Why I added DREAM DANCER to Kindle Unlimited

I’m sure everyone is tired of my flogging for THE POMEGRANATE and I must confess, I might be a bit weary myself. I am over-the-moon excited about the pitch deck, thrilled to bits that it’s finally done, and completely anxious now that it’s been going out the door in an attempt to get it in the door somewhere. I’m networking my little heart out knowing this is a long shot but wanting to believe someone will pick it up and go, “Whoa, Nellie! This has to be made.”

Yeah, yeah, I get it.

But it’s also rather amusing that as steeped in THE POM as I am, my very first novel, DREAM DANCER, is experiencing a renaissance. People who liked The POM want to read more of my stuff. I’m getting book club requests for it as well.

I love talking about DD. It was not my first novel, but it was the first to go the distance. In the first round, back in the early 90s, I was told by several mainstream publishers that it was well written, but there was no market for a book “like that” at the time. I suppose “like that” meant it was about a strong woman who didn’t put up with shit who did her job efficiently yet found herself surrounded by a completely different set of rules for living. In fact, as an anthropologist, she’s an observer, not a participant. When she finds herself in the middle of a fight for the very existence of the people she’s observing, she struggles to define the role she does not want.

Whatever. It’s good beach-read, or so I’m told.

But here’s what happened: two of the book clubs asked if the book was available on Kindle Unlimited. Seems that when their library can’t supply a non-best seller, they turn to KU for the books. I will tell you I get paid when they read, so I’m okay with doing that. Plus, it actually reaches an audience I may not have encountered otherwise.

Yeah, yeah. I know Amazon is the Evil Empire and the destroyer of small bookstores. However, if small bookstores aren’t willing to stock your book, and the big boys only want authors with big publisher bucks behind ’em leaving us little guys to death combat for the crumbs. Electronic books are not going to go away, and as a writer, I have arrived at the tragic conclusion that places like Amazon are where my readers are found.

Am I going over to the Dark Side? No, I don’t think so. If a publisher or agent wants to take me on, I’ll consider it. Would I like someone else doing my PR and publicity? Sure. But that’s not what publishers do these days. So if I still have to do all this stuff myself, why am I giving them the lion’s share of the profit? Because they’re the big boys and their distribution is better than I could ever hope to do.

Quite the conundrum, eh?

So DREAM DANCER is back on Kindle Unlimited for the time being. And if that gets me to talk to a book club in Arizona via zoom, so be it. Like every other author, I want people to read my stuff. So, if you haven’t….give it a whirl. Who knows? You might enjoy the adventure.