Book Marketing Tips and Author Success Podcast
Ready to supercharge your author journey? Join bestselling author and book marketing maven Penny Sansevieri and savvy publishing insider Amy Cornell for lively, no-nonsense conversations filled with smart strategies, creative inspiration, and publishing know-how you can actually use.
Whether you’re self-published, traditionally published, or somewhere in between, this podcast delivers real-world advice to help you sell more books, build your platform, and thrive in the ever-evolving publishing landscape. From clever promo hacks to critical industry insights, each episode is designed to move the needle on your success.
Fresh ideas. Actionable tips. Unfiltered talk.
If you’re serious about your author career, hit subscribe and tune in—your next big breakthrough could be one episode away.
Book Marketing Tips and Author Success Podcast
Navigating Kindle Unlimited's Page Read Decline
The growing chorus of authors reporting mysterious declines in their Kindle Unlimited page reads has sparked anxiety throughout the indie publishing community. But before you panic about your own KU numbers, this episode dives deep into what's really happening behind the scenes.
Penny and Amy explore the multifaceted reasons behind fluctuating page read counts, from seasonal shifts and algorithm changes to subscription saturation and increased competition from AI-generated content. They challenge the dangerous "set it and forget it" mentality that leaves authors vulnerable to Amazon's ever-evolving ecosystem.
What makes this conversation particularly valuable is the strategic alternatives they offer. The duo is also doing a deep dive in Amazon's recent Kindle Unlimited policy changes, which is an exciting development for authors!
Whether you're all-in on Kindle Unlimited, considering enrollment, or deliberately staying wide, this episode provides critical perspective on navigating Amazon's subscription service with eyes wide open. Subscribe to the podcast for more insider insights on book marketing strategies that actually work in today's publishing landscape.
📱Text Penny & Amy: send us your show feedback, burning marketing questions and new topic ideas!
Text the word PODCAST to (888) 402-8940 to sign up to send us messages and receive occasional announcements when we release really time-sensitive episodes. And don't forget to save our number!
Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts!
- Be sure you're following the show: by clicking the + Follow button on the top right of our show page. If you're already following you'll see a ↓ downward arrow.
- Locate Ratings & Reviews: Scroll down on our podcast page until you find the "Ratings & Reviews" section.
- Rate the podcast: Click on the stars to give the podcast a rating.
- Write your review: Under the star rating there will be the most recent review and just below that click "Write a Review" and compose your review in the text box that appears.
- Save: Once you've written your review, click "Save" to submit it.
Can't use Apple Podcasts? Email us your review and we'll put it on our website: info@amarketingexpert.com.
Hello and welcome back to the Book Marketing Tips and Author Success Podcast. This is Penny Sanseviery and Amy Cornell, and we are very excited to be back for another Friday show, and today we're talking about Kindle Unlimited, which is always kind of I mean, kindle Unlimited, I realize, is kind of a good news, bad news thing for a lot of authors. Some authors really love it. Some authors really love it, some authors really hate it. But it's definitely defined a lot about how Amazon operates and having your books in Kindle Unlimited potentially can open you up to you know a lot. You know to a group of readers that you may otherwise have had a hard time reaching. The challenge is and we saw this, this is another idea that actually came from Reddit the challenge is is that a lot of authors have been seeing and not it's this is not everybody all at once, but incrementally a decline, a kind of limited page read decline.
Speaker 2:And, amy, you spotted this on Reddit that a lot of authors were kind of complaining about this, right, yeah it seems to be a pretty hot button issue on Reddit right now the decline in page reads, page read drop-offs. A lot of authors are talking about it. I will say that from what I read and that's kind of why we wanted to do the show is that based on the conversations I was seeing them having? Is that a lot of it centered around? It came out of nowhere?
