# Kindle Press: Advance & Publication



## Aquilo (Jan 22, 2016)

I was wondering if anyone had hear about this. It comes from Amazon:



> If your book is selected for publication by Kindle Press, we'll have the exclusive               worldwide right to publish it in eBook and audio formats, in all languages, for a               term beginning on the selection date and auto-renewing every five years. If you do               not earn at least $25,000 during any 5-year term, you'll have six months after               the end of that 5-year period in which you can choose to stop publishing with us               and request your rights back.



Submission and Publication

Also here:

Submit Your Book


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## Schrody (Jan 22, 2016)

But what if it gets selected, and you don't want to participate in that program?

EDIT: I read it, and I don't like one particular part - that they can put any price they want. If I put my price at $3.99, I did it so it could be affordable to everyone. I know it's only profit for Amazon, but no thanks.


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## Aquilo (Jan 22, 2016)

Hmm, and giving them exclusive rights.... It's hard enough to get them back from a publisher. Their rules are too obscure as just a distribution site. I'd hate to see the contract.


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## Schrody (Jan 22, 2016)

I mean, that $1500 advance sounds nice, but there's more things in writing than money...


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## TKent (Jan 22, 2016)

It actually sounds interesting. They are basically looking for books that would have most likely been self-published that they think could sell. There are pros & cons to the author in this agreement. The biggest pro I see is that if chosen, Amazon will have a vested interest in promoting it to 'some degree' on Amazon. If readers are showing interest, then they are making money, so that promotion would probably escalate. So if you have tried the traditional route and plan on self-publishing but have no promotional budget, this might be something to consider.

- 50% of the net is pretty common, so the royalties are fine. 
- $1500 is not a bad advance for a work that was going to be self-published.
- 45 days while they see if there is any interest is not unusual. We ask for 90 days of exclusivity to look at manuscript submissions for novels at Meerkat.
- The Kindle Scout is kind of like a 'focus group' of sorts. I just had a friend's nephew get rejected by Little Brown but first, Little Brown ran a focus group on the manuscript. They came back afterwards and decided not to move forward. If Amazon sees lots of intererest on Kindle Scout, then they are willing to take a chance on it.
- approx. $5K a year in royalties keeps you locked into the contract. That sure isn't enough to pay the rent, and yet I've read that many writers are able to make their living on writing by having a 'portfolio' of books. None of them are bestsellers, but each brings in 5K or so a year and it adds up.
- It doesn't sound like Kindle is going to give you any of the value adds of a publisher such as professional editing and book cover design. And yet, there is a wide open clause that says they will only make changes necessary to publishing without your consent. Hmmm...that could be anything, really.
- You won't see your book in print this way unless you publish it yourself. Unless you have a digital success to the tune of Hugh Howey's Wool Ominibus. In his case, a traditional publisher was willing to take print only rights (and run with them all the way to the bank).

Anyway, I could go on. The main thing I see as a value add for a self-publisher is the 'potential' for Amazon to promote on the Amazon site.


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## TKent (Jan 22, 2016)

I also meant to say, that any publisher is going to price your book. That is not unusual. They are going to price it based on a variety of market factors.


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## lvcabbie (Jan 22, 2016)

As TKent pointed out, the only real advantage is having Amazon publicizing your work. Compared with marketing, writing is the easy part.  :read:


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## TKent (Jan 22, 2016)

Interestingly, the site says that one of the ways they will help get the word out on your book is by making recommendations to Goodreads users. This makes perfect sense given Amazon bought Goodreads.


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## Aquilo (Jan 23, 2016)

I can's see them not offering some kind edit structure if they use the ' only make changes necessary to publishing without your consent.' So somewhere along the line there has to be quality control, it just depends how professional that is. I'm not keen on the 'without author consent,' or how royalty rates drastically drop with translation formats if  Amazon exercise them (down to 20%). 

With grants of rights, I don't really like the sound of how it seems they can dilute the main script: "create condensed, adapted, abridged, interactive and enhanced editions  of your Work, and include your Work in anthology or omnibus editions." If they're accepting no less than 50k, then have the rights to cut & chop, would this fall under "making changes necessary to publishing without consent" and just how much say would an author get in those cuts.

But I like how they say they return audio and translation rights if not executed in two years.


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## Monaque (Jan 23, 2016)

Those articles are about Kindle Scout, that`s not the normal KPD I take it?


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## Schrody (Jan 23, 2016)

Monaque said:


> Those articles are about Kindle Scout, that`s not the normal KPD I take it?



No, I don't think is it... 

Anyway, the reason I chose (will choose) self publishing is having all the control over it. I sure wouldn't like to see my work massacred without my knowledge! What can I say? I'm a free spirit


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## Monaque (Jan 25, 2016)

Schrody said:


> No, I don't think is it...
> 
> Anyway, the reason I chose (will choose) self publishing is having all the control over it. I sure wouldn't like to see my work massacred without my knowledge! What can I say? I'm a free spirit


Yeah, totally get that. It`s one of the reasons that Indie, or self publishing, is appealing to me too.


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