# Amazon's New Reader Powered Publishing Program



## Marc (Sep 23, 2014)

According to Publisher's Lunch:

Amazon spokesperson Susan Stockman confirmed  to us that the company is "working on a new reader-powered publishing  program with transparent, fixed contract terms." The new venture uses  reader feedback to "vote" for books that should be published by Amazon:  "Under the program, authors submit their books and, after a few days, an  excerpt of a few pages will be posted for readers to nominate books  they’d like to see published. Books with the most nominations will be  reviewed by our team and selected for publication. All readers who  nominated a selected book will receive a complimentary digital copy one  week before the book goes on sale." Stockman says, "We haven't announced  a launch date."


 The letter as quoted on the Kindle forum underscores that the  submissions must be "never-before-published." The "fixed" terms cited in  that post comprise "a guaranteed $1,500 advance and 50 percent  royalties on net eBook revenue," in exchange for world ebook and audio  rights. There is an initial five-year publication term, and if the book  does not earn $5,000 in aggregate royalties in any five-year period,  than the author can "choose to stop publishing with us."


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## shadowwalker (Sep 23, 2014)

Oh boy. Can't wait to see how many friends and relatives these authors can drum up to vote for them... Facebook and Twitter will go wild...

I'd also be interested to see what costs are involved before Amazon determines the "net revenue".


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## Gavrushka (Sep 23, 2014)

I would imagine the goal is indeed to make Amazon money, with networking ability trading blows with talent to see who gets nominated.


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## Schrody (Sep 23, 2014)

I hope that won't become the only way to self publish on Amazon, or else I won't publish there (big loss, I know). But I don't think Amazon would do such a risky business "feature", it's in their interest to make more money, so why cutting the deal with all those undiscovered authors which book might be a new bestseller?


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## Bishop (Sep 23, 2014)

I think it'll be an option, or a promotional thing; not the only way to publish through them.


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## Schrody (Sep 23, 2014)

Bishop said:


> I think it'll be an option, or a promotional thing; not the only way to publish through them.



Yeah, I think that too


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## T.S.Bowman (Sep 23, 2014)

shadowwalker said:


> Oh boy. Can't wait to see how many friends and relatives these authors can drum up to vote for them... Facebook and Twitter will go wild...



Damn. I guess I better get REALLY busy making friends. 

Seriously? The book with the most nominations? That means that any piece of garbage will get published if the author can get enough people to nominate it?

Hell. The more I think about it, the more likely it is that I am just going to put the stuff I write into a drawer and my children can do what they wish with it when I die.

Stupid idea.

I can only hope that someone at Amazon is actually paying attention when the amount of crap that gets "nominated" outweighs the decent books that are being passed over. That will happen VERY quickly.


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## T.S.Bowman (Sep 23, 2014)

Gavrushka said:


> I would imagine the goal is indeed to make Amazon money, with networking ability trading blows with talent to see who gets nominated.



That's the problem with the whole concept. Networking ability is almost always going to be able to outweigh talent in that kind of scenario.

Any two bit hack with a good ability to sell themselves will have their book "nominated" much more than will a person with real talent who isn't very good at self promotion.

Remember all those conversations here about self publishing sites and such where it's nearly impossible to find good quality work amid all the absolutely terrible pieces? 

Amazon has just taken a big step toward that being the new normal in publishing.


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## bookmasta (Sep 24, 2014)

Why do I feel like its just another way for Amazon to monopolize the writing industry?


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