Speaker 2:I've done the same thing since the beginning and that's kind of like the tricky part right there, right Like I've been doing the same thing since I put my book into KU and all of a sudden things are changing and they wanted to know why. They wanted to know who else was experiencing it, all these other things, and so that's kind of what piqued my interest is that, especially when people say, well, I've been doing the same thing over and over again and now things are changing, and it's like that's pretty typical in publishing. Actually, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We very much always talk about like very little in authorship, in author branding, in growing your business as an author is set it and forget it and we use that phrase all the time when we do shows across topics that very.
Speaker 2:It's not very often that you just get to be done with something and you know for those of you listening that are going, oh great, Sorry, Right, Not trying to stress you out, but the reality is you are appealing to real, everyday people with changing interests, with the trends in the industry change. There's so much going on. It's such a fun, interesting, dynamic industry, but to stay competitive in it, you need to also remain interesting and dynamic, and so that's what kind of led to let's chat about this and talk about ways to remain interesting, dynamic and competitive. If you have your books in KU or you're interested in putting your books in KU, just so you can be prepared.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly, and this is you know. And again, this is not a, because we've done a lot of Amazon warning shows and I think we did one just a couple weeks ago. But this is not an Amazon warning show, this is a. This is kind of what happens with Kindle Unlimited. This is the ebb and flow, shall we say, of the Amazon ecosystem and it does change Amazon ecosystem and it does change. So part of it is that.
Speaker 1:So we had an author who said that who writes, this author writes in a couple of different genres and on the one hand, one side of her library just really picked up and her other side kind of dropped off. Seasonally this happens, right, so seasonally people become like. For example, starting in July, I had a lot of books presented to me in the algorithm at Amazon that were about Hallmark Christmas books. Apparently, amazon knows I'm a target. I don't know how they know. They know that I'm a target for these feel-good, like Hallmark, holiday-ish type books. So a lot of that happens. The A10 algorithm, amy, I think, because we actually did a show on the A10 algorithm. The A10 algorithm really wiped out a lot of. I mean, it changed. I don't want to say that it wiped out a lot of books, but it really did change visibility for a lot of authors.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, and I think it's kind of I mean, I know, when you and I have spoken about other things, I've said this before, but I really do think it applies here as well that it's kind of like, when you go get blood work out of nowhere, like unless you get blood work every month religiously and you really track everything I'm one of those people that's pretty convinced that if you randomly go in to get blood work, or even if it's scheduled, whatever, but you only do it a couple times a year, there's always a chance you're going to see things that are potentially a little concerning or that you weren't expecting and all this stuff.
Speaker 2:But it's like, but yeah, but if we check them regularly and track things regularly, maybe we would see these kind of ups and downs and shifts and changes. But if you're not doing that and you show up one day and start looking at some of your stats or your back-end data, you're going, oh my gosh, this looks terrible. You know, maybe it was terrible a few months ago too, but then it picked up again. Right, Maybe it's always been terrible again, just setting something up and assuming everything's great until it gets really bad and not actually tracking that. There are, as you said, pretty natural ebbs and flows to these kind of things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly, and you know, some of it can be so. So I think, I think the tracking is always a good. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to know, because the page read math is. I feel like the page read math is a little convoluted and oftentimes ridiculous. It seems like it's a ridiculously low and then you total it up and you're like, oh okay, well, that makes a lot of sense. So, but tracking you know, just making a note and just tracking is also really important Because as you continue through your author career, you'll start to see trends Like oh yeah, you know what In January I know that my book's really January is not a great month, so maybe I'm going to pull back on the ads, maybe that's not really my season, but come February, march, april, things start to really pick up again, right.
Speaker 1:February, march, april, things start to really pick up again, right. So subscription saturation I mean, I think that there is something to that. So Amazon really does push the Kindle Unlimited a lot, right. Amazon likes that Kindle Unlimited subscriber because they get that monthly fee and then these readers have access to all these books. But there is something to this, you know, a subscription saturation where I don't notice necessarily that there are so many more people signing up for this subscription, which then you know by the same, you know in the same vein, same vein would say well then, you're going to get a lot more readers to your you know, you're a lot more people picking your book out of Kindle Unlimited.
