[Publisher] Amazon Kindle Scout

As opposed to just self-pubbing it and receiving 100% of the royalties. And maintaining print rights.

I'm sure there's more to it than that but so far, meh.

Has anyone submitted to this?

this might be of relevant

http://www.kboards.com/index.php?topic=213112.150
Kindle Scout experiences, anyone?


http://www.kboards.com/index.php?topic=214231.0
Analyzing Kindle Scout

Amazon has, apparently, published only 21 books through the Kindle Scout program so far: http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-eBooks/b?node=11048035011&ref_=ks_sel_hd

May 7 2015

As I write this, the ranks of the books are:

1904
2354
3515
5779
5874
7781
6628
9081
13214
15022
16613
18762
23715
23929
24912
32587
38716
88601
107465
145819

Mean rank: 28,293
Median rank: 15,022




and



July 14 2015

They have 46 titles right now


#1,049
#1,088
#1,572
#2,733
#3,284
#3,818
#4,718
#4,921
#5,373
#6,083
#14,464
#15,059
#16,839
#19,264
#24,969
#30,776
#36,928
#42,319
#43,735
#44,159
#51,581
#66,935
#69,927
#76,449
#90,895
#93,024
#114,371
#117,546
#117,518
#129,527
#171,222
#176,762
#211,416
#214,081
#243,644
#297,434
#351,240
#401,518

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Estimation of Kindle ebook ranking and sales per day
https://davidgaughran.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/sales-rank.jpg

The best way to see if this work for you is look at the books that have been published through this program.

http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-eBooks/b?node=11048035011&ref_=ks_h_hr_pb

Judging from the reviews and sales ranks, there are many successful books.
On the other hand, there are some failure also.


https://kindlescout.amazon.com/about

Kindle Scout gives authors an opportunity to kick-start their books and potentially earn a Kindle Press publishing contract - in 45 days or less.

Kindle Press authors receive:

- Guaranteed advance & competitive royalties: Kindle Press offers a $1,500 advance and 50% eBook royalty rate. Royalties will be paid monthly.

- Focused formats: Kindle Press acquires worldwide publication rights for eBook and audio formats in all languages. Authors retain all other rights, including print.

- 5-year renewable terms, $25,000 in royalties: If a book doesn't earn $25,000 in royalties during an author’s initial 5-year contract term, or any 5-year renewal term after that, the author can choose to stop publishing with us.

- Easy rights reversions: After two years, rights for any format or language that remains unpublished, or all rights to any book that earns less than $500 in total royalties in the preceding 12-month period, can be reverted upon request — no questions asked.

- Early downloads & reviews: One week prior to release date, everyone who nominated a book that is published by Kindle Press will receive a free copy and be invited to leave reviews.

- Featured Amazon marketing: Kindle Press books will be enrolled and earn royalties for participation in the Kindle Owners' Lending Library and Kindle Unlimited as well as be eligible for targeted email campaigns and promotions.

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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I went for it. It's here. I've got 15 days left on my “campaign.”
[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Seeing as how I was going to self-pub anyway and my first 3 books combined haven't earned $1,500, I saw no reason not to give it a go. I barter my editing. My sister does my covers for nothing.
[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]They say: “[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The more nominations your book receives the more likely it will get the attention of our Kindle Scout team and be selected for publication.” This gives me hope that it's not strictly a matter of popularity, that merit might come into play. [/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]If not, I haven't lost anything. If I get it published, I still keep the print rights and I sell more paperbacks than digital.
[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I will not win if it's a popularity contest. I'm not on Twitter, don't have hundreds of FB friends, and haven't been a nuisance about it—it just seemed like an opportunity to get it a quick look-see before going on to my original plan of self-publishing.[/FONT]

Best of luck, Will! I'm considering Kindle Scout, but I too am not really into social networking. I have 25 friends on Facebook; I only communicate with 5 of them. God only knows why the other 20 haven't unfriended me yet.

Thanks, aleighrose! I can say my "views" in the two days since posting here equal the ten previous days combined.

augusto said:

I went for it. It's here. I've got 15 days left on my “campaign.”


Seeing as how I was going to self-pub anyway and my first 3 books combined haven't earned $1,500, I saw no reason not to give it a go. I barter my editing. My sister does my covers for nothing.


They say: “The more nominations your book receives the more likely it will get the attention of our Kindle Scout team and be selected for publication.” This gives me hope that it's not strictly a matter of popularity, that merit might come into play. If not, I haven't lost anything. If I get it published, I still keep the print rights and I sell more paperbacks than digital.


I will not win if it's a popularity contest. I'm not on Twitter, don't have hundreds of FB friends, and haven't been a nuisance about it—it just seemed like an opportunity to get it a quick look-see before going on to my original plan of self-publishing.

Click to expand...

Good luck with your book, augusto! I agree with you, there's not much to lose by giving it a shot. I would not have considered it if the selection phase was any longer, but 45 days (30 day campaign, 15 days for Amazon to say yes/no) is not that much to wait. To me, the potential marketing power of having Amazon back a book was the deciding factor.

