The Self Publishing Debate: Kindle Unlimited vs Publishing Wide

There are many decisions to make when you're self publishing a book. One of the biggest is whether you'll self publish through Kindle Unlimited, the Amazon-exclusive subscription program, or publish wide through platforms like Kobo and Itch. This free-first panel features authors who have considered this decision from all angles sharing the choice they made, why they made it, and how you can choose the best self publishing route for your story. Our featured authors are Dax Murray, Drako, and KJ Harrowick.

The Self-Publishing Debate: Kindle Unlimited vs Publishing Wide is part of Storycrafting Sessions: Publishing, a one-day virtual conference hosted by the Weeknight Writers Group. Check out the full panel schedule for more information.

Our panelists

Dax Murray is a bestselling and award-winning author of revolutionary fantasy that focuses on trauma, healing, and justice with sapphic and lesbian main characters. After realizing their dream of being a curmudgeonly hedgewitch in the woods of Western Pennsylvania was not possible due to the construction of an outlet mall in their preferred wooded location, Dax took up a new form of sorcery, where they whispered to rocks in arcane languages and taught them how to spy on you, colloquially known as software engineering.

After several years of misery, Dax left that behind to join the magical order of word-placing. Today, they can be found waiting on the god (ie: cat) who has allowed them to live in their abode and use their word-magic to make others cry.

Dax studied political science, creative writing, and music at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania and is a member of the Kraken Collective. When not writing, they can be found at the Crystarium in Norvrandt.

Drako was born in 1987 in St. Louis, Missouri. He is mainly a fantasy writer, though he also writes some poetry and general fiction. He is very active on Bluesky these days as his primary social media. When he isn't writing, he's busy with hobbies in reading and playing video games. He has his own podcast and also works an editor/proof reader and a tarot reader.

K. J. Harrowick is a fantasy and science fiction author with a strong passion for twisted stories blending grimdark worlds and futurist technology. She the co-founder of the I Know Why She Stayed Initiative and Authors Against Abuse, co-founder of Writer In Motion, and a repeat panelist for the WriteHive Annual Convention and the Weeknight Writers Convention. She’s also been a contestant on the gameshow Wordcrash!

She’s cast a grimdark lens on what happens when a colony ship turns against its own passengers with her series The Hidden Flames Artifact, and she’s currently capturing reader’s hearts with her co-authored memoir I Know Why She Stayed. With an unhealthy obsession for dragons, tacos, cheese, and beer, K. J. also works as a freelance web developer and graphic designer on a broad range of client projects. Her newest novel, The Mountain and the Moon, is currently slotted to release 2026.

Our moderator

Cait Gordon is an autistic, disabled, and queer Canadian writer of speculative fiction celebrating diverse bodyminds. She is the author of the award-winning, disability-hopepunk adventure, Season One: Iris and the Crew Tear Through Space! Her short stories featuring disabled and/or neurodivergent heroes have appeared in several anthologies and will be included in her first collection, Speculative Shorts: Stories That Fell Out of My Brain (2026, Dinsdale Press). Cait twice joined Talia C. Johnson to co-edit the (award-nominated) Nothing Without Us and (award-winning) Nothing Without Us Too disability fiction anthologies. She is also the host of The Disabled Crone podcast.