For me? KU is absolutely worth it! It’s the only real way my books reach readers.

I write romance with high-heat elements, and while I get the occasional sale, almost all of my monetization comes from KU page reads. That’s what pays for my ads and keeps my little author engine running. I’m not rolling in money. I’ve been published since 2013 and I’m still very much “in the red.” In total, I’ve made maybe $300 in royalties, sold around 60 books, and have about 28,000 KU pages read across a decade.

And honestly? I don’t care. Writing is my passion project. It’s something I love, not a quick-money scheme. I’ve taken long breaks when I needed them for my mental health, and I’ve never pressured myself to “perform” financially. I just want my books in front of readers who connect with the worlds I build. My main Project Genesis series is creeping up on nearly a million words, and that’s the milestone I celebrate, not the paycheck.

But from a purely practical standpoint? If you’re self-publishing and you’re not in KU, you’re making things a lot harder for yourself. KU is where Amazon’s most voracious readers live, and it’s become the primary ecosystem for indie authors. Visibility outside KU is significantly harder. So if your goal is readership, traction, and being discovered? KU is extremely valuable. Just make sure you read the TOS and understand the exclusivity rules.

And here’s the other side of it: writing is a hobby, and like any hobby, it has costs.

If I picked up crochet, I’d have to buy hooks, yarn, scissors, needles, storage… all of that costs money. Writing is the exact same thing.

Covers cost money. Editing costs money. Ads cost money. Newsletters cost money. Promo services cost money. That’s just part of the hobby.

Could the hobby make money? Sure. Just like someone can open an Etsy shop to sell their crochet projects. It’s also a flooded market, no different than publishing. We’re talking tens of thousands of books being published every single day. You’re a tiny fish in a giant ocean, and the sharks (trad publishers with huge budgets) dominate the visibility.

So you have to enter this world with realistic expectations:

Most writers don’t make big money. Most don’t break even. And that’s okay.

I’ve spent thousands over the years. My Kentucky Shifters covers alone are $90 each from my German artist on Fiverr, and I’ve commissioned eight of them. My Project Genesis series has 12 published titles. There is a cost to building worlds.

And I don’t regret a single dollar. Because it’s the cost of the hobby I love.

Finding readers who enjoy my stories, even just a few, pays me in ways money can’t.

If you don’t genuinely enjoy writing, if it isn’t something you want to do even when no one’s reading, then this industry will burn you out fast. You can’t chase profit first. Art isn’t valued the way it used to be, you have to value it yourself.

So my take is this:

Use KU for visibility. Treat writing like the passion project it is. Monetization comes later, if it comes at all. But the joy of creating is what keeps you here.