Speaker 1:There is a saturation of title problem and I think a lot of this not a lot, but some of it could potentially go back to the AI-generated books which you know we talked about and we refer to this person now as ChatTPT guy who was going to write 50 books nonfiction, for which he has no expertise, just using ChatTPT, which makes me want to tear my hair out, right, right. So to some extent those could potentially be factors. There could be a saturation of similar titles, so new releases that just flooded the marketplace and all of a sudden now you're seeing kind of a drop off. So there's a lot of different things that it could potentially be before you go in and you panic Like, oh my gosh, the Kindle Unlimited be before you go in and you panic like, oh my gosh, the Kindle Unlimited. But the other thing, amy, you and I talked about this too, the green room is that you know, having all of your books at Kindle Unlimited is not a really solid strategy either.
Speaker 2:No, I mean, it's like and I love this example it's like keeping your entire retirement fund in one stock. Yes, right, Exactly, you're relying on one element to do essentially all of your sales for you, which just blows my mind, and so I think it's definitely one of those situations too. Again, we get it. We work with new authors all the time, and so we fully respect that. There is a lot going on. It takes a lot to write the book, and then you have the production and then it's out there, and then it's time to market it, which I realize is not everybody's favorite, and it just seems like there's always something to be doing, and so I can totally understand the appeal of KU. It's like, yes, please take this screaming baby off my hands and make it awesome, make sure everybody reads it. I love that idea, let's do that, but the reality is that is not going to carry you forever, and it's certainly not going to carry you by using that strategy with every single one of your titles.
Speaker 1:Right, right, Exactly. So I think that being you know, and here's the thing Kindle Unlimited we actually did a show on Kindle Unlimited. Kindle Unlimited, specifically Kindle Unlimited if used correctly, can be a really great way to introduce your readers to your brand and or your series, right? So putting the first book in a series, for example, in Kindle Unlimited, is a great way to introduce readers to the storyline, right To you as an author. Fabulous, okay. But I also think that it's a matter of knowing.
Speaker 1:So Kindle Unlimited and you alluded to this in what you were saying is Kindle Unlimited is kind of a. It feels like it's an easy way to get a bunch of readers. Like I'm just going to put my book in Kindle Unlimited and let Amazon kind of figure it out, right, Right, Amazon's not going to figure it out, Like, that's not. Amazon is not there to help you sell your book, they're just there to offer you a platform that will hopefully sell your book, right? So I think also knowing whether or not your book is Kindle Unlimited material is really smart. And here's a tip too. So my books are in Kindle Unlimited, and that is not the norm necessarily for nonfiction, but I have my books in Kindle Unlimited because the readers, because of the demographic of the reader, right so, but I don't have them. I don't have it automatically renewed, so every 90 days I have to go back in there and decide if I want to have the book in Kindle Unlimited. So that's.
Speaker 1:The other thing, though, too, is that you could dip your book in and out of Kindle Unlimited. Here is something that I get pushback from authors on all the time when Amazon says that your book has to be exclusive with Amazon in order to be in Kindle Unlimited, that guidance does not follow your print book, so your print book can be everywhere. Your e-book, if you are in Kindle Unlimited, should only be on Amazon, although Amazon's making changes and we're going to cover that in a minute Um, and Amazon does sell the lion's share of e-books. I want to say, depending on genre, Amazon sells between 90 and 95 percent of all e-books out there. So, having it exclusive or not, Amazon's going to be your best source, right? But I mean, Amy, there was another idea too. You know. So, instead of putting your entire backlist in Kindle Unlimited, going wide Now. Going wide, if you're not familiar with that term, means having your book on all of the platforms, which absolutely, you can definitely do that and then having one book in Kindle Unlimited, exclusively Amazon.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, I mean, I think that that's just it, and it's another one of those things that we wish we could tell you that this is exactly how to do it and it works for everybody every time. Unfortunately, that's not the case. That's not how this works. That's really not how those things that we wish we could tell you that this is exactly how to do it and it works for everybody every time. Unfortunately, that's not the case. That's not how this works. That's really not how anything works, right, honestly. But that is another way to approach this to where you are, hopefully by going wide, generating a lot of additional exposure. Like you, are literally tapping into every potential opportunity to find readers on different platforms, even if the percentage of readers that use that platform is smaller. You know we're big on quality over quantity, so maybe that'll work for you, you know.
