Who has heard of the Kindle Scout program? It’s something Amazon launched last year that
lets the readers decide who gets published.
It’s an interesting concept.
Authors sign their stories up with the program. Kindle Scout readers (just a sign up away for
most people) can then read the story for free and decide if they want to
recommend it for publication through Amazon’s KDP program. Sounds like a win-win for both authors and
readers, right?
So, with the first few batches of Kindle Scout books published and the program
making news and waves again, I thought it was the perfect time for it to be
labeled a “Book Trend and Fashion”. Now,
I’m not going to go into the details of whether or not Amazon’s contract is
good or bad. I don’t know what other
contracts out there are like, so I would be a horrible judge of that. This is just my opinion as a reader on how
the program seems to be working.
The How It
Works page for Kindle Scout lays it out as pretty simple for both readers
and authors. An author loads a book
(it’s available for 30 days), the readers browse and read through the ones they
think are interesting, and if the reader thinks it deserves to be published
they recommend it. The books with the
highest recommendations are offered a KDP contract. If you recommended a book that is then
published, you get a free copy of the final product. Seems very straight forward and Amazon is
benefiting from free screening and scouting services from the readers.
What bothers me is this:
When an author posts a giveaway, but you have to go
recommend their book in order to qualify – it seems a bit like buying
votes. Now, how is this different than
requesting people like a Facebook page or Follow a blog. Neither of those actions really contributes
to a revenue stream for a blogger or author.
It may help them get some attention that could lead to good things, but
there’s no direct pay out. A publishing
contract (with a $1500 advance) definitely has monetary value. I have no problem with an author requesting
their fans to go vote for their book – people ask this all the time of their
readers. But they shouldn’t require it
in order to enter a giveaway.
This type of giveaway also drives down the integrity of
Amazon’s publishing division. If I know
books are being published through this program because authors are buying votes
– why would I ever buy one of those books?
They must not have been “good enough” to make it on their own, right?
It seems like what was a great idea is being manipulated by
a handful of authors. I don’t think the
giveaways have been very successful though. The giveaways I’ve see with this
type of entry are, thankfully, fewer and fewer every day.
I think overall the program sounds pretty interesting, but with a lot of potential
to do well or go horribly wrong. I’ve
scanned through the selected books a handful of times, and I haven’t really
seen one that catches my eye yet. So,
have any of you readers or authors tried the program? What do you think of it?
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