So I bit the bullet and added most of my short stories back into Kindle Unlimited.

(If you have a subscription and nothing else to read, feel free to pick one of ’em up. US. UK.  I didn’t put the non-fiction title back in because that one seems to be making some random sales on other platforms so I figure I can leave it alone for now, but all the shorts are back in except for the two permafrees, but those are available in QQ1 and QQ2 respectively.)

So why go back into KU you might ask?  Especially with short stories when Amazon is now paying based on page count?

Why not?

I honestly don’t think I’ll see many if any borrows on the titles unless I start really pushing the advertising on them, which I don’t plan to do.  They’ve been out since late 2013 so not like they’re new and exciting at this point. (Although there are plenty of people out there who have yet to read them…)

And, since I don’t know when I’ll next release anything under the M.H. Lee name (I go back and forth on how to handle the novel I’ll probably release next month), there’s nothing coming out anytime soon that’ll boost visibility.

But…

I figured that the sales I was losing on the other platforms weren’t so great that I shouldn’t give it a try and see what this new KU payout looks like.  And, I will have at least one full borrow and read-through of each because I can borrow them myself.  (I’ve read and re-read the terms to confirm you can and it seems to be perfectly legal.)  So there’s that.

And, for those of you running your own self-publishing operation, I will say that I decided not to put my non-fiction titles under my other pen names in KU.  I don’t make a ton on those on other platforms, but they seem to sell nice and steady especially on Barnes & Noble and Apple whereas they really don’t on Amazon.  So it is worth experimenting and trying different combinations and approaches.  Just because a book doesn’t sell on one platform doesn’t mean it won’t on all of them.

Those non-fiction books, some which dated back to 2013 had kind of just sat there doing nothing for a year or so and then they started to pick up, so you never know.

I think the real key is to write more and improve with every story and to be flexible.  If one title or approach doesn’t work, try another and another and another until you find something that does work.

That’s my theory and I’m stickin’ to it.