I wish this were a blog about travelling down the mighty amazon river in a canoe, stopping to trek through the wild jungle, describing the colours, sounds, and scents of exotic plants, and animals, but no, it is a change of heart blog.

I tried going wide with my eBooks after seeing so many authors taking this route. See my blog –

Update Going Wide 16^th august 2020.

In that blog I was excited by the prospect of reaching more readers and supporting smaller businesses but really this route is for those who have long series, wish to be full-time authors, want to write as a job, for those who are prepared to spend hours advertising and analysing, or maybe writing to market. There is nothing wrong with this approach and it works for many authors, but my writing is my hobby, an outlet for my creativity. I cannot not write for writing fills me with joy.

Doing some of those dreaded analytics I’ve concluded that I reached more readers as an exclusive amazon eBook seller through kindle unlimited than I have distributing my eBook through multiple outlets. It wasn’t hard. I’ve sold three books through Draft2Digital and sixty-two through amazon in nine months. Most were the free book, but that’s not the point. Even I, not the best at analysing statistics, can see which method reaches the most readers.

I liked the idea of having one book permanently free (premafree) which cannot be done on amazon, but in some ways every book is permafree for those who sign up for kindle unlimited.

It’s hard to admit defeat, to backtrack, to realise it wasn’t the way for me, but it was important to try. I am going to accept the time and hours spent understanding a different system as a learning moment, not a waste of writing time, although that is how it feels at the moment.

I’m disappointed I’ve not been successful with supporting a distribution company, smaller bookstores, and libraries, but at least I had the right intentions.

I really wanted to leave the large dominant book seller that Amazon has become, to not support another global company, but honestly, I knew the loss of a few cents from my book sales wouldn’t make a difference to the company’s policies, or the way they treat their workers, or what the directors do with their vast income, but the idealistic side of my personality wanted to try.

I failed, but failure is not a negative creature. It is a moment for reflection, for learning, and for moving on.

I guess part of me thought amazon was too large for people to find my stories and that I would become known if I spread my books far and wide. A little naïve with only two short story collections and a middle grade book. Perhaps when I have twenty or more novels floating in the book ocean, I’ll try this approach again.

For now, it’s time to look at what is the best way to reach more readers for I am sure my books are worth reading, and I’d like to think I can make more of a difference through my writing than through abstaining from Amazon.

It’s time to be amazon exclusive for eBooks again. When ‘Intimate Lines’ and ‘The finder’ are both on amazon exclusively I will have five books with which to play the ‘free for five days’ every three months, game so my books should reach more people.

I may consider approaching some independent bookshops in the UK one day for the paperback versions.

In fact, I know of one shop I can approach with an armful of books and not be turned away.

This wonderful small shop filled with board games and independent fantasy authors books doesn’t exist in the physical sense yet, only as a young man’s dream. But I am sure it will manifest before too long.

Dreams have a habit of coming true if we believe in them enough and step towards them with confidence.