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The "My Book Wasn't Accepted for Kindle Scout, Now What?" Thread

163K views 2K replies 153 participants last post by  CF 
#1 ·
Hi, all!  This is the support thread for those of us whose books weren't selected for Kindle Scout. Most of us have, or will be, self-publishing. We'll meet here to support one another and share marketing tips and details about our book launches.

My book, Beyond the Forest, launched (secretly) on October 28th. I'm going public today, and Amazon sent the notification email to those who nominated my book. Let's see what happens next!
 
#3 ·
Kay7979 said:
Hi, all! This is the support thread for those of us whose books weren't selected for Kindle Scout. Most of us have, or will be, self-publishing. We'll meet here to support one another and share marketing tips and details about our book launches.

My book, Beyond the Forest, launched (secretly) on October 28th. I'm going public today, and Amazon sent the notification email to those who nominated my book. Let's see what happens next!
What a fun idea! Glad to be here, one of the crowd. My campaign was December 5, 2015 - January 5, 2016. I had something like 2400 views (high at the time) and 96% of my time in H&T, plus nice reviews and encouragement. Ah well . . . I may still submit my work-in-progress, a related historical/biographical fiction.

Hi, E.B.!
 
#4 ·
Thanks for starting this thread Kay! I think it will become quite popular. I can't join in quite yet since I have a few more days to go in my KS campaign for Wives of the Saints...But I can already see the writing on the wall as to how that's going to go and have been planning my launch for afterwards. And I'm eager to support other indie writers. Best of luck to you!
 
#7 ·
Ooh me, I gave it a spin and got rejected (shakes fist at Amazon) despite sitting constantly on Hot and Trendy.

I'm just sitting on it now until I have two or three in the series ready to go. But I loved how incredibly supportive the KS thread was and it would be super nice if this thread could be in the same vein and everyone gave just as much support and encouragement for those who didn't get the contract and did it their way instead  ;D
 
#8 ·
I put a book in when KS first launched and was rejected. Went ahead and released the book, which has never sold squat. Hope your luck is better.

Michele Brouder said:
And I already have a question. I'm getting ready to publish my KS reject and I want to put it up for preorder for 99¢. However, it won't let me price it below 2.99. It is in the KDP program. Have I just not gone far enough in the submission process or do I need to take it out of KDP for preorder? My head hurts.
KDP is Kindle Direct Publishing, the only way to self publish on Amazon. I think you may be referring to Kindle Select, which is an optional subscription program where readers can check out your book like from a library and you get paid for page reads. Read the Terms of Service to see what your pricing options are.
 
#9 ·
brkingsolver said:
I put a book in when KS first launched and was rejected. Went ahead and released the book, which has never sold squat. Hope your luck is better.

KDP is Kindle Direct Publishing, the only way to self publish on Amazon. I think you may be referring to Kindle Select, which is an optional subscription program where readers can check out your book like from a library and you get paid for page reads. Read the Terms of Service to see what your pricing options are.
Yes I do mean Kindle Select, sorry, it's almost bedtime and my eyes are crossed.
 
#10 ·
Kay7979 said:
Hi, all! This is the support thread for those of us whose books weren't selected for Kindle Scout. Most of us have, or will be, self-publishing. We'll meet here to support one another and share marketing tips and details about our book launches.

My book, Beyond the Forest, launched (secretly) on October 28th. I'm going public today, and Amazon sent the notification email to those who nominated my book. Let's see what happens next!
Ooh, Ooh, that's me. Not selected by KS. 8)

I'm really struggling with learning how to self-publish. It's even taking me a while to format my novel for ebook, let alone CreateSpace. Self-publishing my memoir anthology was so much easier, since it was only 22 pages, and I only did ebook for .99 cents.

Good luck with your launch, Kay. I will check it out when I get a chance.
 
#13 ·
I have been successfully rejected by Kindle Scout three times!

I had fun participating, watching how subsequent books in the same series garnered increasing time in Hot and Trending, and crossing my fingers for the final nod from Amazon.

In the end, no matter the votes or the time trending, my quirky dystopian fantasies were rejected.

Here's to successful failures!
 
#14 ·
Michele Brouder said:
And I already have a question. I'm getting ready to publish my KS reject and I want to put it up for preorder for 99¢. However, it won't let me price it below 2.99. It is in the KDP program. Have I just not gone far enough in the submission process or do I need to take it out of KDP for preorder? My head hurts.
you can't price below 2.99 at 70% royalty rate

99 cents is 35% royalty Rate. Amazon is trying to set pricing for eBooks between 2.99 and 9.99 which is why they limit it, so the only way to set 99 cents is to manually set your royalty rate at 35%

A big thing is if you do that, when you mark it up to 2.99 or above, make sure to click back to 70% royalty rate or you'll only get 35%. People do 35% because they don't get charged download fees, which could be a lot if your book is fairly big.
 
