Kindle Scout discussion

Alright, sound off as you join the group.

James M. Jackson (to my publishers) checking in. Ant Farm was the 25th book selected through the Kindle Scout program and is currently in the editing stage. My guess is Kindle Press will bring it out in May, but time will tell.

~ Jim

It worked! Hooray!

Here!

Howdie, Alan. Welcome!

Running From the Past

Present

Party, party.

I added all of our books with pub dates into our group "bookshelf." Btw, my wife is getting jealous with how much time I spend with you all between our different forums. :)

The wrote: "I added all of our books with pub dates into our group "bookshelf." Btw, my wife is getting jealous with how much time I spend with you all between our different forums. :)"

Tell her all your hard work will buy yall a house in Maui and a private jet.

HAHA Stacey! She knows I'm a writer so she won't believe a word I say.

Signing up for the house in Maui and the private jet. I think we should adopt a nickname and a mascot.

A nickname for our private jet? Or our house in Maui? The Scout House sounds good to me.

I'm Maggie Toussaint writing as Rigel Carson. I'm excited to be a member of this Goodreads group, and hope that this outreach to Goodreads Readers is a smashing success!
G-1

I'm here! *she says, waving frantically from a hotel in Knoxville while perusing the bourbon menu. Pretty easy to find linda sands on goodreads. I will reciprocate all reviews. Thanks in advance. https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...

Hey! I'm a thriller/horror author whose book, THE OMEGA CONNECTION, was the lucky 13th selected through the Kindle Scout program and was released March 3. I'm thrilled (pun definitely intended) to be a part of this group, with so many talented and highly accomplished authors...

Love The Scout House!

Hi everyone! I write SF/Horror/SpecFic. I am honored to be included with all of these amazing Scout authors. It's been a lot of fun interacting with everyone. Chatting with other authors is my second favorite aspect of being one myself (my first favorite aspect about being a writer is, of course, writing).

Disclaimer: I also work as a software manager at Amazon on Kindle Publishing (once upon a time, it was my team that renamed DTP to KDP; anyone remember DTP?). I was drawn to my job here at Amazon because of my passion for writing. My job is a fortunate confluence of passion and work.

Hi! I'm Lisa Weaver. I am absolutely ecstatic to be a part of such a talented group of writers. My debut novel, "The Billionaire's Bodyguard Bride" was selected for publication through Kindle Scout. I'm still floating on Cloud 9.

Congrats Lisa! Fun to see another debut novelist selected through Kindle Scout! My debut, a dark thriller, Housebroken, is being released tomorrow. It's been an awesome experience with the Kindle Press team and learning from so many other talented authors in this group!

Hi Lisa, and congratulations. Excited for you, TheBehrg:). My novel is GRAVE OF HUMMINGBIRDS, a Gothic mystery set in the Andean highlands. This is a fabulous group to be part of.

Joe Clifford Faust checking in. I write under the name Joe Clifford Faust, and my novel Drawing Down the Moon is officially available as of today (St. Paddy's Day, 2015). It's a romantic comedy/thriller - that is a huge nod to Alfred Hitchcock - in which I see how many ways I can keep the protagonists from sleeping together.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone and Happy Release Day to The Behrg and Joe. I'm making my way through your fabulous titles, squeezing reading time in between the day job that pays the bills and the night job that is my passion. So far I've devoured Amy Jarecki's "A Highland Knight's Desire", Sariah Wilson's "Royal Date",and Sky Corgan's "Back To The Heart". I thoroughly enjoyed them and I can't wait to check out the rest of this group's offerings. So much talent!

Hi guys,

Hi fellow scout masters ;)

Just created my Kindle Scout campaign and am looking for a support group to handle the ups and downs of the next 30 days.

My title is called "Canine Colony", if any of you are interested in checking it out (https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/3FSF...).

Looking forward to sharing the pain and gain of KS with you guys ;)

Kindle Scout is pure awesomeness, Jeff! You made a great choice. I'd be delighted to check out your offering, and best of luck.

Hello Jeff, best of luck with your campaign, hope it flies by swiftly. I already said hello to the chihuahua, and I have a thing for lost puppies:).
Jennifer

Thanks, guys.

Best of luck, Jeff. Wishing for you all ups, no downs. :)

~ Jim

Hi Jeff, welcome and good luck with your campaign!

Nominated, Jeff. We need more doggie books in Scout.

Thanks, Neal. WOOF :)

Kindle Scout question for you guys - how important is it to keep that little "Hot" tag on your campaign?

My campaign has been rolling for only a few days. My initial social media blast (FB, GR, Twitter, LinkedIn, email, word of mouth, etc.) kept the "Hot" flag up for a couple of days, but now it's gone.

How in the world does one keep their campaign "Hot" for the entire 30 days? Does it matter? I can only have a fan hit the "Nominate" button once and seems that keeping it "Hot" would require a steady flow of new nominations. I'm not sure I have the social chutzpah to get that done.

Would love to get feedback from fellow scouts that've earned higher merit badges (I know, beating that scouting analogy to death -- it's fun).

