Amazon Disguises Kindle Unlimited Recruiting Push as Writing Contest
In June 2015 Amazon launched a writing contest in Germany called Kindle Storyteller where authors who uploaded a novella to KDP could win a prize.
Now the retailer has announced a similar contest in the UK – only this time Amazon has an ulterior motive.
The Bookseller reports:
The Kindle Storyteller Award will be given to an English language title published through KDP between 20th February and 19th May this year.
Amazon said readers will play a hand in selecting the shortlist, compiled using “a number of factors which measure customer interest in the titles” along with a panel of judges made of up Amazon executives and literary figures.
Along with being awarded a £20,000 cash prize at a central London ceremony in July, the winning author will be given a marketing campaign to support the book on Amazon.co.uk and the opportunity to have it translated for international sales.
“Great books deserve to be celebrated and that’s what we want to do with the Kindle Storyteller competition,” said Alessio Santarelli, EU Kindle Content Director, Amazon. “We hope to encourage aspiring authors and those who have already been published, to get writing and make their new stories available to readers across the world. Publishing a book has never been easier, and the Kindle Storyteller Award will reward the author whose story resonates most with both readers and literary experts."
Eligible ebooks must be uploaded through Amazon.co.uk. The titles must be previously unpublished and a minimum of 5,000 words long. Oh, and the ebooks must be in Kindle Unlimited in order to qualify.
Writing contest? This isn’t a writing contest; it’s a cleverly disguised attempt to recruit authors into KU.
In much the same way that some slimy companies run art "contests" in order to get free labor in the form of submissions S&S used last year’s Star Trek writing contest as a feeder pool for vanity press Author Solutions, Amazon is running a "writing contest" in order to get authors to add their titles to Kindle Unlimited.
It is almost disappointing to see Amazon use such a patently obvious maneuver; did they think no one would notice?
image by sk8geek
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