What Does “Going Wide” Mean for Authors?

Q: Is only selling books direct from my website a good author business strategy?

For most authors, relying only on direct sales can be difficult, especially early on. But more than that, if your goal is long-term diversification and stability, then direct sales should be a supplemental sales option that works in tandem with retailer sales. The two can work very well together as part of a larger strategy that helps you both reach a wide audience and maintain control over your business with your most loyal readers.

What Does "Going Wide" Mean for Authors?

Table of Contents

For independent authors, few publishing decisions shape how your business will grow more than choosing whether to keep your books exclusive to Amazon or to “go wide.” You’ll hear both phrases referred to constantly in author communities, often with strong opinions attached to them. For beginners, understanding what they mean and how they affect your business can be confusing.

So what does “going wide” mean? At it's simplest, it means making your books available in most all formats across multiple retailer platforms instead of exclusively on Amazon. That can include retailers like Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble Press, Google Play Books, and libraries and audiobook platforms as well.

For some authors, wide publishing becomes the foundation of a sustainable, diversified business. For others, staying exclusive to Amazon is the smarter move for their goals, genre, and available time. There’s no universally “correct” approach; the key is understanding the tradeoffs of each before you decide what’s best for you.

Defining “Going Wide”

When an author says they’re wide, they usually mean:

Their eBooks are available on multiple retailers, not just Amazon
Their books are not enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited program
They may also distribute print, audio, and special edition books through other platforms
They often treat publishing more like a long-term retail business than a single-platform strategy

Going wide primarily refers to eBooks, because Kindle Unlimited (KU) requires exclusivity (outside of library distribution) for books to be included in their program. Print books and audiobooks can still be sold elsewhere even if your eBook is enrolled in KU (and assuming you haven’t published your audiobook through ACX/Audible with exclusivity as well).

What Is Kindle Unlimited Exclusivity?

Amazon’s KU program allows readers to borrow participating books through a subscription model. In exchange for making their books exclusive to KU, authors are paid based on the number of pages read rather than individual sales.

Instead of receiving a fixed rate for every page read, authors are paid a proportional share of Amazon’s KDP Select Global Fund, which is calculated month-to-month. This rate fluctuates based on the size of the fund and subscriber reading activity for the month, but most often hovers around $0.004 to $0.005 (USD) per page read, or about $0.40 to $.50 for every 100 pages. So if you enroll a 400-page book in KU, and it’s read in-full by a subscriber, you can expect to earn around $2.00 (USD) total for that particular read.

To enroll an eBook in KU, the author must agree to Amazon exclusivity for that digital edition. That means:

You can’t sell the eBook on other retailers (even your own direct sales store)
You can’t offer the full eBook for free download (e.g. as a reader magnet)
The eBook must remain exclusive to Amazon during the enrollment period (which resets every 90 days)

For many authors, especially those publishing in genres with more voracious audiences such as romance, fantasy, thriller, and LitRPG, KU can be incredibly lucrative. With such a massive ecosystem, Amazon’s KU readers tend to consume books quickly and frequently. This is why many authors remain Amazon-exclusive, especially early in their careers.

The Pros of Staying Exclusive to Amazon

Keeping your books in Kindle Unlimited can offer some very helpful advantages:

Simpler Business Management

Managing your books on one retailer platform is easier than managing them across six. You only have to upload files once, monitor one dashboard, learn one algorithm, and can focus your marketing efforts within a single ecosystem.

For newer authors already overwhelmed by the many logistics of self-publishing, this simplicity goes a long way.

Access to KU Readers

KU has millions of subscribers, and many opt to exclusively read books included in the program in order to take full advantage of their $11.99 monthly subscription. Many of these readers will rarely purchase individual eBooks outright anymore if they can help it.

If your genre performs especially well in KU, taking your books out of the program could mean losing a substantial chunk of visibility and income.

Amazon’s Recommendation System

Amazon has a recommendation engine within their own ecosystem that has become incredibly powerful. A book that performs well on Amazon can gain or continue momentum through:

KU-specific browsing
Also-bought recommendations
Bestseller lists
Category rankings
Amazon ads

This doesn’t mean your book can’t be included in some of these recommendations if it isn’t enrolled in KU, but Amazon does tend to favor those that are.

There are, however, some promotional features only available to KU books, such as making an eBook free for a limited time or setting up a Kindle Countdown Deal, which starts the eBook at a low sale price and gradually increases it over a set period of time.

For those authors reliant on Amazon’s recommendations and visibility for the success of their books, exclusivity to their platform can help tremendously.

