Scouting Kindle Scout, Phase 1: The Nominations

Before I venture into the realms of submitting a book to Kindle Scout, I though I would check out how the process works from the reader's side. Because, presumably, those voting for each project are dedicated readers.

First Impressions
I started looking through the projects a few weeks ago. I didn't instantly find something that stood out because of one major problem: bad covers. Now, I don't mean a cover that has the wrong font or a photo that doesn't accurately describe the contents. I mean absolutely atrocious covers. Ones that a first-time self-published author wouldn't even want to publicly represent their book. I would never consider wasting one of my three votes on a book that you know won't make it through the vetting process, because I assume the people that run the show behind the scenes are smarter than that.

Just to make sure I wasn't being too harsh on these nominees, I checked out all of the titles published by Kindle Scout so far. In my opinion, out of all the published titles only one of the covers wasn't up to my standards. Of course that's all subjective, but still. First impressions matter.

Casting My Votes
I did eventually find books that I wanted to nominate for publication. They had good covers, the blurb was intriguing and the sample provided hooked me. All I had to do then was wait for the results.

50/50
So far I have voted for six books. Two titles are still currently in the nominating process. Two titles have been accepted for publication and when they are released, I will be provided with a free copy for my vote.

And then there were two.

These two titles didn't make it to publication. I don't know how I feel about that. These were the two titles I was most excited to root for. The two votes that went to books which won a contract weren't that interesting, but were professional in their presentation. So what does that say about my taste in books? More importantly, what does that say about the Kindle Scout process?
 
The Aftermath
Without access to voting numbers, no one could tell you what distinguishes a book that makes it to publication with Kindle Scout and what books fall short of the finish line. I know the two biggest factors are the professional appearance of the project and the marketability, but which one is weighted more heavily is only known to the Powers that Be. What I can tell you by going through this nominating process is that I've found one significant drawback on taking a chance with this program. No matter what happens to the books you vote for, you as the voter will find out.

Think about it. You get dozens of nominations. Hundreds, maybe. Then your book isn't selected. Every single one of those voters will get an email telling them that your book didn't make it. That it wasn't good enough. That, in the words of certain political candidates, you're a loser. Do you really want your readers to know that your project didn't succeed? Would it matter to someone enough that they no longer had an interest in reading it?

I happened to be reading an article the other day about the downside of Kindle Scout and browsing through the comments. An author who submitted a project (which I happened to nominate) talked about the fact that they didn't win a contract. Not only did possibly hundreds of that author's current readers take the time to vote for the project, they also got that "sorry you didn't pick a winner" email. The author admitted to being embarrassed by it, and wondered how much of a setback it would be.

However, some may actually find this email to voters as a benefit. It could spark interest in previously published work. And the email also promises to let voters know if the book is eventually published on Amazon through KDP. So even the pros and cons of the program have their own pros and cons.

Marching On
Does this deter me from going ahead with submitting a book? I don't think it has changed my mind, but it is making me rethink my approach to the project before submission. Do I have a solid, interesting book to submit? Yes. Do I have a decent cover? It was designed by a professional, so yeah. Do I have the backing of a big enough audience to prove it's marketability? Unfortunately, no. And I know this. So the question comes down to whether I would submit a project knowing this and hoping there are enough Kindle Scout lurkers (who didn't come there specifically to vote for a project someone asked them to vote for) willing to give my project a chance.

And maybe I should move my expected submission date. Right now I have it scheduled to start in the middle of December. I'm thinking that's probably not the time a lot of people are hanging around, voting for books. Then again, a truckload of votes could be my one Christmas wish come true--that is, if I lived in a Hallmark movie. ;-)

What are your thoughts on the nominating process?

Publishing Year One: The Dimming Spark

Now it’s time to get to the deep, painful truth about publishing. You’re not special. I’m not special. So if you think that you can get thousands of sales on Day One with your first published work, you have an overactive imagination. Or you forced your church group/college dorm-mates/professional organization to buy copies. Then maybe you can attain that goal. 