#15 ·
Michele Brouder said:
And I already have a question. I'm getting ready to publish my KS reject and I want to put it up for preorder for 99¢. However, it won't let me price it below 2.99. It is in the KDP program. Have I just not gone far enough in the submission process or do I need to take it out of KDP for preorder? My head hurts.
You should ask Julie Nichols. I bought her book on pre-order for 99 cents, but the normal price was higher. Maybe KDP has a special deal for preorders.
 
#16 ·
LoriDRV said:
Ooh, Ooh, that's me. Not selected by KS. 8)

I'm really struggling with learning how to self-publish. It's even taking me a while to format my novel for ebook, let alone CreateSpace. Self-publishing my memoir anthology was so much easier, since it was only 22 pages, and I only did ebook for .99 cents.

Good luck with your launch, Kay. I will check it out when I get a chance.
Lori, I wouldn't even think about CreateSpace until you get your ebook off the ground. One thing at a time. Good luck.
 
G
#17 ·
I thought about entering my WIP (when it's done) in Kindle Scout, but after reading about what you need to do to get votes, I realized that it wasn't a good choice for me.

Since most folks aren't picked, what other benefits are there to putting a book in this? Negatives? Thanks.
 
#19 ·
Morning! Thank you Kay for the link and notification about the new page. Love it!! I believe this is going to be very helpful to those who have not had any luck with kindle scout and who are also possibly publishing their first book.♥ Hi to everyone, some of you i know.

Just quickly, I'll tell you that my kindle scout expectations where high but on the release day, i was disappointed. I strongly urge you NOT to put your book up for FREE on release day. You will not achieve anything. The high place you may get because all the kindle scout nominator peeps will snaffle your book, but once you put it up for sale..the ranking you achieved will be lost and you're back to the beginning. Also...the kindle scout nomination peeps want freebies, most of them...and i thought by putting up my book for 99c would help in that they'd think 99c isn't far off from free..but nope.

I'm trying to stay positive about the whole event and by that I mean out of it ive got some fabulous new friends♥
 
#20 ·
lincolnjcole said:
you can't price below 2.99 at 70% royalty rate

99 cents is 35% royalty Rate. Amazon is trying to set pricing for eBooks between 2.99 and 9.99 which is why they limit it, so the only way to set 99 cents is to manually set your royalty rate at 35%

A big thing is if you do that, when you mark it up to 2.99 or above, make sure to click back to 70% royalty rate or you'll only get 35%. People do 35% because they don't get charged download fees, which could be a lot if your book is fairly big.
Thanks (again) for your help, Lincoln!
 
#22 ·
RWhite7699 said:
Lori, I wouldn't even think about CreateSpace until you get your ebook off the ground. One thing at a time. Good luck.
That's sound advice, since the two processes are so different. I always get the Kindle edition up first, since it was the one from which most of my sales would likely come, though I can see the wisdom of people who do CS first so they can use it to distribute ARC copies and get reviews. Either way, it's better to focus on perfecting one edition, then the other.
 
#23 ·
Kay7979 said:
Hi, all! This is the support thread for those of us whose books weren't selected for Kindle Scout. Most of us have, or will be, self-publishing. We'll meet here to support one another and share marketing tips and details about our book launches.

My book, Beyond the Forest, launched (secretly) on October 28th. I'm going public today, and Amazon sent the notification email to those who nominated my book. Let's see what happens next!
Thanks so much for starting this thread. I just picked up your book, though it may take me a little time to actually read it at this point.
 
#24 ·
Michele Brouder said:
Thank you so much! Then on day of launch, can I go back and check 70%?
Once you change the price back to $2.99, you can check 70%.
 
#25 ·
LoriDRV said:
Ooh, Ooh, that's me. Not selected by KS. 8)

I'm really struggling with learning how to self-publish. It's even taking me a while to format my novel for ebook, let alone CreateSpace. Self-publishing my memoir anthology was so much easier, since it was only 22 pages, and I only did ebook for .99 cents.

Good luck with your launch, Kay. I will check it out when I get a chance.
I've done several CS books, so I can probably answer format questions relatively easy when the time comes.
 
#26 ·
jnicholls said:
Morning! Thank you Kay for the link and notification about the new page. Love it!! I believe this is going to be very helpful to those who have not had any luck with kindle scout and who are also possibly publishing their first book.♥ Hi to everyone, some of you i know.

Just quickly, I'll tell you that my kindle scout expectations where high but on the release day, i was disappointed. I strongly urge you NOT to put your book up for FREE on release day. You will not achieve anything. The high place you may get because all the kindle scout nominator peeps will snaffle your book, but once you put it up for sale..the ranking you achieved will be lost and you're back to the beginning. Also...the kindle scout nomination peeps want freebies, most of them...and i thought by putting up my book for 99c would help in that they'd think 99c isn't far off from free..but nope.

I'm trying to stay positive about the whole event and by that I mean out of it ive got some fabulous new friends♥
I feel the same way about the friends--best part of the process.

I second the not putting the book out for free part. I am considering the trying a $.99 intro price, which is what I normally do anyway, though your experience does give me pause. I should also check the promos I might want to try in the first thirty days. The ones who promote for reduced price often want the book to have been regular priced for a specific period of time before they'll promote it.
 
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