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Amazon’s Crowd-Sourced Publisher Kindle Scout Expands Internationally

kindle scoutAmazon opened the flood gates today on its hybrid publishing platform, Kindle Scout.

When the program launched last October, it was only open to authors in the US, but as of today it accepts author submissions from Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, and India. The program is still restricted to English-language titles.

Kindle Scout lets authors submit previously-unpublished works for consideration to be published. The authors submit a blurb, excerpt, and cover image, and readers vote on which works they find the most compelling.

Amazon’s editors have the finally word on which titles are published. Authors whose works that are accepted for publication by Kindle Press are offered a five-year contract for the digital and audiobook rights. Terms include a $1,500 advance, 50% ebook royalty rate, straightforward rights reversions, and featured Amazon marketing, the company said.

Dina Hilal, General Manager of Kindle Scout, said: "Expanding our platform to authors and readers outside the U.S. has been one of the most frequent requests we’ve received since we launched. With today’s announcement, we’re eagerly awaiting the great new stories that will come from opening to even more talented writers and Scouts from around the world".

Kindle Scout has proven to have a two-fold benefit for Amazon. It is a new source for its publishing division, and it also gives the retailer new insight into what readers want.

Amazon reports that they’ve published some 75 titles from Kindle Scout in the past year. Those books collectively have an average Amazon Customer Review of 4.48 stars across 2,709 reviews.

 

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Comments


Pat Dunlap Evans September 17, 2015 um 12:12 pm

I’ve got a novel in the Kindle Scout literature and fiction category called TO LEAVE A MEMORY at this link. https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/2MPBD4FKW808X I’m not sure if crowd-sourced publishing is the way to choose what to publish, but if you and your readers would consider my excerpt, I’d appreciate your nomination. I’d like to hear from other authors who have their works on Kindle Scout, especially success stories.


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