I didn’t expect more than ten or fifteen sales on the launch day of Unfolding Life. Heck, I wasn’t even expecting much more than that in the first week. I did, however, expect to see a steady one or two sales a week throughout the year. Didn’t quite work out that way. I did have a one-year sales goal and I’m so far off from it that I’m simply too embarrassed to give you the number. But we can totally talk in percentages to help me save face. 

The truth is that 22% of my yearly sales happened in the first five days after the book launch. And of the 22%, I bought 6% of the books sold (promotional giveaways). Unfortunately, after the first week of sales, they slacked off. Oh… who are we kidding? They stopped altogether. I kept up my promotional efforts, but I just couldn’t close the deal. 

If At First You Don’t Succeed, Give it Away

So I decided to utilize the tools provided to me by Kindle Select. About a month after publishing, I created a free day to get some book sales, even if they didn’t make any money. For most authors, this tactic is used to boost after-promotion sales. This is the day where I sold the bulk of my yearly sales. The upside of this is that for at least a few hours, my book was listed as the #1 selling book in the haiku category. Three days later, the book slid back into ranking obscurity. 

The downside, aside from the lack of money coming in, was that I used this promotion to boost the number of ever-important book reviews. When I give books away for free, whether through a promotion like this or individually to reviewers, I don’t expect to get 100% of the reviews. I really only aim for a 20% review rate. At this point in the process, I still only have about an 8% review rate—and I’m really lucky to have that. 

Tsk, Tsk Amazon

Although I would rather forget about it, we have to talk about Amazon’s horrible return policy when it comes to ebooks. Amazon has the nerve to let someone return an ebook for a full refund up to seven days after purchase. Um, what? No, Amazon! My book is only 60 pages long cover to cover and the fact that anyone can buy it, consume it, then say they didn’t like and get their money back is just plain stupid. Restaurants may have to do that when you hate your food, but something like a book shouldn’t be given that much time to say, “Oh, nevermind.” Anyone heard of buyer’s remorse? You bought a book you didn’t like. Just suck it up and move on! I have a closet full of terrible books that I purchased. I don’t whine to get my money back. 

This whole thing may make me a little angry, but in reality self-published authors deal with this all the time. My only post-promotion sale ended up being a return. Not only that, it was a return from the person who decided to leave the less-than-stellar review. Now, I think you should be kind enough to choose one or the other. You didn’t like the book? Fine. Either take the $2.99 hit and leave a bad review, or return the book and keep your mouth shut. It’s just plain mean to do both, especially since your review is one of the factors contributing to lack of sales from then on. (*Note: I was a good little author and didn’t engage in a spat over a negative review, especially since it was well written and made valid points. But I did do my research on the reviewer. This person was both a chronic returner AND hated everything they ever read. So there.)

Summer Slump

Then summer came and went. I distracted myself with other projects and didn’t promote Unfolding Life very much. After the free day and the return, I didn’t sell another book all summer. I was a little disappointed because I knew it meant I would never meet my yearly sales goal, even if a miracle occurred. And let’s not waste a good miracle on book sales when I’m still single. ;-)

The only thing I could do was to keep getting the word out. Around Christmas, the opportunity to include the book (as a $0.99 countdown deal) in the Read Tuesday catalog seemed like the perfect way to get holiday sales. I did the countdown deal for the maximum time allowed.  

Not. One. Sale. 

At this point, I was not surprised. Not one bit. Unfolding Life had unfolded, and it lived a very short life.