Speaker 2:So be selective about what you do with each book and not just fall into a trap of. This is how I do things and everything has to be the same, and I loved that you mentioned, penny, that you don't auto-enroll, because I was thinking, at minimum, yes, assess whether or not it's still working for you, but at minimum you have a built-in reminder to check on your data, your stats, all that kind of stuff. You know what I mean. So at minimum every 90 days you are re-evaluating how your books are performing. So, again, you have a much better idea of when things do ebb and flow and what is a normal.
Speaker 2:You know amount of ebbing and flowing for your titles. So you don't you know, if you show up once a year and realize like, oh my gosh, like the time that you're checking, like this isn't working, you know again that that's not a really great, that's just a very small snapshot, you know. So getting that reminder every 90 days about re-upping should be a great like trigger to say, okay, I'm going to check my numbers, I'm going to see how things are going, and then you have a better idea every 90 days how things are actually happening. And then you can make more strategic, smarter decisions about what's working and what's not, versus having knee-jerk reactions because of what things may be showing you at the time that you decided to pop in there and check. You know when it's not consistent.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly, and I also think look, don't feed into the panic. So it's very and we see this panic on social media. We certainly. You know some guy goes onto Reddit and posts like oh my gosh, my Kindle Unlimited. You know, page rates have just plummeted off a cliff, and then everybody chimes in, and then everybody starts to panic. Before you panic well, maybe before you panic you should be tracking, because the tracking will help you to not to not be like oh, this is just, this is just kind of a seasonal thing. But the other thing that I think is and we talk about this a lot, and I'm going to, amy and I are going to kind of fire these ideas off at you and refer back to some other shows, because we don't want to take up time in this particular show with each of these individual things, but we've covered these in depth. So relying solely on Kindle Unlimited to sell books for you not a good strategy. Not tracking all the things also not a good strategy. A really good strategy, though, is to engage directly with readers. We did a whole show on this.
Speaker 1:An algorithm shift can wipe out your visibility overnight, and, again, this is not to like send panic into the hearts of everybody listening. But sometimes it happens and it does come back Like it's not you know, and Google does this. So Amy and I have conversations many, many times about our website and, like every time Google changes an algorithm, we're like, oh my God, where's our site gonna come up? One of the things that we have learned through the years, mostly of me panicking is that if you do all of the right things, if you continue to do all the right things, an algorithm shift may impact you for a little bit, but it's not necessarily going to wipe out all your hard work. Exactly Right, yep. Exactly Right, yep.
Speaker 1:As we love Amazon like we get it, it has offered a tremendous opportunity to authors. You really want to have that direct connection to readers. So letter in the back of your book, all the things connecting with finding ways to connect with readers. In fact, we did a show I think it dropped last week. I get kind of confused with the way sometimes that our calendar shifts, but where we actually talked about you know, ways to directly connect, to better directly connect with your readers. If we didn't do it last week, it was a couple weeks ago, but it's definitely been this year. We have five years worth of shows, so definitely go back and take a look at some of those. Amy, sorry, what did I forget?
Speaker 2:Because I know I was just going to say it just makes a big difference because it's already come up a couple times in the show, but it's worth reiterating Amazon lots of opportunities, like you said, penny. I think that was perfect. Amazon presents a lot of opportunities, but it can't, it's not going to be what sells your book to somebody shopping, oh for sure. So all the things that you do for your brand, you know, having a reader magnet, reader magnet, high quality one we've talked about that before too Bonus chapters, all the fun things, quizzes, checklists, all the other things that show that you are dedicated to the reader experience, make a big difference Because a lot of readers, especially when they're new to an author they may have found your book in KU.
