TLDR: My books are moving to KU in January 2026. My books will still be available in public libraries. I hope the move will lead to more time for writing and other creative pursuits.
Once upon a time, before smart phones were ubiquitous, I was a young mama and lived in Vicksburg, Mississippi. My baby, who years later would be diagnosed with central auditory processing disorder, needed quiet to both nurse and nap. Being a new mama was isolating. Being far away from family was isolating. I craved connection and found it through reading. I read while I nursed my baby. I read after she fell asleep on the Boppy pillow. I learned to turn the pages very, very quietly. My daughter had a very specific “how dare you” cry whenever noisiness intruded on her meal or nap.
I read a lot of books, and all of them came from the public library. I kept a running list of the books I’d read and enjoyed on my personal blog. Reading and and to a lesser extent Mississippi Public Broadcasting (which didn’t even have programming after 10 AM, just classical music with a break for Robyn Young on Hear and Now at noon and then more classical music until the evening commute) was my only window to the outside world. My public library was my life raft. Books were the piano I clung to in the choppy waters of new motherhood (and yes this is a reference to this music video. Baby Girl became a Swiftie shortly before Midnights came out, and I came along for the ride).
I love public libraries. I feel strongly about the importance of public libraries. When I started publishing it was very important to me to have my books available in public libraries. This meant “going wide,” and publishing my eBooks on all the platforms. Not hard work, but certainly more work than existing exclusively in Amazon’s ecosystem. Except that learning to thrive in each individual publishing sphere requires specific marketing strategies and work and learning curves and knowledge of that sphere’s emerging trends and best practices.
And I’m a writer. My talent shines when I write. Not so much when I’m doing marketing and business analytics. I only have so much time, and writing takes time. So does marketing. So does researching. So does business management.
I’ve had my books available wherever eBooks are sold for four years now because that was the way to make them available in public libraries. But this year, Amazon changed their rules, and is allowing concurrent library access for titles that are enrolled in Kindle Unlimited. The vast majority of my sales are on Amazon. The vast majority of my reviews are on Amazon. And now Amazon says I can have my cake and eat it too?
In the 16 years since I became a mommy, reader preferences have changed mightily. Case in point, by the time I was rocking my second baby to sleep, I was doing so with a Kindle paperwhite in my hand. If I was a new mommy now, in 2025, would I be as reliant on my library card or would I have a subscription to KU? I don’t know. I know that I still want my books in libraries for the same reason I want to write closed-door books–it’s a way of honoring who I was and the work I did in a very lonely, tough season of my life.
So for 2026, I am moving my books into Kindle Unlimited. There are a few reasons for giving this a try, but the main one is that I’d like to spend more of my focus in 2026 on writing and less on business management and marketing. When the words are wording, I can write 10,000 in a week. At that pace, I could potentially write six books in a year. That’s as many books as I currently have published. And to be clear, I don’t plan on publishing six books in 2026 or writing 10,000 words every week. I’m hoping to find more time for reading, exercise, and other worthwhile pursuits (needle crafts, organizing bathroom cupboards so things don’t fall out of them, chopping and cooking vegetables, graphic arts, My Pet Pretty Princess Pony app development, painting my daughter’s room a different, more sophisticated shade of pink). But what if I could publish three books this year… what if I could finish the drafts of all the projects I’ve pushed into the dravision stage? What if I could polish and post the epilogues to all my fairy tales?
My focus as an author often feels like a web browser with dozens of open tabs. I’ve opened so many this year, that I’ve reached a point where I need to close some of them and focus in on one window. Moving my books over to KU means I could X-out of the Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, and Google Play tabs and all the marketing and research associated with them. I’m hoping it will lead to more time and more focus for writing, and I’m willing to give it a year and collect some data to see if it it’s true.
There are a few other reasons for trying KU. I write closed-door romances, which has been a popular genre on KU. Historically, Kindle Unlimited readers have been more likely to leave ratings and reviews, and I’d like more ratings and reviews on my books because rumor has it, magic starts to happen with algorithms when you reach a certain number. Kindle Unlimited shares page read data with me, the author, and this makes me happy. Because I want readers to not just buy, but read my books.
If you are morally opposed to books on Amazon, I see you. I hope you’ll consider requesting my books at your local library. If you were hoping to read my books for free on Kobo+, you still have time. I’m not moving my titles until January 2026. If you are wanting to use credits/giftcards on your preferred platform, you can buy my book now and read them whenever you have a spare moment. They won’t vanish from your personal library just because they’re no longer available for purchase on those platforms.
And with my books in Kindle Unlimited, you don’t have to read them there. You will still be able to buy the eBooks outright on Amazon, no subscription required.
(Many thanks to my talented, amazing niece, who created original art for this blog post. Thank you, sweetie! I won’t use your name, but I hope to be more like you in the new year–creating lots and lots of art and having lots and lots of fun in the process.)