Amazon is taking a new approach to publishing — a 21st century approach. With Kindle Scout, readers nominate which books are allowed to progress.
Kindle Scout is reader-powered publishing for new, never-before-published books. It’s a place where readers help decide if a book gets published. Selected books will be published by Kindle Press and receive 5-year renewable terms, a $1,500 advance, 50% eBook royalty rate, easy rights reversions and featured Amazon marketing.
So what does this all mean?
Basically, Amazon is “hiring” people to find books they like — and inevitably will sell. The “commission” to the salesperson (reader) is a free ebook. The payoff for Amazon are royalties from book sales — both direct and through the publishing contract. A big WIN-WIN for Amazon. It is also a way for your book to get noticed even if your book isn’t chosen for publication. So a slight WIN for the author as well. (or LOSS if you book isn’t good.)
How it Works
Essentially, authors submit their never-before published works to Kindle Scout. Readers nominate the top three books they consider good enough for publishing. Nominations attract the Kindle Scout team, who in turn determine if the book is publishing worthy. Campaigns run for 30 days, so the competition and number of books will change dramatically from day to day.
So how do you get nominated? The Author is required to get the word out about their book. Granted, readers will peruse the “Kindle Scout book isle” and nominate books they like — but there will be literally thousands to choose from — and you only have 30 days to get the nominations. In other words…you now have to ask (never beg, plead, or trick) people into nominating your book.
So what’s to prevent someone from just having a slew of people nominate their book? Nothing. And it could mean absolutely nothing as well…A ton of nominations doesn’t guarantee a publishing deal. It merely means your book will be noticed by the Kindle Scout team—and the KS team are the final decision makers on whether your book gets a thumbs up or not.
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