Speaker 2:They are going to check you out. They're going to see if you're on social. They're going to see if you have a website. You know what I mean. They're going to see if you're on social. They're going to see if you have a website. You know what I mean. They're going to try to get a feel for what it is.
Speaker 2:You're all about what you offer, what your other titles are, things like that, and so that can does affect how much they are going to enjoy reading that title and, yes, that may not be fair, but we're all human, you know what I mean and the entire experience that they have with both your brand and your title matters.
Speaker 2:So making sure that you are backing up what you're putting out there with a brand that shows that you have them in mind and that you are putting in the effort and that you are being thoughtful really does make a huge difference. Because having a great website or having a fun reader magnet or having a really engaging social media presence if you're nonfiction, if you offer a lot of extra tips and recommendations and things like that when they start reading your book, they already have an elevated opinion of who you are as an author and what you can offer them, and that is priceless, you know. Yeah, yeah, it can absolutely change their experience with that title based on all the other things that you put out there for them to experience that are connected with you. So really don't take that for granted.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that is very true, and I think and I probably should have mentioned this earlier and then we want to get into just a change that Amazon is making to Kindle Unlimited. But don't put your weakest book in Kindle Unlimited. I know this goes without saying, I get it. But if your first book is like oh you know, I was still learning a lot, my first book isn't strong enough, but as the series goes on it gets much better, here's the problem with that your read-through is going to be terrible. So putting your first book in Kindle Unlimited even if it's not in a series it could just be the first book you know that you wrote under your brand.
Speaker 1:Putting a first book in a series is a great way to bring readers into your library or the series, the book series, whatever. If the first book is the weakest of all of its little siblings, that's going to really wreck your brand. So that's another thing to consider too. Is that— that's a—yes I love that. Well, because you know, and if you're tracking, like if you're tracking, if you're keeping track of—and we're not asking you to do the math here but you want to see what your read-through rates are. So are people you know reading through, like people reading your first book that's in Kindle Unlimited from start to finish, and then you're seeing, you know, spikes in sales to your other books. That's a great sign. But if your book in Kindle Unlimited is not helping your other books, that's a problem.
Speaker 2:Right, and, penny, we. So I'm glad you mentioned that, because now I'm going to say something that's going to make a few people fall off their chairs. But it's true, if you are writing in a genre that is really primed for Kindle Unlimited that you know has a track record of being popular in Kindle Unlimited, but you're just not seeing things come together it might be worth and to Penny's point about having a really stellar book for them to engage with you with initially in Kindle Unlimited, if you write a series or anything like that, it might be worth revisiting does that first book. Because, again, if you've been writing for a while it could be a few years since you wrote that, it could be a decade, you know what I mean it might be worth revisiting that book and jazzing it up a little bit. And we've worked with clients that have done that, yeah, that have gone back through and given their first book some love. Because, again, you are a different person, you evolve as an author.
Speaker 2:I think most authors, as they continue to write, also become more engaged fans of their genre too, penny.
Speaker 2:So they may not have started off that way, but those that are really dedicated really do start to better understand how readers respond, what they're looking for, all those things, and that could absolutely play a role in making some key updates to that original title, to that first book in a series or that one book that you know is your best option to get people engaged with you.
Speaker 2:It might be worth considering going back and seeing if there's something you can do, especially at the beginning. Like you said, penny, if you really don't catch their interest at the onset, you're going to lose them, right? So maybe it's just a matter of reworking the first part of the book or something, but truly I know that sounds like a huge project. But again, if you are writing it for in a genre that is really primed for Kindle Unlimited you have a lot of potential opportunity there Then it might absolutely be worth revisiting if you can make any tweaks to that book to better engage people and get them more interested in what you have to offer from the onset with just a few simple tweaks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with that, and that's you know, and I'll tell you something as an author myself, that's a really hard conversation to have with yourself. It's like, oh, this book failed and why did it fail, or why did it? You know, it doesn't have to be an outright failure, it could just be. It just didn't, you know, match the expectations of maybe other books that you have out there.
