Is Kindle Scout worth it?

I spent the past month and a half promoting my new book on Kindle Scout, and in the process I learned a lot about the program and its strengths and weaknesses. If you’re considering Kindle Scout, or are just curious about how the Amazon program works, read on.

My book was not chosen for publication, but there are some positive lessons I can take away from the experience.

What is Kindle Scout?

Obviously, the first question people asked me was “what in the world is Kindle Scout?”

Kindle Scout started less than a year ago, replacing the popular, ambitious Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. In the original contest – which started in 2008 – novels were judged by a group of top industry experts, like publishers, agents, and professional critics. The prize? $50,000 and a traditional publishing contract.

Kindle Scout aims to be more “reader driven.” Authors upload their unpublished books, and then – after Kindle approves the submission – anyone with an Amazon account can “nominate” the book. The more nominations you receive, the more likely it is that a “Kindle Scout” will see your book and recommend it for publication. The prize? A $1,500 advance and publication through “Kindle Publishing.”

Is Kindle Scout worth it? The positives.

Exposure: On the Kindle Scout website, potential readers can easily find your new book, and from there can be directed to your author website, Facebook page, etc.

Learning promotion: It is up to you to promote your campaign, so Kindle Scout can be a good learning experience as you fine-tune your publicity skills.

Validation: If you have even an ounce of vanity (and let’s be honest, what author doesn’t?) then it will be quite a thrill when you see your book on the “Hot and Trending” list.

Is Kindle Scout worth it? The negatives.

Unfortunately, Kindle Scout has a lot of problems. From a small audience to low-quality books clogging up the site, overall it’s not a great experience. Let’s look at these one by one:

Low quality: Kindle tells you that they review every submission to make sure it meets their high standards. This turned out to not be quite… true. My book was approved in about an hour, which is barely enough time to approve the cover. But even worse, take a glance at the site on any given day and you’ll see some books that simply make you scratch your head.

This is not to be snobby or prideful. I’m certain some people took a look at my book and said “eh, not for me,” or even “this looks terrible.” Quality can often be a matter of opinion. But there’s a difference between “quality” and “what in the world is this supposed to be?” When my book was on the “Hot and Trending” list, it was surrounded by books that were nothing short of unintelligible. Taglines like “He could never the love not to be her for it is a thing of heart” or “Where r u, he is the top” were all over the place. 

I have no problems with an unpublished author trying his or her hand at a werewolf romance, even if that’s not my cup of tea, but Kindle Scout is littered with books that don’t have grammar problems, because they don’t seem to be written in any particular language of human origin.

Corruption: This is a serious issue. On my first day on the site, I was surprised to see some of these unintelligible books on the “Hot and Trending” list. My confusion was short-lived. I got an email promising me hundreds of nominations if I paid for them. Amazon has strict rules about paid reviews, but they don’t seem to have figured out paid nominations yet.

Confusion: Some people have asked me how many nominations I received. I have no idea. Kindle Scout doesn’t tell you how many nominations you get, or if your book was reviewed by one of their “scouts,” or even what process your book went through. Don’t expect any feedback. Don’t even expect to understand how it works. “So if I get the most nominations, I get a contract? No? Okay, so if I get a lot of nominations, then I’m guaranteed that a professional ‘scout’ will see my book? No?”

Low readership: Imagine my excitement when I saw myself on the “Hot and Trending” list. All that hard work on social media paid off! The world is finally looking at my book! I ran over to see my book’s stats (okay, you don’t run on the internet, but my mouse hand sure did move quickly), and saw that my page had 84 views.

In other words, you can make the “Hot and Trending” list with less than 100 page views. For one of the largest companies in the world, Amazon can’t drive traffic to their exciting new publishing house?

In the end, the process was disheartening. Either Amazon doesn’t believe in their new program (and simply rolled it out to keep people from complaining about the death of the Breakthrough Novel Awards), or readers got so fed up with the confusion, corruption, and poor quality of the approved submissions that they stopped showing up.

I am incredibly grateful for everyone who nominated my book. It shows me that people are excited to see it, to read it, to watch it get out into the world. I certainly thank them. But Kindle Scout has some serious issues it needs to address if it wants to be taken seriously by the book reading – or book writing – public.