In case you haven't heard of this, Kindle Scout belongs to Amazon. It’s part of their publishing arm, but they don't choose the books, votes from people choose the books, like a popularity contest.
“Kindle Scout is reader-powered publishing for new, never-before-published books. It’s a place where readers help decide if a book gets published. Selected books will be published by Kindle Press and receive 5-year renewable terms, a $1,500 advance, 50% eBook royalty rate, easy rights reversions and featured Amazon marketing.”
If the author manages to get 3k clicks/nominations on their book in 30 days, it will be published and all those who nominated it will receive free ecopies when it releases. (Scout pages used to list how many nominations each book had received and the number needed to reach the goal. They don’t post it now, so I can't be sure of the number authors need. But I’ve seen several before and I think the goal was either 3k or 5k.)
Many writers have contacted me on Facebook or Twitter and asked me to go vote for their book. I always felt sorry for them, having to contact complete strangers and beg for a vote. I've only heard of one writer who got enough votes to be published -- all the others failed.
Then, as I was searching for giveaways for this week's post, I came upon a giveaway tied to Kindle Scout that's very clever.
The author, Lincoln Cole, is offering a $50 Amazon card and the first task on the rafflecopter is to go to Kindle Scout and vote for his book. I know a lot of people would like to get their hands on a $50 Amazon card, and a "click" on Kindle Scout is pretty easy.
I hope all the authors I know have publishers or are happy self-publishing, but if you want to try Kindle Scout, I recommend this clever giveaway idea. You don't have to write a ton of strangers and beg, just put up some money for a gift card and offer a chance to win it as an incentive to vote.
Here's Lincoln Cole's giveaway so you can have a look-see: https://www.lincolncole.net/giveaway
I'm celebrating that I already have a publisher because I'm way too cheap to cough up the money for a gift card!
Have you ever contacted complete strangers and asked them for a favor?
My kind and wonderful co-hosts of Celebrate the Small Things are:
L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge
Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog
Celebrate The Small Things Linky:
Grab the Linky html-code here:
** To see who’s posted for the hop look at my Celebrate The Small Things Blog Roll, left sidebar bottom **
Celebrate the Small Things. To be part of this blog hop, all you have to do is visit the Celebrate page on Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful for that week. It can be about writing or family or school or general life. This is the funnest and easiest blog hop ever! (Originated by VikLit)
Foxy's Friday Freebies!
Foxy has been nosing around the net.
When she finds great FREE STUFF, she'll feature it on Friday Freebies posts -
- Free short stories, novellas, and novels
- Giveaways for books and swag
- Free services for authors
Here are Foxy's suggestions for June 9, 2017:
Free 3 Fairy Tale Paperbacks and Matching 500-Piece Puzzles – Win three classic fairy tales: Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and Beauty and the Beast in beautiful keepsake boxes along with their matching 500-piece puzzles. Enter via Entry Form on the Pawsitive Living blog. (ends June 15)
Free Signed YA Contemporary Paperback – Win Weird and Wonderful by Cece Barlow, about a girl with a terminally ill brother and who believes in feng shue (balance) but somehow her life is always unbalanced. She needs to change before it’s too late. Enter via rafflecopter on the Mythical Books blog. (ends Jun 12)
Free 2 Dark Fiction Series eBooks – Win Hunters and Hunted by Aoife Marie Sheridan, about a girl who can see ghosts and demons but must act fast to save her fellow hunters even if it means a rescue mission to Hell itself. Enter via rafflecopter on the Mythical Books blog. (ends June 12)
Free Your Choice of 1 of 3 Literary Fiction Novels – For the month of June, France Book Tours is offering the person with the winning entry his or her choice of three books: Hell’s Gate (Literary Dante-esque novel, trans to English) by award-winning author Laurent Gaudé, Moderato Cantabile (Literary in original French) by award-winning Marguerite Duras, and the Prix Goncourt Award winning book La Nuit Sacree (Literary in original French) by Tahar Ben Jelloun. Enter via Entry Form on the France Book Tours blog. (ends June 30)
Free $5 Amazon Gift Card and Romance Novel Paperback - Win Chasing Love by Melissa West, about a soldier home from a tour in Iraq who falls for his best friend’s suddenly mature and beautiful younger sister; she’s always had a crush on him—will her dreams come true this time? Enter via rafflecopter on the Romance Novels Giveaway blog. (ends Jun 25)
For Foxy's other Freebies, go to the Freebie page.
If anyone has a FREE short story (for download or online at a free ezine), novella, novel, special giveaway, or author service, please let Foxy know so she can plug you here! Write to: laura.6eg(at)gmail.com
