Why I Chose Amazon KDP (For Now)

When I decided to publish my first romance novel, the choice of platform wasn’t romantic at all. It was strategic.

The short version? I’m using Amazon KDP because that’s where the romance readers are. It’s currently the most reliable way for a new author like me to reach the audience I’m writing for and actually make money doing it. Romance is one of the most-read genres in Kindle Unlimited (KU), Amazon’s subscription service, and readers there tend to read fast and often—especially when it comes to interconnected series.

But what exactly is KDP?
KDP stands for Kindle Direct Publishing. It’s Amazon’s self-publishing platform, and it allows indie authors to upload, price, and distribute their ebooks and paperbacks directly to Amazon’s massive marketplace. Enrolling a book in KDP Select gives Amazon exclusive rights to your ebook for 90 days at a time, in exchange for inclusion in KU and other perks (like certain promotional tools).

Why exclusivity—for now?
Choosing KDP Select means I can’t sell the ebook version of my book anywhere else—not on Apple Books, not on Kobo, not even directly from my website. That’s a big deal. But I’m betting that the visibility and potential payout from KU readers, especially in romance, will outweigh the limitations at this early stage. I’ll reassess down the road.

So what’s “going wide”?
“Going wide” means distributing your book through multiple retailers (like Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, and libraries) instead of just Amazon. It’s a different kind of strategy—one that usually takes more time to build momentum but offers more long-term control and diversification. Many authors move to a wide model once they have a stable reader base or want to reach more international audiences or library systems.

And yes, the Amazon part is complicated.
Like many creatives, I don’t love that I’m tied to the an ecosystem that's harmful and exploitative. Amazon’s dominance in the book world raises serious concerns—about labor practices, monopolistic control, discoverability algorithms, and more. I don’t pretend that using KDP is a neutral choice. But right now, it’s the best compromise between visibility, viability, and starting where readers already are.

A part of doing ethnographic work, for me, is to follow the community. There are lots of options out there that the authoring community takes full advantage of. But from what I've read and learned so far, Amazon is the way to establish a fanbase and make money, at least at the beginning. We'll see where this journey takes us.

This blog is part of my effort to document not just what I’m doing, but why. And to remain transparent about the tradeoffs that come with each publishing path. I’m building my author career in public, and I want to bring my audience—current and future—along for that journey.