By Linda Lovely
Who doesn’t want
to take advantage of something that’s free?
Readers who
enjoy Kindle ebooks have tons of opportunities to download free books. Now they
have one more—Amazon’s Kindle Scout program (https://kindlescout.amazon.com/).
Here’s how it works.
Readers visit the site and peruse prospective titles in their favorite genres
(romance, mystery, science fiction, general literature) by clicking on a book
cover and reading a short blurb about the book. If it sounds interesting, they
can read the book’s opening chapters. Then, if they think they’d like to read
the whole book, they can “nominate” it for an Amazon publishing contract, and
if Amazon elects to publish it, they’ll get their copy of the chosen title
free. However, during any given time period, readers can only nominate three
books. That keeps folks from clicking on every title in their preferred genres.
In theory, this selection process provides a curator service. Only the best
books of the lot gain publication.
Okay, what’s in it
for authors? If Amazon chooses to publish their books, they get a $1,500
advance, 50% ebook royalty, and hopefully, a promotional boost from Amazon
marketing. That’s why I’m considering offering my new book, LIES, to the Kindle
Scout program. Of course, that doesn’t mean Amazon will choose LIES as one of
its offerings. Who knows what criteria they use to select Kindle Scout titles,
but I’m certain there are many factors unrelated to book quality (just like
there are in traditional publishing) that go into decision making. For
instance, if they’ve just put up two vampire related titles in the Sci Fi,
Fantasy category, they might bypass an even better vampire book for the sake of
variety.
Many authors, me
included, are somewhat gun shy about programs like Kindle Scout because they
are in essence popularity contests and we don’t like begging friends, family,
and fellow authors to nominate our books to get the ball rolling. However, the
potential promise of Amazon promotion is a powerful incentive. Plus, if your
book doesn’t win an Amazon contract, you can go right ahead with your previous
plans to independently publish the title. The only downside is that all those
friends you begged to nominate you now know that your book “lost.” Will that
influence their willingness to spend money to buy the book? Who knows?
Free books can
be a curse or a bonanza for authors, who often offer books for free (or next to
free) in the hope that if new readers sample one of their books and like it,
they’ll buy their other books. It’s the age-old loss leader strategy. Authors
even pay promotional bundlers for the privilege of offering their books free. The
problem is that many readers have become so accustomed to downloading books for
free that they no longer see a need to buy any books. In other instances,
readers have downloaded so many free books it may be months—maybe years—before
they actually read the free books they download today. In this case, the author
“payback” of such readers buying their other books may take so long, they’ve
given up on a writing career.
Nonetheless, we
authors are a determined lot. I’m willing to give Kindle Scout a try. If they
choose to put up LIES, you may well be hearing from me with a “Please consider
nominating” plea.
So authors and
readers, how do you feel about “free” ebooks?
