Amazon this morning named the first 10 digital books to be published through its “Kindle Scout” program, which lets customers nominate their favorite unpublished titles from a collection of manuscripts submitted for consideration by aspiring authors.
The program is similar to Amazon Studios’ process of letting viewers weigh in on television pilots before deciding which will go into full production. The approach, leveraging the company’s large customer base for market research, has worked well for the television production side, and now Amazon is hoping to see similar success by crowdsourcing the selection of books.
The Kindle Scout titles chosen for publication as e-books include contemporary fiction, historical fiction, romance, mysteries, thrillers and science fiction. Here’s the list, to be published on March 3.
- G1 by Rigel Carson – Science Fiction
- A Highland Knight’s Desire by Amy Jarecki – Romance
- Eddie & Sunny by Stacey Cochran – Mystery/Romance
- L.A. Sniper by Steve Gannon – Thriller
- Pit Bulls vs. Aliens by Neal Wooten – Science Fiction
- Royal Date by Sariah Wilson – Romance
- Running from the Past by Alan Orloff – Thriller
- The Game Master by William Bernhardt – Thriller
- The Omega Connection by Allan Leverone – Thriller
- Unpaved Surfaces by Joseph Souza – Mystery
Authors whose books are chosen receive a 5-year renewable publishing deal, with a $1,500 advance, a royalty rate of 50 percent, and the ability to take back rights to the book if the author doesn’t earn at least $25,000 during the 5-year contract.
Amazon customers who have nominated one of the selected books get a free copy once it’s published.
