Is KU (Kindle Unlimited) worth going exclusive for?

@plotholes_anon OP

2mo ago

I'm trying to decide whether to enroll my debut in KDP Select and go Amazon-exclusive for KU, or publish wide from day one across Kobo, Apple, and the rest. The KU page-read money looks tempting but locking myself to one store for 90 days makes me nervous. How did you decide, and would you do it again?

11 comments

@lowercase_luca2mo ago

The honest framing: KU pays you for borrows that would never have been sales. Lots of KU subscribers binge and would simply skip a book they had to buy, so a borrow-read is found money, not a lost sale. For a debut with no audience, that discovery effect is real and KU's algorithm visibility is strong. The cost is you're exclusive and you abandon Kobo/Apple/library readers entirely. I'd start in KU, then test wide later.

@once_more_writer2mo ago

Genre decides this more than anything. Romance, litRPG, cozy mystery, fast-paced thriller, the binge genres, those readers live in KU and being wide there can mean near-zero visibility. Literary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and anything with library or international appeal does better wide. Look at where the top 50 in YOUR sub-genre actually are before you lock anything.

@seaglass_stories1mo ago

Going wide is a strategy, not just a toggle, and most people who 'tried wide and it failed' just uploaded to KDP-Wide and waited. Use Draft2Digital or PublishDrive to hit Kobo, Apple, Barnes & Noble, and library systems like OverDrive in one go, then actually merchandise: Kobo promo tabs, Apple pre-orders, library pitches. Wide rewards effort on each store; it punishes set-and-forget.

@indie_ivan1mo ago

Don't ignore the library channel when you weigh exclusivity. Going wide via OverDrive/Libby and Hoopla puts you in front of librarians and patrons who become your most loyal long-term readers and word-of-mouth engine. KU exclusivity slams that door shut. For literary and nonfiction especially, libraries can outvalue KU page reads over a book's life.

@plotholes_anonOP2mo ago

The discovery argument is the part I hadn't weighed properly. So the read-through on a borrow still counts toward rank the same way a sale does?

@lowercase_luca2mo ago

Borrows count toward your sales rank when the borrow happens, and page reads then trickle in as people actually read. So a KU-heavy launch can rank you well even if straight purchases are modest. That ranking pulls in more readers, which is the flywheel. It's genuinely why a lot of debuts start there.

@scrivener_refugee2mo ago

The 90-day term is less scary than it sounds: it's a single 90-day enrollment that auto-renews, and you can switch off auto-renew anytime and go wide at the next boundary. You are not signing your life away. What you can't do is be in KU and sell the same ebook on Kobo simultaneously, and the exclusivity is ebook-only, your paperback can be everywhere.

@foggy_chapters1mo ago

A middle path that worked for me: KU-exclusive for the first one or two 90-day terms to ride the launch and stack reviews and rank, then go wide once momentum settles and the KU bump fades. You get the best of the discovery engine early without marrying Amazon forever. Just don't yo-yo in and out constantly, it annoys the wide stores' algorithms.

@draft_zero1mo ago

Whatever you choose, mark a calendar reminder two days before your KU term renews. The number one wide-author horror story is 'I went wide, forgot KDP Select auto-renewed, and got pinged for being in KU and on Kobo at the same time.' That can get your account flagged. The term boundary is the only safe moment to switch.

@beta_reader_ben1mo ago

Money-wise, run your own numbers instead of trusting vibes. At a 4.99 price you net ~3.49 per sale in the 70% band. A full read of a 100k-word book in KU is roughly 400-450 KENP, about 1.80-2.00. So in KU you need roughly two full reads to match one sale. Whether that math wins depends entirely on how many borrows your genre generates.

@nocturne_writes1mo ago

Test it with data, not feelings. Do one full 90-day KU term, screenshot your borrows, page reads, and rank. Then if you go wide, give it a fair 90+ days too since wide builds slowly. Comparing one good KU month to one cold wide week is how people fool themselves into thinking one is obviously better.