- Jeff "not so hot any more" Bauer

I'd say it's very important to keep the "hot" rating, especially in the final days. I don't think a title could get selected otherwise. And I don't even think all the "hot" titles get selected now. But I could be wrong.

During my campaign I had a big push at the beginning, a small one in the middle and another big one at the end. I think it's important not to overwhelm your fans with the "nominate my book" message. And Sarah's right. There are many factors that go into Scout's book selection. Good luck, Jeff!

Jeff, it's important to pace yourself, which is easier to do with emails and LinkedIn. Getting onto the hot list alerts the team to be on the lookout because you're bringing readers to the Kindle Scout site (good marketing on their part), and indicates platform, but none of us know what the numbers are that get you there. As people have said, some who've been H&T the whole time did not get contracts (so clearly rabid popularity isn't the only consideration), and books that were on for only some of the time did get contracts. Connecting with people individually works better than general blasts into the ether, but we're all different in our social media approach. I divided my sm reach over the 30 days and did very few general postings. It was way more work, but I approached people individually, and was hot for all but a few hours on the first day. If your book is well written, spends a decent amount of time up there, you have an appealing premise and a bio that indicates a career approach to writing, you'll be fine. Erm...but who knows?

As has been noted some books that have been in the Kindle Scout Hot and Trending for "only" half the time were accepted by Kindle Press, and some books that were Hot for most of the period were not selected.

However, since your book is already what it is, the only thing you can do at this point try to keep your book prominent. I worked hard to retain my "hot" status by spreading out my asks to various communities with which I am involved. To the extent you can give people a physical reminder to help them actually go to Kindle Scout and check out your novel.

Best of luck, Jeff.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Hi Jeff. I found that promoting things on my Facebook author page was a big help. Occasionally I would run a small FB ad (maybe $5) over the course of 3-5 days to promote the page generally of a specific post. That really helped get me likes.

To reiterate what others have said, I also believe that they keep an eye out for material from the first day. If the Amazon people like your book, even a mild amount of interest might get you in. But if they don't, you may have trouble. It's much like traditional publishing in this way.

All in all, I wish you the best of luck, because that's the most tangible thing I can offer. :)

-Matt

Jeff, I did a Facebook "Wall Tour" wherein I asked people to post a link and interview me on 24 of the 30 days of the campaign. All via Facebook and Twitter. Those interviews and links asking people to nominate the book worked well for Eddie & Sunny. Kept it on the H&T list all but 2-3 days of the whole month.

News flash: Canine Colony snubbed by Kindle Scout, author, wallowing in self-pity, self-publishes anyway!

http://www.amazon.com/Canine-Colony-S...

So sorry to hear this, Jeff, but good to hear that you're moving past it, and you'll probably find that the book will do well. I certainly hope so.

Hello everyone! I write science fiction under the pen name Erin Eastham. My latest novel, Heaven Refused, is currently up for nomination on Kindle Scout. Reading through your posted advice has been really enlightening!

Erin wrote: "Hello everyone! I write science fiction under the pen name Erin Eastham. My latest novel, Heaven Refused, is currently up for nomination on Kindle Scout. Reading through your posted advice has been..."

Best of luck, Erin!

I am the Author of Floor 21.

"Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair."

Jennifer wrote: "Best of luck, Erin!"

Thank you!

Greetings. I'm a writer, editor, and game designer. I have a book up on Amazon Scout titled The Highway West. Check it out: https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/AB2H...

Hi Kindle Scouters! :)

I'm so glad that I've found this group! I particularly liked Stacey's idea of a Facebook Wall tour-- thanks for that.

My book is up on Kindle Scout now too:

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/

I'm trying to pace myself, but am so excited about the possibility of an Amazon publishing contract that I'm having trouble not telling every person I know about it. I've always been more of a sprinter than a marathoner, but after reading this thread, I should have an easier time controlling myself.

My book started with the boost that I think every book likely does, but it has just fallen off the "Hot and Trending" list. :(

Any chance that someone has a rough idea how many nominations it takes to be "hot and trending" in a given day?

Thanks again for all the helpful info in this group! :)

Katie -- The Hot and Trending is all relative. About 20% of books in the nomination process are H&T at any time. Thus the number and timing of nominations your book receives is compared to what is happening with the others.

I'm sure that was not what you wanted to hear, but that's life in Kindle Scout land.

The other thing you really need to remember is that H&T is not the be all and end all. A bunch of us who won compared the percentage of time we were H&T. Some were 95%, some well under 50%. We know lots of books that had very high percentage H&T who were not selected.

Hope that all helps,

~ JimJames M. Jackson

Thanks very much for your reply, Jim! By the way, congrats on the selection of Ant Farm! :)

Katie - congrats on having your book picked up for the nomination process!

I found concentrating on personal invitations vs mass posting on social media was much more effective when it came to having friends / family actually participate. But like Jim said (and he is the resident expert) the H&T list is just a part of the madness and not a guarantee at all.

Focus on enjoying the month of your campaign, spreading the word, and not stressing too much! Wish you the best -

The Behrg