Absent Stacks of Paperbacks

The one aspect of this process I still haven’t mentioned is the paperback version of the book. I was first confused about KDP Select’s exclusivity rules and thought I couldn’t publish another version for 90 days (turns out it only pertains to ebook versions with other retailers). So I did create a paperback version and put it up for sale on Createspace and through Amazon. I didn’t promote it as hard as the ebook version, and because I didn’t want to have a bunch of copies coming to my door where my family would find out I published something, I didn’t buy any copies to give out or create a Goodreads giveaway with. Yes, they know I’m a writer—but there’s no need for them to read anything I write! I have issues, I know. I still haven’t sold a single paperback copy. Not even to myself.

(*Note: Since originally writing this post at the beginning of March, I have made paperback sales--a nice surprise!)

This was certainly an eye-opener. Tomorrow I’m going to talk about those pesky things I should have done, but didn’t.

Amazon's New Kindle Unlimited Program

While I may have had a rant about cover letters scheduled for today, I decided to scrap that and talk about the new program from Amazon called Kindle Unlimited. You get to learn about this new program, and I get to spend more time crafting really good cover letters for my next career adventure, so everyone wins.

I received an email from Amazon on Friday introducing me to this new program. While on the surface it may look like just another way for Amazon to get your money, for the savvy reader it can be an affordable option to read like crazy without paying $25.99 for a new hardcover.

The program lets you pay a monthly fee of $9.99 to download and read an unlimited number of books onto your Kindle device. Amazon says that you have a choice from more than 600,00 titles. The Kindle Unlimited Page lists quite a few bestsellers and current popular titles, most of which are price between $8-$15. Not a bad deal, right?

Those who will see the best benefit from this program are the readers that are exclusively or almost exclusively using a reading device. It is also beneficial to readers who can devour at least 3-5 books a month. At just $9.99, the Kindle price of many popular titles will pay for themselves even if you just read a single book a month. However, if you are like me and don't necessarily want to be forced into reading a specific amount a month to justify the cost, you may want to skip this program for now.

The program is also great for Kindle authors. If an author chooses to enroll in KDP Select, their book is automatically enrolled in Kindle Unlimited. The benefits for writers include being paid a royalty for the download, but the catch for this is unlike the royalty from the Amazon Prime Lending program, to get paid the Unlimited royalty the reader must read at least 10% of the title, otherwise the download does not constitute a payment.

Good news: my book is part of KDP Select, so you can take advantage of reading it if you sign up for Kindle Unlimited. But please, for every independent author's sake, read at least 10%. It costs you nothing but a few minutes of your time and you may discover a great read. 

Into the Second Phase

Life has slowed down a bit here. Actually, it's more like a standstill. There's the huge dump of snow that we got yesterday, but there's also a lack of work. I actually haven't had a single job 2014, though not for lack of trying. That's what I get for raising my standards. If I don't work for chump change, I apparently don't get to work.

For now, I'm still smiling. But by the end of the week, I may be in pre-launch for panic mode. Even though I'm snowed in, I'm probably staying afloat emotionally simply because I have big dreams. The dreams themselves won't get me anywhere, but if I find the right next step to take, the world's mine. Right??

But I'm not down and out completely yet. I still have my current writing project. I tried to drum up some mystery around it with last week's Instagram post, but I'm ready to reveal what it all means. These seemingly random numbers correspond to haiku. Lots of haiku. In fact, last's year's goal was to write one haiku each day for the year. I managed to write about 345 before my time was up. Out of all those, I narrowed it down to 100 to put into a manuscript.

These 100 (I deleted one so it may only be 99 now) are going to be published as a collection. I plan to self publish through Kindle Direct Publishing because I have never heard of a single publisher that buys haiku-only manuscripts. But if you exist, come talk to me. ;-) KDP also gives me a lot of publishing flexibility without any cost. Soon, it will be available through Amazon as an ebook. And remember, 'soon' is a relative term.

At this point, all of the poems are edited. I just need to complete the formatting, draw (or have someone else draw) a few of them to break up the monotony and then figure out what I want to do with the cover art. I'm a little nervous because I've tried to publish a poetry collection before, and cover art/artwork is where I got stuck last time. We'll see what I can do.