reset Vote Count
 Check this if you want to reset all vote counts to 0.

[TimothyEllis]

Could be once a vote is cast, it's locked in stone, if it was set up that way first. I changed it, but obviously it's still locked off. Probably a forum software issue.

[Post-Crisis D]

When you start a poll, there's a checkbox for whether to allow people to change their votes.  Default is no, so I would guess since the poll was started before that option was allowed, it defaulted to no.

[Lorri Moulton]

I just changed mine to all wide with D2D.  I removed vote at bottom to change it.

[Cabbages and kings]

I just changed mine to all wide with D2D.  I removed vote at bottom to change it.

It turns out that I don't have to do anything, the option was turned on for all members when TimothyEllis turned it on.

There is a "Remove Vote" button at the bottom of the poll now that any member can click.

[Simon Haynes]

I still have 6 titles in KU but one drops out tomorrow, another in a week and the last 4 in one month's time.

The other 22 are wide.

[Doglover]

I have everything in Select except a couple of non-fiction books. I tried going wide, got nowhere fast. I make far too much out of page reads to ever leave.

[DmGuay]

I'm all in with KU right now.

Not for glamorous reasons. I only have the emotional bandwidth to learn how to market one site at a time, so I started with Amazon because it is the biggest. It was a matter of keeping everything simple. And in some ways, this has been good because it did allow me to focus and tinker and experiment and learn.

Of course, now my KU reads vs sales royalties are 50-50, so the decision to go wide would not be an easy one to make.

[LilyBLily]

I went wide with my first book because friends claimed they would never buy my book from Amazon. Guess what? They didn't buy it anywhere else, either.

Joking aside, I know I went wide without any real understanding of how the other stores work, and I still don't have that knowledge. Trying to find my own books on B&N has been fruitless, for instance; no wonder I sell so few copies there. To sell more on that site, I ought to know more about it. The same with the others, and that learning curve is a time commitment I haven't been willing to make so far.

Before going wide, devote some time to learning about the other stores. Then you can maximize your books' impact.

[Anarchist]

All in, mostly for ease and simplicity.

I don't even put my print books on Ingram.