Hi friends!
If you’ve been on my blog for a while, you may have noticed that things are looking a bit different, lately. With one noticeable change — I’m no longer releasing Escaping the Devil chapters, nor are they available for viewing on this blog. Don’t worry, I’m still writing the story and I still plan on publishing them someday!
I just didn’t want to continue publishing them on the blog.
The reason? Well, there’s a few.
For starters, I think it ended up being more stress than it was worth.
Don’t get me wrong, I love sharing chapters episodically with you guys, but in order to make my content schedule work (including writing other books, and other content for this blog), I had to write multiple stories at once. It may not seem like a big deal, but as someone whose brain works linearly, it’s really hard for me to separate one story from the other (which is also the same reason I can’t read more than one fictional book at once). I felt stressed out, and felt like my writing was suffering because of it.
I didn’t see a lot of interest in that particular story, either. I don’t doubt that it’s a good story. I don’t doubt that once it’s released it will earn interest. I just don’t think that this blog was the appropriate platform for its release. Simply put, I wasn’t earning the traffic I would have liked for a story I was releasing for free.
Next is the question of my future publishing plans: do I want to release it on Kindle Unlimited, or “go wide” with it?
While I’m leaning toward the latter, I still want to keep my options open for the future. If I elect to publish the story on Kindle Unlimited, there’s a high likelihood that Amazon will find the chapters I released for free and blacklist my book from their platform (if you’re involved with the bookish community, you’ve likely seen similar things happen to other authors).
It’s not just Escaping the Devil, either. I’m dropping Vella.
At least, I’m removing Grim Tide. For a while, it was an earner, but that was purely because Amazon was desperately trying to make “fetch” happen. After the initial push, the earnings dwindled away to nothing. And driving traffic to Vella was almost impossible. I’m convinced the platform works — but only for people who already have readers who are on Vella. I, alas, was not that person. The only way I was able to gain any revenue was to participate in what could be called a “like for like” style Facebook group, where you ultimately spend more money on keys to like other authors work than you earn based on their engagement.
All in all? Not worth it. For me.
I’d much rather take those books and put them on Kindle Unlimited.
Don’t worry, it’s not gone for good.
If you would like to support me privately, and still receive episodic updates, I’m going to be hosting everything on my Patreon. It’s far less stressful for me to keep track of one platform. Besides, I like the ability to interact more personally with you guys. I feel like I’ve been doing an awful lot of “selling my soul” to the grind this past year, and I really miss being more authentically myself on my platforms.
What will I be posting on Fridays, now?
Well, I’m glad you asked! I’m looking forward to hosting other authors, bookstagrammers, service providers, etc. (If you’d like to be featured, fill out my google form!) Basically, anyone who is involved in the bookish community. I founded my platform with the express intention of cultivating a supportive community for writers and readers, and I intend to return to that.
This past year was hellish for me. I haven’t been particularly shy about discussing mental health and advocating for being kind to yourself during the hard times. But the reality is, I haven’t been. It took losing my Nana at the end of March for me to realize that I needed to really return to my roots and keep doing what I love.
If I never earn enough from book sales to sustain myself and my family? That’s fine. I’d rather keep doing something I love than continue to run myself into the ground by turning my life’s greatest passion into something I hate.
Oh, you can also look forward to a bit more personal blogs! But yeah, there’s my update. I’ll see you on Wednesday!
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Ivy Whitaker 