Kindle Scout - first thoughts
- Jennifer Rae
- Feb 28, 2016
- 3 min read
I heard about Kindle Scout while looking through Amazon when I was still writing Pardon (the third installment of my Skye Montgomery novellas) and instantly I was interested in the process. I enjoy honest competition. I hate when people lie, cheat, and steal to get ahead of the pack. If you can't play honestly, then don't play at all is my personal opinion. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be the way the world works. People lie all the time. To get the job, to get the extra, to get the girl.
Kindle Scout seemed to be a level playing ground and with enough perseverance, any person could potentially be selected for publication. For those individuals who have neve heard of Kindle Scout before, it is a very simple process. Authors can submit their never before published novels (anything over 50,000 words) with the chance of being published with Amazon Kindle. They would handle the ebook and audio books, and control the marking involved with those two mediums. In return, the author gets exposure, $1500, and 50% of royalties.
I have faith in my own work. However, I have no idea how to market myself. I have been attempting to learn since I started self-publishing with mixed results. Since I already only sell exclusively on Amazon Kindle, them having the rights to the ebook and audiobook didn't bother me. It seemed to be the big issue others had when I did some Googling. Since I was all right with the major stipulation, I had to face the second hurdle.
Writing the novel.
Extol of Agnatic Dreams took on a life of its own. I had been playing with the plot and characters for two years, but I never imagined it would end up this epic. A quick 50,000 words had now grown to over 100,000 - and that is only half of the story. It turned out to be far bigger than I anticipated, but I am hopeful that I can finish it in part two (coming in 2017)
It took me a few months, but finally, I had a manuscript worthy of submission. The writing wasn't over yet. Explaining this amazing work in 500 characters was hard. The most painful part of the application process was thinking of a single line that might grab people attention. When I finally worked that part out I had to answer three questions, so readers might be tempted to nominate my book on my personality. Lucky I already have a picture of myself I am happy to use for official type things.
The wait to see if I would be accepted or not was painful. I didn't check my email every hour but I did check far more often than usual. Of course, the email notification came through while I was asleep. Not that it mattered because my personal campaign wouldn't start until midnight. Which was good because then I had time to pre-make a few little images for facebook and twitter (my planned advertising platforms) before it all started. I rushed around, got organized and then at midnight... still not live.
I didn't even consider the time difference between Australia and America. So it wouldn't go live until 4 pm my time. Duh. it was so anti-climatic, I felt sick from the wasted adrenaline. But now the campaign is all up and running, people can nominate my book and hopefully feel impressed with that one line that is supposed to hook them before they even start reading the first 5000 words of Extol.
So far, my emotions are nerves. And just enough hope that I don't regret it.
Check it out here, and leave me a nomination. It costs nothing and you recieve a free ebook if I am successful.
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