First Cup of Coffee - March 10, 2025

On the Amazon Boycott and tools for not freaking out. Also, Kindle Unlimited, pros and cons, and thoughts on how that ecosystem works, including the perils of exclusivity. Also, my very productive productivity!

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Transcript

00:01.18
Jeffe Kennedy
Good morning everyone. This is Jeffe Kennedy, author of Epic Fantasy Romance. I'm here with my first cup of coffee.

00:11.74
Jeffe Kennedy
Ah, much needed on this Monday, March 10th. Here we are starting a new week. My mom's birthday was yesterday. We'll do a double shout out. Happy birthday to you mom.

00:24.58
Jeffe Kennedy
um And then And this thing, long time listeners will know, ah you were around last year, ah that today is the sad anniversary of the passing of my stepfather of stepdad day, who are yeah, died the day after my mom's birthday last year.

00:45.22
Jeffe Kennedy
And I was there for it and it was hard. But do you believe it's been a whole year, mom?

00:53.87
Jeffe Kennedy
And as as I talk about this, there is a swarm, ah swarm of workers out building the casita. They're finishing the stucco color today.

01:07.23
Jeffe Kennedy
um yeah There are extension cords going into all kinds of external outlets on the house. One breaker we've blown like three, no, five times. Five times I was, yeah, it's just

01:25.38
Jeffe Kennedy
ah It's funny because, you know, like adopting some of the internet lingo, you know, i only do it if I feel like I can...

01:36.69
Jeffe Kennedy
say things wholeheartedly with my whole chest as it were. Um, but the, my entire personality, I was talking to someone the other day and they said, how are you? And I started talking about the Casita and they said, what is that? I was like, Oh yeah, you know, the Casita building, which is my entire personality. Now my entire personality is composed of Casita building and revising this book and signing these tip in sheets.

02:06.00
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, yeah But actually, I'm doing well. I'm feeling good, feeling strong, feeling happy. um i'm feeling energized.

02:18.28
Jeffe Kennedy
ah For those of you worried about me saying that I was going to work for the rest of March, Laura Darnell,

02:30.20
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm doing all right. I'm feeling good. And I'm really happy I did work all weekend. on a rose in the mirror and I got through, i think a total of 56 more pages.

02:45.62
Jeffe Kennedy
So it was very productive work. Yeah. 56 more pages. And, um, yeah, so that makes me really happy. I'm feeling good about that. I have 93 pages to go, maybe stuff to add, but, um, yeah, I'm, I'm just glad to have this time and i can,

03:05.85
Jeffe Kennedy
work over next weekend. if I need to, ah we will see, but I think I can finish both of these projects and then take a little time off in April and it'll be fine. Don't worry about me.

03:17.85
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, it'll all work out. It'll all work out in the end. We don't know how i always loved that about Shakespeare and love. Um, yeah yeah, I believe it's, it's feeling all right.

03:33.82
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, And then the other other thing I have to do is obviously these tip-in sheets. I didn't get any of them signed yesterday because i was doing laundry, but I got so much done yesterday. i got everything done on my household chores list, cat boxes, watering plants, all those things.

03:54.20
Jeffe Kennedy
Went down to Albuquerque, saw a friend, had a great time, ah very restorative. So so I'm and thinking this is working. I wouldn't try to do this all the time, but there is something to be said for the momentum.

04:10.49
Jeffe Kennedy
um I have never been much of a crunch writer, but I can understand why it works for people.

04:21.12
Jeffe Kennedy
ah And I don't know. i We'll see. We'll see. I'm not going to overdo. I'm going to see how I feel after I get through this c crunch. But, I might go back to writing every day, even on the weekends, even if I do less on the weekends, because there is something to be said for just keeping keeping your head in it.

04:47.68
Jeffe Kennedy
And I do have this side project I've been noodling on, so I might just noodle on that. So, yeah, feeling surprisingly energized this morning. I'm feeling great.

05:01.10
Jeffe Kennedy
I keep saying that, don't I? But I actually, did i was thinking about that during dog walk this morning. i was like, well, I actually feel really good. um So, yeah, excited to get this revision done this week and then get Strange Familiar done next week.

