Publishing deal + moving Phase 1 to Kindle Unlimited

Some of you already know that last month, I got a message from a publisher potentially interested in producing Nowhere Stars as an audiobook. Which is wild, super flattering, and would do a lot to help me get this story to as many of the people who’d like it if they knew it existed as possible!

That deal isn’t happening yet — for reasons to do with algorithm promotion and the ebook being linked to the audiobook through Amazon’s functional monopoly on the book market, the publisher didn’t want to go through with it unless I’d move the first book to Kindle Unlimited. That would require me to take down all but a few chapters of the first book from both the main site and its mirrors, which I really didn’t want to do if I could help it. KU is not a business practice I feel good about taking part in, and I like my janky old Wordpress site, even if Wordpress still has no reasonable way to auto-update its links with new chapters.

But the offer and the reasons to make the switch are credible, from what I’ve been reading and people I’ve talked to. Apparently, KU is just where the reach is right now. If I took the deal, I’d get preferential marketing treatment, access to an additional giant pool of voracious readers, and a publisher wanting to do things with my strange little nightmare-book that would help it reach even further.

That would all mean a lot to me as a baby author!

Honestly, I’m still kind of shocked that we’ve made it this far. The ‘intended audience’ for Nowhere Stars is literally just me. I make it for myself, out of things that are really important to me personally, and pay no real mind to giving it mass appeal or fitting it into a market. Traumacore weird-fantasy horror anime is not exactly an established niche I’m playing to. I just hoped that people would respond to that sort of passion for the very specific thing I’m making, and here you all are! I’m really, really grateful to everyone who’s enjoyed the story enough to help me keep making it.

But I'm doing my best to make a career of the one thing I can actually do, and as it stands, both reader numbers and supporters mostly seem to have plateaued on my current platforms since April. So on May 24th, I’ll be moving Phase 1 to KU. Past that point, it’ll only be available here. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BWS65LF6

This doesn’t have to be permanent — it’s a 90-day deal I can choose to renew or back out of every three months. Right now, though, for the sake of the story's future, I think I need to accept any advantages I can without compromising on its content or quality, and this is the best option I’ve found. I’m not very good at the whole promotion and selling myself side of all this. I just want to hide in my nest and write forever and hope it works out.

For everyone already reading, this shouldn’t change much about your experience. KU requires exclusivity of the books currently listed on the platform, not the series itself, so I can keep posting chapters uninterrupted in the usual places. They’ll only be removed when they’re bundled into ebooks, and I’ll give as much early warning as I can leading up to the dates when they have to be pulled. I’m writing pretty big books and taking my time with them, so that won’t be a super frequent event!

Until the date the first book goes exclusive, I’ll be making it available to all patrons — expect that up shortly. I’ll repeat this for all future books. If you know anyone who'd enjoy the story and doesn't want to engage with an Amazon platform, please feel free to pass it to them!

Once again, thank you all so much for reading. I’ll be back with the next one soon. ♥