Amazon has taken another step towards dominating the book industry today by launching Kindle Scout, which lets readers vote on which books they want to see published by Kindle Press. Authors can submit their unpublished book, and users have 30 days to read an excerpt and nominate the book for publication. Amazon is currently accepting submissions in the genres of romance, science fiction and mystery & thriller.
Users can nominate up to three books at one time. If an author's book has been selected for publication after 30 days, anyone who nominated it will receive a free copy of the book on their Kindle. Amazon promotes Kindle Scout as a way for authors to quickly earn a publishing contract in just 45 days or less. Authors who have their book published will receive a $1,500 advance, 50% eBook royalty rate, 5-year renewable terms and marketing on the Amazon and Kindle stores.
"Amazon customers are passionate readers who have long influenced which books become breakout best sellers," Russ Grandinetti, Senior Vice President of Kindle said in a statement. "With the launch of Kindle Scout, readers now have an even more direct say in what gets published and can get free books and discover new favorite authors in the process."
With eBooks becoming more popular than ever, this program could really help unpublished authors break into the industry. If Kindle Scout is successful, it would give authors the opportunity to go around literary agents straight to publishing, giving the traditional book industry another reason to be angry at Amazon. Clearly, Amazon isn't backing down from making major waves in the book world.