05:17.68
Jeffe Kennedy
And, uh, yeah, the tip in sheets I'm down to where I've got to do like five inches a day. know, five inches is a lot. Uh, so I need to get concentrated about doing that.

05:30.09
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, yeah, I don't know if that means like not maybe just listening music, maybe listening to an audio book. Um, if I finished Rose in the mirror, i could start or finish rather listening to strange familiar,

05:46.77
Jeffe Kennedy
ah and get that all in my head. Maybe that's, that will be my ah objective for next weekend. Okay. Well, we're, we're acting a little frozen here, so I'm going to see what's happening.

06:02.51
Jeffe Kennedy
going to riff a little bit. oh This is like a, I think it's a Chrome thing. I know I keep saying I'm going to install Firefox and I don't,

06:14.31
Jeffe Kennedy
um I tried to make it pause and it's not pausing. Well, let me talk more about what is going on. This revision is going great. I've got a few things I'm going to go back and backtrack on, but I'm feeling good about it.

06:33.40
Jeffe Kennedy
ah i don't know if that paused or like it went from showing three minutes and seven seconds to now six minutes and 40 seconds. So, I don't know.

06:44.59
Jeffe Kennedy
Welcome to my world. um So there is something I want to talk about. That's well, I've been talking about my writing. That's so that's definitely on topic.

06:57.15
Jeffe Kennedy
But um I do want to talk about something industry related ah because I am seeing i'm seeing panicking out there.

07:08.22
Jeffe Kennedy
Uh, there's panicking about all kinds of things. And I'm not saying that we're not living in dire and awful times with terrible news all the time, but also I've been thinking a lot about, uh, Chinese martial arts, of course, of course, aren't you?

07:25.86
Jeffe Kennedy
um you know, and that part of why these philosophies like Taoism or Buddhism or Confucianism ah were developed is, and and and and it's true of many other philosophies, but they were developed as a way of coping with a difficult world.

07:46.42
Jeffe Kennedy
Okay. And, you know, they all come back to the same thing, which is, you know, I don't want to say don't worry, be happy, but it's finding ways to maintain your equilibrium.

08:02.94
Jeffe Kennedy
So the current thing that people in my particular circles are freaking out about is the Amazon boycott. And I sort of put that in half air quotes. It's theoretically going from March 7th to March 14th, whereby we will somehow show Amazon what's what.

08:25.83
Jeffe Kennedy
and that people will not shop from Amazon, um demonstrate our power. Okay, so here's my problem. With a whole lot of these boycotts and demonstrations, um you know, people are asking, why are we not taking to the streets protesting about the national forests, about Social Security? And some people are protesting, and I think that's great.

08:51.75
Jeffe Kennedy
They're attempting to suppress protesting, which means we need to do it more. But I'm also a believer in picking your battles. um Not that we're not going to resist everything, but I think we have to take a step back and look at which things are being effectively resisted.

09:12.09
Jeffe Kennedy
Because there's a whole lot happening in the courts right now to stop Trump and his cronies from doing the very illegal things they're attempting to do. And the court system is an effective way to battle that.

09:24.73
Jeffe Kennedy
I'm not saying that boycotts don't. um i am very picky about where I spend my money. I, you know, will not shop at Home Depot. I will not shop at Hobby Lobby or Chick-fil-A.

09:37.99
Jeffe Kennedy
i I am making a huge effort. Actually, for me, quite a huge effort to shop local. Um, I, I don't go to my beloved Starbucks anymore, uh, less out of a dislike of Starbucks policies, although there are problems, but supporting local businesses, um, keeping money in the community instead of going to these oligarchs.

10:03.20
Jeffe Kennedy
So, so yeah, avoiding buying stuff from Amazon is, is a thing that we can all do. Um, The thing is, is that Amazon is a huge, sprawling conglomerate, obviously, but there are a lot of individual sellers that have taken advantage of the Amazon marketplace.

10:27.04
Jeffe Kennedy
Self-publishing exists as a viable career option platform. Because of Amazon. I feel like I'm not putting that too strongly.

10:39.24
Jeffe Kennedy
Yes, the other retail platforms have come up. um But if we had not been able to sell our books through Amazon, ah that just self-publishing wouldn't have been the option that it is now.

