Your Opportunity to Be a (Paid) Published Author


Vintage inscription made by old typewriterThis is a brand new opportunity for all budding authors – hot off the press, so to speak.

Come on, admit it: haven’t there been times when you’ve wanted to put pen to paper and write that great novel? They say that everyone has a story in them and I think that’s true. For some, the passion has maybe burned a little brighter and they have already taken those few extra steps to ensure their dream becomes a reality.

For most of us though, life just gets in the way. We have too little time, too many responsibilities and, added to that, we have learned through the grapevine that whilst writing a book is hard enough, getting it published and marketed seems almost impossible… so we push that creative idea to one side.

But what if I told you that there is a way for you to become a published author…? A way by which you could be paid upfront for your endeavours, even before your book hits the virtual or real printing press. Would that reignite your dream?

Before we go any further, because I’m sure it’s what you’re thinking, let me assure you that this has got nothing to do with Kindle KDP or Amazon Publishing as we already know it. This is something brand new…

I’m excited to let you know that Amazon are set to launch a new publishing crowd source platform.

Crowd Sourcing is simply another term to describe fundraising, by an individual or an organisation, to help a product get off the ground.

In this instance, your benefactor (if accepted) would be Amazon itself. Details are a still a bit sketchy as this is so new, but this appears to be the shape of the package which they will be offering:

  • Authors will be invited to submit a completed book to Amazon’s proposed new crowd-sourced publishing platform.
  • The manuscript should not have been published before, should exceed 50,000 words and be submitted in Word format.
  • A book cover which suitably conveys the theme of your book will also be required, along with a short but powerful description.
  • Within a few days Amazon will post the first few pages of your book to their new website, which will be open for readers to review and then nominate their favourite.
  • Books with the most nominations will be reviewed by the Amazon team for potential publication.

If you are successful, Amazon will offer you a contract with a guaranteed advance of $1,500, as well as 50% royalties on net ebook revenue.

There would be five-year (renewable) contract, under which Amazon will assume worldwide publication rights for the ebook and audio formats. You will keep all other rights, including print copy rights. Within the contract there would be built-in opt-out clauses if your book fails to reach certain royalty levels.

For some established authors this might not be quite as sweet a deal as it appears on the surface. They might think, for instance, that they could earn higher royalties using Kindle’s standard 70% royalty earnings format, as well as utilising other digital platforms, such as Kobo and Barnes & Noble.

However, for most authors who are struggling to get some initial literary recognition, this new scheme could be seen as a boon.  There is no doubt that if Amazon accepts you into their programme, they will throw the full might of their marketing machine behind your book, and this to my mind is where the true merit of this scheme lies.

I understand that submissions for books in the categories: romance, mystery, thriller, science fiction and fantasy will be open within a week or so.

Full details of this scheme have yet to be fully published, but for those authors interested in learning more, they can email Amazon at: [email protected].

It will be extremely interesting to see how it all unfolds over the coming months. But one way or the other I think this is a great opportunity for hitherto unrecognised indie (independent) authors.

Until next time, have a great week.

Richard

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    Malcolm Callaghan

    Richard, Thanks very much for bringing that to our attention. It sounds the sort of thing that interests me because I am in the very category you describe, I’d love to write something but I could not be bothered with the marketing effort. So I’d better start writing!

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