Update

So I have decided not to renew my books in the Kindle Select program while I explore other options for distribution.  That means as the current term expires, Kindle Unlimited subscribers will no longer be able to check them out for free.

Nothing puts a target on your back like success, and I feel Amazon has been targeting the little success that all of you have helped my stories achieve.  They banned Transforming Tyler because of content when they have other comics with similar content live on the site - the only difference is that the characters in those books are straight, and my story featured a gay couple.  I reported those titles months ago just to prove the point, and they remain up for sale to this day.  Because of this decision, I pulled Shrimp of the House Volume 1 and My Twin No More, leaving only the family-friendly titles available on Amazon.

A couple months back, Amazon unilaterally pulled all the titles I placed in the Sports category because they were supposedly irrelevant.  These were the muscle growth stories, and I'll leave it to you to imagine how stories focusing on bodybuilding and weightlifting aren't sports related.  I fired off an email, linking to about half the titles in the top 50 on the Best Sellers list that had literally zero to do with sports (and I was generous in what I considered sport-related on that email).  None of those titles were dropped from the category, but they did reinstate my books.

More recently, The Iron Brotherhood: Corey had a tremendous opening week thanks to all of you.  It wasn't just a #1 New Release, it hit #1 overall in both the Sports and Everyday life categories.  Not only did it not get the Best Seller badge that all other books get when they hit #1 in a category, it didn't even receive the #1 New Release badge (except on Day 1) that my previous five titles all received.  I've been in a back and forth with them over it, and ultimately nothing came of it.

If you're familiar with publishing through Amazon, then you're aware they have three royalty rates for authors.  Those in the Select program receive less than half a cent per page read by KU subscribers.  The calculus defining what constitutes a "page" credits prose authors with approximately 2 pages for what would amount to one page in the real world.  But with picture books such as comics, One page = one page.  My KU royalty is about half what it would be if these were print stories.

The second two royalty rates are the 35% and 70% they pay out to authors when a purchase is made.  The higher rate is only available if you price your books between $2.99 and $9.99 as mine are.  However, when it comes to books with high file sizes like mine and other image-heavy books are, the payout gets reduced by a "delivery charge" if the 70% rate is chosen.  There is no delivery charge if an author selects the lower rate, and because of the delivery charge, I'm forced to choose the lower rate to make more money from my work.

The payout isn't really a huge issue for me.  That's the cost of doing business.  What I find is the problem is that Amazon is making more money off my work than it makes off other authors, and their attempts to bury those books (whether it's banning a book that's sure to be a best-seller, de-listing books to decrease exposure, or failing to promote hits and denying them the extra attention they're due) is a sign that I really need to get out of Select and broaden my market.

The sex isn't an easy sell, though.  I tried about a year ago to move into Smashwords, which would get distribution in the Apple store and Barnes & Noble among other places.  While they publish daddy-daughter incest and rape porn, Shrimp of the House Volume 1 was too much for them.  Go figure.

I'm currently looking at ComixCentral, since it looks like they accept sexually explicit work.  I'll see how it works out.  They say on the site they'll get back to you within three days, but I'm at the end of that three days, and I'm still not set up to sell, nor have they declined me.

If nothing pans out, and Amazon turns out to be the only marketplace, then my books will go back into Select, and I will continue to release them to patrons for a two week window.  Still, I hate to pull them from Select because the Kindle Unlimited program is great for readers.  Unfortunately, Amazon requires exclusivity, and that ends up being the reason books are or are not available to KU subscribers.

On a side note, if anyone has published with ComixCentral, I would love to hear about your experience.

And...just to be fair to Amazon for a moment, when they pulled my titles from the Sports category, I did notice a number of other titles I had been competing with also vanished from the category.  I have my theories as to what is going on, but I will keep them to myself since it's pure speculation on my part.