Speaker 2:Asking yourself those solid, not easy questions is a really great way to be successful, frankly right, absolutely Any author that we, like you know household name has had to have that conversation. For sure, nobody is immune to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have an author who revised all of her covers because she, you know, looked at them and she's like you know what, these really aren't strong enough for this particular genre. You know, those conversations are not easy to have with yourself, like I failed the first time, but I think that it's kind of like failing up right, so you figure out what went wrong. We always learn as we go. Was my book, my first book 25 years ago? Whatever as good as a book that I write now 10,000%? It's not right, because we learn as we go.
Speaker 2:And also.
Speaker 1:You know things older books, things change, language changes, topics, you know, morph and grow, and so sometimes it's a really good idea just to take a look and see what can be. You know what can be fixed. Now Kindle Unlimited and this is a change, and y'all may have already heard about this, but Kindle Unlimited is now allowing you to have your books served in libraries, so it's no longer saying your e-book has to be exclusive just to us. We have all rights technically selling rights to the book. Now it's allowing you can have the book stocked in libraries, which is great news. I know that's crazy cool. You can have the book stocked in libraries, which is great news. I know that's crazy cool. It's very, very cool. I also think, though, that it is a sign of changes to come.
Speaker 1:Kinlow Limited has and not without, you know, it's not without merit Kinlow Limited has faced a lot of backlash in the publishing industry because of the exclusivity that Amazon demands for the e-book, so I think that this is a. I think this is a really good step in the right direction. I'd like to see more Like. I don't think that, given Amazon's dominance in e-books, I just really do not see why Amazon is not allowing you to sell your e-book everywhere, and I feel like that's going to be next. Maybe not this year, but I feel like that's going to be next.
Speaker 1:Amazon, if you're listening, you dominate the e-book industry. What are you so afraid of? I mean literally, because I think that would you know, because the conversations, when I have conversations with authors about Kindle Unlimited, they're like well, I don't want my book to be exclusive to Amazon because I want to be able to sell my e-book everywhere, and that's fair. And even if you, even if I toss out the numbers and the sales that Amazon does, you know, with your, with you know the majority of e-books that are sold through Amazon, they're like nope, I still want to sell my e-book everywhere, that's fair. I think Amazon needs to just bow to that and be like you know what? We're still dominant, whatever, mm-hmm, you know.
Speaker 2:Yep, no, I think this is good. I think we've done a few shows this year that show promise that Amazon is finally starting to put more effort into giving their authors some additional opportunities. You know they're trying to shake things up. It was getting stale for a little bit, but between you know Goodreads and this, and you know there's a few other things going on, I think I'm going to stay positive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with you. I think that you know we've given it. We have not been very kind to Amazon always on these calls, only because we feel like sometimes they treat authors like these little unwanted stepchildren, which is unfair, because, you know, 25-plus years ago, amazon built their foundation on authors because that's the first thing they offered was books. So it's time. It's time to make some really positive changes and as these changes start to evolve think in positive, maybe even this year or in 2026, we will be here to report on them. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:By the way, we want to mention that we are going to be doing very, very soon. There's going to be an opportunity to text us. I'm really excited about this. Amy has been developing this. She's so smart and we are working with the provider to give you the opportunity to text us, either show feedback or a question, and it's going to be super easy to do and the information will all be on the platform. So we're very excited about that. Hopefully, in the next few weeks we'll have that rolled out, but I'm really, really thrilled about that. The other thing that I want to say is thank you to you those of you who are listening. That's about the reviews. We are at 98 ratings and reviews.
Speaker 1:So, so close. I know know we're so close, so get us over the top of the end of the year, guys. We're really, really, really excited. Thank you all so much for listening. We appreciate you. We appreciate your ideas and your show feedback. Pretty soon you're going to have a much easier way to deliver those to us. Thank you so much for tuning in. We'll see you next Friday. Bye-bye.