The Pros of Going Wide

Despite the convenience of exclusivity, many indie authors eventually decide to expand their business into going wide for some excellent reasons:

Diversify Your Income

Relying exclusively on one retailer creates risk: algorithms change, categories shift, advertising costs fluctuate, and accounts face technical issues or updates that can cause major headaches.

Any sudden change inside Amazon’s ecosystem is entirely out of your control, but can dramatically impact your revenue. So by going wide, authors reduce their dependence on a single platform and build multiple income streams to rely on.

Selling your books direct can even further diversify your income, as well as give you true control over your business that third-party retailers can’t. Learn more in The Ultimate Guide to Direct Sales for Authors.

Reach Different Audiences

Despite Amazon being the 100-pound gorilla in the room, not every reader shops there. Some strongly prefer other stores and apps, especially those outside the US and UK. For example, Canadian and German readers, two additionally very large reader markets, prefer Kobo and Tolino, respectively.

If your eBook is exclusive to KU, you’re potentially missing out on getting it in front of the millions of additional readers who prefer to buy and read their books elsewhere. This is why knowing where your particular genre of readers prefers to shop is so important.

Long-Term Stability

Wide authors often talk about building a well-rounded business ecosystem rather than chasing spikes, trends, or changes as they come. What this means is that instead of relying on a single retailer’s algorithm, these authors build:

Mailing lists
Reader communities
Multi-platform discoverability
Strong backlists
Direct reader relationships

When you’re exclusive to Amazon, many of the above can be harder to do, let alone successfully. One of the biggest detriments of Amazon is that they don’t share customer information, meaning you can’t add them to your ecosystem after they buy. Many other retailer platforms also don’t, which is why selling direct and building your own platform for reader communication and presence is key to creating long-term stability.

Flexibility in How You Sell

If you only sell your books on Amazon, you have no choice but to adhere to the formats they make available and the experience they provide for each customer. That means selling according to someone else’s business model rather than your own.

As a wide author, you have the flexibility to experiment with:

Bundling books in various formats
Creating and selling special editions and signed copies
Other retailers’ specific promotional opportunities
Regional pricing fully controlled by you
Subscription alternatives for more serialized writing
A fully customized shopping experience (if selling direct)

When you’re not locked into one company’s rules and limitations, your business is truly yours.

The Challenges of Going Wide

Being a wide author is not without its challenges. In simplest terms, it’s usually more operationally demanding than staying exclusive is.

With multiple platforms to manage, you’ll have:

Different dashboards to understand and operate
Different formatting requirements to meet
Different metadata inputs to consider and test
Different promotional opportunities to try

And while wide distribution aggregators like Draft2Digital and PublishDrive can help to simplify this process, even these platforms come with tradeoffs and reduced control.

You’ll also face the challenge of marketing becoming more complex. Instead of sending readers one universal Amazon link, you need:

Universal book links
Retail-specific marketing strategies
Broader newsletter segmentation
More complicated ad tracking

Seeing positive results from going wide also often takes longer than they would if you focused on Amazon only. There’s often less “instant gratification” than KU sometimes sees, because growth spread across a wider pool tends to happen more gradually.

Going Wide As a Business Strategy

A common question new authors often ask is: “Should I go wide immediately?” And the truth is that there’s no universal answer, because it all depends on how you want to operate and grow your author business.

Some authors launch wide from day one because they value diversification and long-term control. Others begin in KU to simplify the learning curve and potentially gain early visibility faster.

When deciding on your book-selling strategy, a few additional guiding questions can be helpful:

How much time do you realistically have for business management?
Does your genre perform strongly in KU?
Are you comfortable learning multiple retail platforms?
Are you building for rapid short-term growth or long-term diversification?
Do you enjoy the operational side of running a publishing business?

Many authors eventually experiment with both models at different stages of their careers when it feels right or makes the most sense for them. And that’s the most important thing to keep in mind: do it when it’s right for you.

“Wide vs. exclusive” is an oddly emotionally charged topic of conversation amongst indie authors because both strategies have been used to great success. There are very strong arguments to be made for and against both, but the decision should always come down to your unique strategy. So don’t get lost in the noise of what others try to tell you to do—the best choice is always the one that aligns with your preferred way of running your author business.

Written By Chelsea Morning

Chelsea Morning is the Chief Experience Officer at The Bookshelf, where she liaisons with authors to help them achieve success with building and running their websites. With over a decade of experience in publishing, she’s worked with authors of every genre to help them navigate steps from manuscript inception to launching books with impact, bringing a rounded approach to the business of being an author.