10:55.92
Jeffe Kennedy
So there's a lot of talk that with this boycott for the week, uh, which is going to show Jeff Bezos, I'm sorry. and I think it's going show him absolutely nothing because there's going to be, they make so much money.

11:11.14
Jeffe Kennedy
um Sure, don't spend your dollars there. Buy directly from other websites. I mean, that's something you can do is, you know, when you find something on Amazon, you can look for that seller and go buy directly from their website. or when you Google something and you want to buy,

11:28.55
Jeffe Kennedy
you like a certain kind of vitamin C maybe, you know, go buy it from a vitamin seller that you can vet instead of buying it through Amazon. It takes longer. It's not as convenient. Amazon made these things super convenient for us.

11:44.49
Jeffe Kennedy
So yeah, I mean, those are things that we can do. Part of this boycott and why people are freaking out in my circles and I, I don't mean to sound wrong,

11:56.44
Jeffe Kennedy
um unsympathetic. Okay. It's legit freaking out, but there are a lot of authors out there who derive most of their money from Kindle unlimited and the boycott is affecting them.

12:10.05
Jeffe Kennedy
And, you know, I've talked a lot on here about Kindle unlimited and part of my problems with it. One thing about it is that in order to be in Kindle unlimited, if you're an indie author,

12:26.14
Jeffe Kennedy
you have to be exclusive to them. You cannot have your books on any other retailer. So that's why we talk about that. Either your KU or your wide, you know, either you have your books in Kindle unlimited or you have them wide on every platform and not in Kindle unlimited. Uh, now the publishers get, have negotiated a different deal with Amazon and they are able to have books in KU and also have them wind and they have a different royalty percentage.

12:59.85
Jeffe Kennedy
And I know exactly what these numbers are for Macmillan because, Tor sent me a email the other day saying that they want to put never the roses in Kindle unlimited as well as wide.

13:16.06
Jeffe Kennedy
And here are the terms. And did I accept it? And I said, yes, because more readers is better. Um,

13:26.28
Jeffe Kennedy
The problem with Kindle Unlimited and has always been the problem with Kindle Unlimited is the exclusivity. um It is putting all of your eggs in one basket.

13:37.92
Jeffe Kennedy
And apparently I hadn't seen this, but i few of my author friends have been talking about it. um Having to mute people who are wide, who are being rather insufferable in this moment.

13:52.56
Jeffe Kennedy
um Doing the I told you so. I've always had my books wide and therefore I am smartier than thou. Um, and some of this comes from ah feeling that KU authors are making more money, which I don't know. Um, some are, some,

14:17.55
Jeffe Kennedy
The ones who have found their niche on Kindle Unlimited. I mean, I have a friend who makes $60,000 on release and her books are in KU. And that is amazing.

14:29.94
Jeffe Kennedy
And yes, I'm totally envious of her and ah good for her. And no, I don't make that kind of money. But then I've seen other people say things like that they make Six figures or not six figures. I'm sorry four figures. This is one I saw in particular She said she makes four figures a month on her books in Kindle unlimited and when she was wide she made like thirty dollars across all the rest of the platforms so So let's clarify because when people do figures, you know, there's a big range in there, right

15:08.04
Jeffe Kennedy
Four figures means anywhere from $1,000 to bumps five figures. So that's big spread. whenever people talk about just shy of ten thousand which bumps you to five figures so that's a big spread and whenever people talk about figures like that. When they say I make four figures, I'm going assume it's barely over a thousand dollars, which is not a sustainable living wage. I mean, it's not a stick on the eye either, but

15:44.95
Jeffe Kennedy
you know what I have found and I just pulled all of the rest of my books from Kindle Unlimited coincidentally, because their cause you have to commit to 90 days.

15:58.78
Jeffe Kennedy
Their run was up on March 7th. It wasn't, um, any kind of political choice on my part. I was already planning to pull them. They are now wide again.

16:09.27
Jeffe Kennedy
um and this is what I found. This is, I think my third or fourth experiment with Kindle unlimited. What I found was, is having my books in KU, I got really nice page reads. Um,

16:23.83
Jeffe Kennedy
I mean, not like some people, but a couple hundred thousand page reads. I mean, what's it was great. I was happy with it. I felt like I was reaching a different audience.