I am blogging about my Scout experience here if anyone wants to check it out.

ebbrown said:

Good luck with your book, augusto! I agree with you, there's not much to lose by giving it a shot. I would not have considered it if the selection phase was any longer, but 45 days (30 day campaign, 15 days for Amazon to say yes/no) is not that much to wait. To me, the potential marketing power of having Amazon back a book was the deciding factor.

I am blogging about my Scout experience here if anyone wants to check it out.

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Thanks, ebbrown! I see your book is Hot and Trending right out of the gate. Best of luck there.

augusto said:

Thanks, ebbrown! I see your book is Hot and Trending right out of the gate. Best of luck there.

Click to expand...

Right back at you. You're in the home stretch now!

My final numbers: The Adventures of Hank Fenn spent 14 of its 720 hour campaign “Hot & Trending”—the last 14 hours. After 24 views on the first day, it rarely exceeded 10 views—often zero—until 53 people stopped by to take a peek on the last day.


I also made some new connections through the process, which is never a bad thing.


Kindle Scout sent me an email saying that my submission is in review. I'm sure books that were Hot through the entire process will get a longer look than one that sneaked in at the end. We'll see...

victoriastrauss said:

Just to note: Kindle Scout is neither a contest nor a YADS. It's kind of a weird hybrid, but IMO it would more properly be classified as a publisher, since publication is the end result of submitting your manuscript.

- Victoria

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What does YADS stand for?

Yet Another Display site.

Fingers crossed for you, Augusto!

Well, I have 9 days left in my campaign. So far it's been a tad bit more stressful than I imagined it would be, and I am glad it is coming to an end. I have been writing about the experience HERE on my blog. I've also shared some of my stats and thoughts on how it works.

Good luck to all the entries.

I'm thinking about going for this. I see some AW'ers did, but nobody updated since the nomination. Anyone care to share how they like it if they got in?

eqb said:

50% royalties on net for ebooks
25% royalties on net for audio books

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I think I've been looking at too many scams from other places. Whenever I see royalties based ON NET, I get nervous. A good accountant can make it look like no net exists, thus saying author gets nothing. I'd prefer them to say ON GROSS.

Gilroy Cullen said:

I think I've been looking at too many scams from other places. Whenever I see royalties based ON NET, I get nervous. A good accountant can make it look like no net exists, thus saying author gets nothing. I'd prefer them to say ON GROSS.

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I think that's very true of small, newer presses, but I'm not as worried about Amazon. Besides, it's good exposure because of the marketing. I've talked to a couple of people who have gotten this contract and their pleased.

I'll let you know how it goes if they take me.

And please, if you have an Amazon account, nominate Torn Away for me!!!!

Started my campaign today! I know I'm going to be checking my status 100X a day, but luckily I'm working on another book, so I won't be thinking about my campaign 24/7. I have nominated some of the people on here, including TORN AWAY. If anyone would like to nominate my book, RED RABBIT, an occult detective thriller, you can. Thanks ahead of time! https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/9Z4U8ZESJ4LH

popgun62 said:

Started my campaign today! I know I'm going to be checking my status 100X a day, but luckily I'm working on another book, so I won't be thinking about my campaign 24/7. I have nominated some of the people on here, including TORN AWAY. If anyone would like to nominate my book, RED RABBIT, an occult detective thriller, you can. Thanks ahead of time! https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/9Z4U8ZESJ4LH

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Thank you so much!!!

I've got 3 nominations, but I'll put you on the list of people to nominate as my slots open up.

Just as a FYI, I've had some success in posting to facebook sales groups.

Here's a list of sites.

http://www.trainingauthors.com/facebook-groups-for-authors/

On Twitter, I make banners, like the one you see down below, and twit it out with the link and a plea for nominations. I've got about 20 banners so far. Use the hashtag #kindlescout and if I see you on there, I'll retweet. I'm Vince524 there as well.

Use instagram, tumblr, etc

Make sure you mention that it's no charge to nominate and if your book is published by Kindle Scout, they'll get a free advance copy.

There's also a good reads group where other's who are going promo and talk about their experiences.

Ditto kindle boards

From what I can gather from other authors who have been in the program, sometimes the Hot & trending list people don't get selected and sometimes people who never make the list do. I think they factor it all in, but there's more to it than that. After all, I could put out a lousy book with a cool concept and great cover and have lots of family and friends nominate it. They do read it. Other books have not so great covers. (Yours looks cool!) but the stories may be wonderful. Plus, the H&T list is a fickle bitch. On days when I've not been on the H&T list, I've had very high page views. On days I was on H&T very low. I may get 20 nominations today compared to another book who only got 10, but if there's all came within the span of an hour and mine were spread out, they'll get in the H&T for a time, I won't.

Here's a blog entry I wrote.

I entered my YA epic fantasy today. I don't know what to expect from it, but we'll see. The winners have said some positive things about the program on various sites, which is survivor bias, but I understand most books don't get picked up. I'm still allowed to keep it up on Wattpad, and that was my only requirement for doing the campaign. Yesterday's Prince is the story.

Oh that sounds like another Slush Games Arena like that Authonomy thing which thankfully closed last year, if I'm not mistaken, and good riddance.Good luck to everyone participating in this one, but to my temperament this is...this is...

Yep, I'm not that big on the popularity contest aspect, or some of Amazon's contract terms.