When Your KindleScout Campaign has ended & your book was not selected for Publication

C.R. Misty, the author of the soon to be published series, International Boundaries | Book 1: Simple Affair, writes about the outcome of her Kindlescout campaign
I want to thank everyone again for taking the time to nominate “International Boundaries”. Mine was not selected for publication by KindleScout, so what now?

Well, I could cry about it or make up excuses, but that is a waste of time.

So now that’s out of the way, so what? How do you take the result and spin it into something that is useful?

This is what we know.

We know what KindleScout is. It is a “reader-powered publishing for new, never-before-published books. It’s a place where readers help decide if a book gets published. Selected books will be published by Kindle Press and receive 5-year renewable terms, a $1,500 advance, 50% eBook royalty rate, easy rights reversions and featured Amazon marketing.”

Readers can, "Browse new, never-before-published books.

Every book has 30 days to earn your nomination. Authors are submitting new books all the time so check back often. Nominate your favorites.

When you discover a book that you think is great, nominate it and the book will be added to Your Nominations panel. Keep up to three books nominated at a time, and update your nominations whenever you want.  When a book’s 30-day campaign ends while in Your Nominations panel, your nomination is tallied and removed from your panel - freeing up that nomination for another book. You will receive an email to let you know whether your book has been selected for publication. Enjoy free books.

As a thank you from us and the authors you support, you will receive an early, free copy of all the Kindle Scout books you nominated that are published. Continue to champion the books and authors you helped bring to life by leaving reviews and sharing with friends.”

Italics above referenced from Kindlescout

For Authors: “Submit your book."

Review the submissions check-list and start by entering your book title and cover, catchy one-liner and other information. At the time of submission, you will be asked to review and accept the Submission & Publishing Agreement. We’ll take 1-2 business days to review your submission — a little longer if we have a ton — and send you an email once it’s approved for launch. Get ready.

Plan how you’re going to let your fans and network know that you’re putting your book up for a publishing contract. Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and email lists you have accumulated over the years are great places to start.

Your approval email will include a preview link so you can see exactly what everyone else will see. We’ll also tell you the exact launch date for your Kindle Scout campaign. All campaigns last 30 days. The more nominations your book receives the more likely it will get the attention of our Kindle Scout team and be selected for publication. At the end of your Kindle Scout campaign we will send you an email to let you know if your book has been selected for publication. We will do another internal review to ensure your book is ready for print. If published, everyone who nominated the book will receive an early, free copy and be invited to leave reviews.”

Italics above referenced from Kindlescout

I have to take the information as is and become a bit of an investigator. KindleScout uses crowd sourcing to determine what books will do well in their market. For books that gain nominations aids KindleScout in making a choice on if they should publish that book, though it's not the ultimate deciding factor.

We also know from the text above that writers who are featured on KindleScout are encouraged to market their books during the campaign. Author’s need to come in guns loaded, using all of their connections. So, for myself, I marketed to followers on Facebook, Goodreads, mibba, Google+ and twitter. I made advertisements and promoted using the free resources. My advantages was that I do have a lot of connections; my disadvantages was that I limited myself to only using free marketing. Maybe paid, targeted advertisements would have helped in reaching more.

Another thing is that during the campaign I didn’t schedule any social events. I am a shy girl but perhaps just participating in an event so that people learn who I am and what I have to offer would also have helped. I know it is something to look at in more detail and consider.

When I was notified that I wasn't selected, KindleScout advised that, “International Boundaries was not selected for publication.”  There was no nomination count or rank on how well or poor the book did. It was just a simple regrets message and there isn't much I can do with that right?

Wrong! We have to look at reasons, all factors. Like marketing, did I promote? Yes! Did I pay for marketing ads? No (this may have helped)

Maybe my cover image wasn’t appealing? People do judge books by the cover and maybe it was a reason for being passed over. So, I have to ask myself, did the cover help? I suspect no because the image was just of a dying rose. I picked it to symbolize a dying love and the start of an affair, like a poison, but I suspect that a potential reader wouldn't pick up on that because the title being the second part of a cover didn't hint at what the story was about, "International Boundaries" sounds like it may be a thriller novel and not a romance. So now I need to weigh in and decide, should I change the title, the image or both? Or do I leave it as is and hope that my book does well in the market as is? (Update: I did Change the title and cover, see the before & after below)


Novel Before

 
Novel After














Another factor is the writing. It could be that the story just lacked something and readers didn't feel it deserved to be nominated. How can I test that theory without having any analytics from KindleScout? Right after my campaign ended I submitted my work to a writing competition. The competition was free and the trade off was that you post your work, you are guaranteed 3 detailed reviews and the trade is you have to read and review 3 other submissions. I got my 3 reviews back, 2 of my 3 reviewers overall didn't enjoy the storyline and my third absolutely loved and that could be preference to genre. Reviewers don't get to pick their favorite genre. The gold nugget of these 3 reviews was in the details of the feedback. All 3 critics agreed that the writing was good, clear the voice of the characters were realistic, the scenes were detailed, their was fair description but the one similar item that they wanted was balance between character dialogue and the actual telling of the story. My take away is maybe the KindleScout readers also wanted more of a balance and that is something that I need to look at again to improve.

I have learned that with every effort that you put towards your projects, you have to do it for a reason and to make the effort worth while, you need to be able to gain from it whether the outcome is favorable or not.

For me I would have LOVED to have been selected by KindleScout. Their marketing strength alone is a strong reason for aspiring un-published authors to submit to them.

I knew that like any competition there are lots of entrants and only a handful that get selected, so I needed to give myself alternate expectations in the case that I wasn’t selected. For me Kindlescout was an outlet to test the waters to see if I could raise interest and I learned that right now my marketing approach isn’t strong enough, so now I know that I need to consider other marketing strategies.

I need to look at the book cover and title and redesign so that it helps attract more potential readers , particularly romance readers and I have also learned to challenge the writing and seek feedback and I know that I need to look at balancing conversation versus narration a little more.

This was my experience and takeaway with KindleScout and I likely submit again for future novels.

Have you submitted to KindleScout? What was the outcome? What did you learn thru the experience?

If you enjoyed this post you can subscribe to this page by entering your email at the top left of the screen.

Thank you for reading my post and best of luck with your writing projects!

The first 7 chapters of C.R. Misty’s upcoming new book, Simple Affair can be read on Wattpad and if you enjoy her work please show your support by voting.