Thinking of trying Kindle Scout for "Doe Velvet"

I've been thinking about doing this for a YA title in the works, so I would love to hear if anyone's tried it. I browse the titles on Kindle Scout just to get a feel for what's there, but I don't know how hard it is to gain traction or how popular your title must be to get a contract.

But otherwise, it's just thirty days which in the long run isn't that long at all. I guess the biggest downside of 'failing' on Scout is morale loss. It would sap a lot of my release energy, I think.

I was highly doubtful before, but I might consider it later this summer.

Okay, now that the madness has passed and I went to look at what other authors said about Kindle Scout, it's a big fat Nope.

The terms are weighted far too much in favor of Amazon. The reversion clauses look like they're set up to be a trap from the first, with some very unclear language about earning thresholds. Unless an author already has a huge contact list they can leverage, there's no way they'll win the popularity contest. Even if they win, publication is at Amazon's discretion. That $1500 advance...could be nearly negated by the winner's contractual obligation to give away free copies to all supporters of the winning book. Since it's exclusive to Kindle, it looks like Amazon is fishing among young-author YA writers for cheaply obtained content for Kindle.

My writing will never win that kind of contest. So, nope. I use and plan to use other Amazon services, just not Scout.

It's clear what Amazon gets from it, as they get authors with guaranteed audiences. But for someone with that guaranteed audience, it doesn't look like a great deal. If you have enough support to win the contest, you're not going to do badly in general sales either.

The revision clauses were what really scared me off.