Publishing Strategy Guide
Amazon is the biggest store. It isn't the only one. Here's why going wide might be the right long-term strategy.
5+
Major retail platforms beyond Amazon
12–18 mo
Typical wide build timeline
Yours
Platform independence you own
Retailers, distributors, pricing, and building a presence that outlasts any algorithm.
Kindle Unlimited is simple: put your books in Amazon's subscription program, earn per page read, and accept 90-day exclusivity. Wide is the alternative: publish everywhere, earn from multiple retailers, and build a business not dependent on a single company's decisions.
KU pays well for genres where readers are voracious and read multiple books per month — romance, fantasy, and thriller are the strongest KU genres. Wide tends to work better for authors with established backlists, authors in genres with strong international readership (literary fiction, non-fiction), and authors who prioritize long-term platform independence over short-term revenue optimization.
The trade-off is real: most authors who move from KU to wide see a short-term revenue dip as they build their non-Amazon presence. Wide also requires more operational work — formatting for multiple platforms, tracking sales across dashboards, managing promotional strategies for each retailer. Neither choice is universally right. The decision depends on your genre, catalog size, and risk tolerance.
Not all wide platforms are equal. In practice, three retailers generate most of the revenue for wide authors: Apple Books (strong in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and continental Europe), Kobo (dominant in Canada, strong in the UK, Netherlands, New Zealand, and through their writing life program), and Amazon for the non-KU catalog.
Barnes & Noble (Nook) has declined significantly but still generates income for authors in specific genres, especially romance. Google Play Books has a growing readership and is worth including. Libraries are a significant and underappreciated channel: OverDrive/Libby and Hoopla pay per borrow and can generate substantial income for non-fiction and literary fiction titles. Access both via Draft2Digital's library distribution.
International markets matter more for wide authors than KU authors. Kobo's European and Canadian reach and Apple's global library are key advantages over Amazon-only distribution.
You can publish wide by uploading directly to each retailer or by using a distributor that handles all platforms from one dashboard.
Draft2Digital (which merged with Smashwords) is the leading aggregator for most wide authors. Upload once, distribute to Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Google, Scribd, libraries, and more. D2D takes a 10% commission on sales, which is reasonable given the time it saves. They also handle formatting, which removes a technical barrier.
Direct upload to Apple and Kobo is worth doing once your sales on those platforms justify the account management overhead. Direct accounts give you more promotional access — Kobo Writing Life has direct promotional opportunities not available through aggregators. Apple Books for Authors also offers promotional placement to direct publishers. Many authors use D2D for smaller platforms and upload directly to Apple and Kobo once those accounts become significant revenue sources.
Wide pricing strategy differs from Amazon-only strategy in two key ways: you can run permafree (impossible in KU), and you need to price for currency parity across markets rather than just US dollars.
Permafree is one of the strongest wide marketing tools — see the dedicated permafree guide for the full mechanics. The short version: set book 1 to $0.00 on all wide platforms, then request a price match from Amazon. The result is a free series entry point that drives organic discovery on every platform.
Currency pricing: Apple and Kobo both let you set local prices by country. Don't rely on automatic currency conversion — it often produces odd prices that reduce conversion. Set GBP, CAD, AUD, and EUR prices explicitly to hit natural price points (£2.99, €3.99, CA$5.99) rather than mathematically converted US prices. Readers respond to round-number pricing across all currencies.
The honest reality of going wide: it takes 12–18 months to build meaningful revenue across non-Amazon platforms. Amazon has decades of reader behavior data and a refined recommendation engine. Apple and Kobo are still building theirs. Wide authors don't benefit from the same algorithmic tailwind that KU authors get from page reads.
What works on wide: Kobo Writing Life promotions (direct access to promotional placements like Kobo's front page deals), Apple Books in-app promotional submissions, and newsletter promos that drive traffic directly to specific retailers. Building a direct reader relationship via email is especially important for wide authors because you can't rely on a single platform's algorithm to surface your books.
Wide is a long game. Authors who stick with it for 2–3 years often report that their income is more stable, less dependent on a single algorithm change, and more geographically diversified than it was in KU. The platform resilience is the point.
Wide authors face a review challenge that KU authors don't: reviews need to appear across multiple platforms, not just Amazon. A book with 100 Amazon reviews and 3 Kobo reviews looks very different to a Kobo shopper than to an Amazon shopper.
When briefing your ARC team, explicitly ask for reviews on the platforms where you most need coverage. If you're building your Kobo presence, ask ARC readers who use Kobo to post there first. If Apple Books is a priority market, ask Apple users to leave a rating in the Books app.
Goodreads reviews help across all platforms since many readers check Goodreads regardless of where they buy. Brief your ARCs to post on Goodreads and Amazon as the two highest-priority platforms, then add platform-specific requests based on your current build priorities. Don't overwhelm ARCs with five platforms to review on — pick the two that matter most for your current launch.
iWrity helps wide authors plan launches, manage reviews, and grow across every platform.
Start FreeYou can't go wide while your books are in KU — KU requires 90-day exclusivity. Wait until your current KU enrollment period ends (don't renew — KU auto-renews unless you turn off auto-enrollment in your KDP dashboard). Once the exclusivity expires, upload to Draft2Digital or directly to Apple, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble. Your books can stay on Amazon without being in KU — they just earn royalties on sales rather than page reads. Expect a revenue dip in the first 6–12 months as your wide presence builds. The transition is worth planning: time it to a period when you're between launches and can absorb the transition.
In the short term, often yes — especially for authors in high-KU genres like romance and fantasy. KU page reads provide immediate revenue that takes time to replace through wide retail sales. In the long term, many wide authors report more stable, diversified income that is less vulnerable to Amazon algorithm changes, KU payout rate fluctuations, or account-level issues. The comparison depends heavily on genre, catalog size, and marketing investment. Non-fiction authors and literary fiction authors often do better wide from the start. Genre fiction authors in KU-dominant genres should do the math carefully before switching.
Both matter, but for different markets. Kobo is stronger in Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand — and the Kobo Writing Life team is author-friendly, with promotional opportunities accessible to self-published authors. Apple Books is stronger in the US and has a large, affluent reader base that skews toward non-fiction and literary fiction. For most authors, Apple Books generates higher per-unit revenue in the US, while Kobo is the better engine for international reach. Publish on both. Once you have direct accounts with both, apply for promotional opportunities through their respective portals.
Libraries license ebooks through platforms like OverDrive (accessed via the Libby app) and Hoopla. As a self-published author, you can access library distribution through Draft2Digital, which distributes to OverDrive, Hoopla, and Bibliotheca. Library borrowing pays a per-borrow fee, which varies by platform and negotiated terms. Non-fiction, memoir, and literary fiction tend to perform better in libraries than genre fiction. Library distribution won't be your primary revenue source, but it adds a legitimate discovery channel and earns income on titles that are already formatted and distributed.
Prioritize Amazon and Goodreads for your core ARC asks — these reach the widest reader audience regardless of where they buy. For platform-specific asks, identify your current build priority. If you're actively growing your Kobo presence, ask Kobo-using ARC readers to post there specifically. If Apple Books is a focus market, ask Apple device users to rate in the Books app. Don't ask all ARCs to post on five platforms — that reduces compliance. Focus your ARC brief on two primary platforms and mention the others as optional. Goodreads is always worth including because it feeds into Amazon discovery and is platform-agnostic.
