I started wide in 2011, when wide was the only option. I write mystery and paranormal women's fiction romance, not the high flyers that are running BookTok.
I have dabbled in KU and the one thing I can say is that wide requires more effort to move backlist. You don't just slap up a book and expect the money to roll in if you want to succeed wide.
Thank you for writing this. Do you mind telling us exactly where you see this data on Draft2Digital? Because I have looked all over the site and don't see anything at all. Please don't tell me I need to make an account to see it. lol I can't afford their activation fees.
It's in the Big Indie Author Data Drop, the annual report ALLi publishes jointly with Draft2Digital. Free PDF, no account, no fee. The 2025 edition states that author-reported genre matched the actual sales data by genre from Draft2Digital, and gives the top ten selling genres, with Sci-Fi fifth behind Romance, Fantasy, Mystery and Thrillers. https://draft2digital.com/blog/the-big-indie-author-data-drop/ blog post is a good entry point.
This is why context and nuance matters in conversation. Thank you for taking the time to bring the hot takes and headlines in full context with a nuanced filling.
It comes down to genre and reader psychology and consumption habits.
The overall Romance genre, for my decades, have always had a wider mainstream appeal! Thank you again for bringing us back to reality through this explaination. 👍🏾
I started wide in 2011, when wide was the only option. I write mystery and paranormal women's fiction romance, not the high flyers that are running BookTok.
I have dabbled in KU and the one thing I can say is that wide requires more effort to move backlist. You don't just slap up a book and expect the money to roll in if you want to succeed wide.
It may be less profitable now, but it's far more profitable than it was 20 years ago when I was trying to get published. I'm happy to stick with it.
Thank you for writing this. Do you mind telling us exactly where you see this data on Draft2Digital? Because I have looked all over the site and don't see anything at all. Please don't tell me I need to make an account to see it. lol I can't afford their activation fees.
It's in the Big Indie Author Data Drop, the annual report ALLi publishes jointly with Draft2Digital. Free PDF, no account, no fee. The 2025 edition states that author-reported genre matched the actual sales data by genre from Draft2Digital, and gives the top ten selling genres, with Sci-Fi fifth behind Romance, Fantasy, Mystery and Thrillers. https://draft2digital.com/blog/the-big-indie-author-data-drop/ blog post is a good entry point.
This is why context and nuance matters in conversation. Thank you for taking the time to bring the hot takes and headlines in full context with a nuanced filling.
It comes down to genre and reader psychology and consumption habits.
The overall Romance genre, for my decades, have always had a wider mainstream appeal! Thank you again for bringing us back to reality through this explaination. 👍🏾