I added something new to the site this week. You'll now see a "Buy at Kayla Stone Books" button sitting right at the top of each book's options, ahead of Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I wanted to explain what that actually is — and ask you for something in return.
When you buy through Amazon or Barnes & Noble, you're buying through their systems: their warehouses, their shipping, their return policies. It's seamless for you, and honestly, most of my sales still happen there. But when you buy directly through the site, you're buying straight from me. I'm the one packing the book and walking it to the post office myself — which is why you'll now see a small flat shipping charge added at checkout on direct orders. It's not a markup on the book. It's just what it actually costs to get a book out of my hands and into yours without a warehouse in between, and I have to cover that cost somehow.
So why would you ever choose the direct option? Mostly because it means more of the sale goes to me instead of being split with a retailer — which matters more than most readers realize for someone self-publishing. If that's something you want to do, I'm endlessly grateful. If Amazon or Barnes & Noble is easier for you, or you've got free Prime shipping sitting right there, that's completely fine too. Buy wherever works best for you. Truly. I just wanted the option — and the reasoning behind it — to be out in the open.
Because however you buy the book, there's one thing that matters more than where you bought it: the review.
I know it feels small — a few stars, a couple of sentences. But reviews are genuinely the lifeblood of a self-published book. They're what tells the algorithm, and other readers, that a book is worth showing to more people. And selfishly, there's something else riding on them too: audiobooks. The platforms and production houses that decide whether a book gets greenlit for an audiobook look hard at reviews and reader engagement before they commit to anything. Every honest review — good, bad, three sentences or ten — is a small vote toward these books someday existing as something you can listen to on a drive instead of just read on a page.
So if you've read one of my books and haven't left a review yet — on Amazon, on Barnes & Noble, or wherever you bought it — would you consider it? It takes two minutes, and it means far more than you'd guess.
Thank you, as always, for reading — and for buying, wherever you choose to.
More soon,
Kayla