My Kindle Scout campaign has 2 days left to run! As ever with these things, it seems both a nanosecond and a lifetime ago that I blogged about it here.
If what’s below is a case of TL:DR, you can visit my book, read the beginning, and nominate it here.
What is Kindle Scout?
Kindle Scout is basically a way of getting your unpublished book noticed. Amazon ask for the text of your book, a cover, a blurb, a tagline, and a bit of author info, and in return you get a month-long shop window for your book. People who visit the site and like the posted excerpt can nominate your book, and there’s an extra incentive. Kindle Press picks up some of the books which are submitted, offering the author a contract, and if a reader has nominated the book they get a free copy.
How I’ve gone about my campaign
Honestly? Well, I’ve had so much writing stuff going on lately – releasing the ebook of A Jar Of Thursday, getting the paperbacks of Thursday and Bitesize done, writing and releasing The Case of the Snow-White Lady, starting this year’s NaNoWriMo – that I haven’t done much more than pin a tweet and write Facebook posts for any group I’m in which has had a promotion day. One of the things which has given me pause is that there are books which have been Hot & Trending and had thousands of pageviews, but haven’t been selected for publication. I’m not prepared to spend time and money on something if I don’t have evidence that it will affect the final outcome.
What I’ve got out of it
My campaign’s still going, so this isn’t the definitive answer!
I’ve had my book posted up on a site that lots of people visit, and my stats show that the majority of pageviews are from people browsing the site, not from people I’ve directed there. If nothing else, my book is reaching new potential buyers. I’ve had some nice comments about the book from strangers too – always heartening!
Would I do it again?
Quite possibly. On this occasion, I’d just published a novella and really didn’t want to put another book out for a few weeks, so popping it on Kindle Scout was a no-brainer. I’ve found new readers in the process, which is what I was hoping for. Plus *if* Kindle Press did pick it up, their marketing machine is immensely more powerful than my puny efforts.
Can I help?
Of course! Visit, read, and nominate my book here: https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/23UUGIH6BIXN8. You have till midnight on November 4th, US time – the clock is ticking! Thanks for your help!
Liz Hedgecock 