16:35.30
Jeffe Kennedy
um But in the end, I found that I made, in fact, I graphed it out because you know me. I found that I made as much money on Amazon having that primary series, Bonds of Magic, et cetera, series in Kindle Unlimited,

16:54.40
Jeffe Kennedy
um as I did having them just for sale, same amount of money, just on Amazon. And I found that before that it, whether my books are for sale or whether they're in KU and when they're in KU, they're also for sale.

17:12.33
Jeffe Kennedy
I make pretty much the same amount of money on Amazon. um But then didn't, Don't make any money from the other retail platforms.

17:23.21
Jeffe Kennedy
And how much is it? How much does that come to? um You know, it varies on the month, but basically each of the other retailers I will make. um I mean, Barnes and Noble is the absolute worst. I don't know why. um a lot of times I'm only making like 30 or $40 just from Barnes and Noble.

17:42.87
Jeffe Kennedy
But if I put them all together, it's probably, it's probably four figures. Yeah. but maybe just barely over. um

17:54.08
Jeffe Kennedy
And not to be, not to be unsufferable, not to do, I told you so. ah We don't know if, you know, how much impact will this boycott have?

18:07.16
Jeffe Kennedy
Will it spring back? um People talk a good game. People say they're going to boycott things and they like to do their virtue signaling. And then when you want to get,

18:18.38
Jeffe Kennedy
your one kind of vacuum cleaner bags by tomorrow because you're out and you don't want to have to run all over town, going to five different stores, trying to find type K vacuum cleaner bags.

18:30.18
Jeffe Kennedy
Then yes, you buy them from Amazon because it's so much easier. Um, boycott or not. Right. And that's really where they have us by the, by the short hairs.

18:43.38
Jeffe Kennedy
The thing about, um, Oh, and I totally lost my train of thought and I had a good wind up there and everything. ah I got so upset about the vacuum cleaner bags, which is a real life story.

18:57.10
Jeffe Kennedy
um I can't tell you how much time I used to spend looking for type K vacuum cleaner bags.

19:08.32
Jeffe Kennedy
The problem with Kindle Unlimited is that exclusivity. and yeah i certainly don't condemn anyone i don't even question the wisdom of putting everything into ku because there are a lot of authors doing very well that way and there's a certain ecosystem that has worked very well especially for newer authors because ku readers tend to read by genre and trope and they don't necessarily you don't have to work so hard to build up that author platform, but it is the danger of the exclusive arrangement. And we have talked and talked and talked about that, that if you put all of your eggs in one basket, the basket falls, no more eggs.

19:57.19
Jeffe Kennedy
Right. So, you know, we've talked about what happens if Amazon kills KU, um, they've gradually been decreasing the pool. ah There are a lot of things happening there.

20:09.79
Jeffe Kennedy
It's, I'm not saying don't have your books in KU. And I'm really sorry for, you know, people being impacted by this because, you know, it's Jeff Bezos isn't going to care, but the authors whose page reads have now crashed, it's going to be a huge impact on their lives.

20:28.71
Jeffe Kennedy
You know, that I make fun of the four figures thing and I don't mean to be snarky about that. But, you know, $1,000 for me and for you is a substantial amount of money and it is nothing to be so.

20:46.82
Jeffe Kennedy
I think we have to find different ways to fight. And I think, you know, just be careful. Don't, I'm not saying don't do KU, but it it is the peril. So, and if you go wide, it just takes time to build the audience.

21:02.54
Jeffe Kennedy
So, I'm going to go get to work. Uh, wish me luck. Hopefully by Friday, i will be still revving along and, uh, maybe done with this revision.

21:16.11
Jeffe Kennedy
You all have a great week and, uh, try not to stress. Do your meditation. Uh, go out. I mean, there's reason we say touch grass, grass, go out and, um, look at the beautiful spring weather or even the turbulent spring weather.

21:32.34
Jeffe Kennedy
Um, the moon The moon is almost full and it's gorgeous. All right. You all take care. Bye-bye.