So, last year, I decided I had enough of the Zon messing with my bottom line. With the category changes and recategorizations last Spring and then the Createspace merge and changes in AMS, I'm kind of happy I did. Because I'm finding I am doing better with a decent sized catalog slowly releasing wide than I would have staying in KU.
So, half the year, up to May, my titles were in KU. By end of May, my reads were at zero, and my sales started with my release of titles through Draft 2 Digital.
I had approx made $7 last year from page reads with 0.004 used for cost per page. I used an average of KU at that time.
My Wide sales from May 2018- Dec. 2018 have been: approx $10. with only about 1/2 my catalog released so far.
So, yes, this looks like the difference of a cup of coffee, and I know I'm not paying the mortgage with my royalties (yet). But it is also reflective that my whole catalog was in KU the first part of the year with a slow withdrawl, and now I've got 3 series released wide, with 3 more to go. So, I might gain, a few more cups a coffee a month.
Why is this important? Well, because I'm trying to at least break even. I've also noticed AMS costs gone way up with bids having to be around $0.45-50 in my romance genre to get sales to counter the costs. So, I'm paying more to Amazon to advertise at this point.
AMS Example: This year so far, I've had $2 of sales with $6 of cost to make those sales over just first 5 days of January. To note: 219 keywords too. I have only one ad running since the Zon won't let most of my erotica catalog advertise in AMS anymore. (Another reason I went wide).
So, I've been pretty upset with the Zon all last year, and I'm trying to find other ways to bring in income. I do have Fiverr gigs that help, and I sell estate sale items on Ebay. Plus, I've had to return to some day job work to pay for those little things in life, like food, mortgage, car maintenance.
These are real numbers for being a writer. Most of the time, I'm not making much money, but I keep trying in spite of that. I think just trying to make it work in the long run is the best way to look at things. But it isn't a get rich quick scheme, it's survival to keep writing.
So, I'd love to hear if you've left KU and how you are doing. I know factors, such as I write erotica and erotic romance, made it necessarily for me to leave. Others might stay because they do well with what they are writing. But, the bottom line is every writer is now an entrepreneur and has to figure the best path to follow now. I'd love to hear about your path of either staying in KU or KU Exit.