I wrote a blog post a while back on eBook pricing and was surprised that a few readers took my statement “The typical KU reader (I am convinced) will not like the KITC series or the WB series. These books aren’t the droids they’re looking for” as a negative.

One reader (the lovely Sandy) on Goodreads stated, “What I don’t like is the attitude I’ve observed toward KU readers by default.”

I am confused by this and other statements assuming I was being negative about KU / KU readers. In no way shape or form was my post meant to be negative about KU. In fact, as I stated, I put the Rugby Series and the Elements of Chemistry series in KU from time to time (and they do great). None of my business decisions are based on feelings, they are all based on data.

See, I track data and trends. Here are some of the reasons the ‘Knitting in the City’ series and ‘The Winston Brothers’ series will not do well with the typical KU reader (based on data, not based on feelings).

REASON 1
The WB and KITC series books are very long. They’re typically close to 120k words. KU books (that do well) tend to be much shorter (60-90k words).
Both EOC and the Rugby series are shorter/fit into the 60-90k words category.

REASON 2
The covers for WB and KITC are weird. I know this because I designed/made them myself. KU titles that do well do not have weird covers. They have more traditional looking covers. (So, not women with mustaches or bearded cross-stitch).
Both EOC and the Rugby series have traditional looking covers; I know because I designed and made them that way.

REASON 3
Both “New Adult” and “Sports Romance” do really well in KU. 90% of the top 100 books in “Romantic Comedy” category are not “classical” romantic comedies (like WB or KITC). They are new adult, sports romance, billionaire books, step brother books, etc. and they are also enrolled in KU.

There are other reasons/factors, but I’d prefer not to share them. I’ve been tracking and mining data for 18months on KU. I gather information regarding rankings, rating, cover design, categories, etc. and analyze monthly. I spend time doing this to help me make business decisions. I hope you can understand that I wouldn’t want to make all this time/effort/knowledge public. <3

For better or for worse, data has shown that the typical contemporary romance KU user (not all, just the typical) enjoys short books, new adult, sports romance, billionaire, and step brother romance with traditional covers. <— DATA TELLS ME THIS! DATA!!!! You can’t argue with data.

My decisions are based on quantitative data, not on feelings about readers in KU. I love readers in KU. In fact, I LOVE ALL READERS!!! I’d have to be an idiot to dislike readers, since I sell books . . . to readers . . . O.o

As I stated above, none of my business decisions are based on feelings. But all of my writing decisions are based on feelings. So I guess it evens out. 🙂

I hope this helps. Best, Penny