Tag: Kindle Scout

Self-Publishing Questions and Answers, Round Two

self publishing question-1500086_960_720I wrote a post back in March answering some of the questions I most often see asked in writing groups and discussion forums. It seemed to be helpful, so after coming across more questions with iffy answers, I thought I should go for round two.

The first question is one I actually addressed in a post about book formatting back in May of 2016, but I’ve seen it asked so much lately, I thought it couldn’t hurt to repeat it.

Q.  No matter how many times I accept track changes in Word (or remove my header/footer), everything is still there when I upload to KDP. Do I have to retype the whole thing? Continue reading “Self-Publishing Questions and Answers, Round Two”

Turning Losing into Winning: The Kindle Scout Experience

FindingTravis3D-2-medWhen I finished my latest book, Finding Travis, a time travel story, I sent it out to beta readers and prepared to self-publish as I always do. But then a friend began broadcasting the news that she had entered her latest book in the Kindle Scout program and was looking for nominations. I remembered that another friend had entered his book in the program months ago, and had won the coveted publishing contract with Amazon. Because I really, really liked this new book of mine, and because I had built up quite a decent fan base, I decided to try Kindle Scout for myself. Continue reading “Turning Losing into Winning: The Kindle Scout Experience”

My Kindle Scout Adventure, Part 2

kindlescout logoThanks for checking back in. As I mentioned in my previous article I submitted my new book to Amazon’s Kindle Scout program. Halfway in, I’d attracted the attention of a literary agent, figured out the timing of when the stats were shown on the Scout page, and I even knew what time the Hot and Trending category was refreshed. Plus I’d done some smart networking to generate traffic to my Kindle Scout campaign. This all might sound like a lot of work, but it really wasn’t. I wasn’t on every social network begging for votes. I spaced out my updates and always asked readers to check out the book and make up their own mind. The mail out, the blog I posted on my personal website, and the Facebook posts were the strongest tools in drawing traffic. It was difficult to gauge how much was going on behind the scenes, but I know many others were spreading the word too. Continue reading “My Kindle Scout Adventure, Part 2”

My Kindle Scout Adventure, Part 1

kindlescout logoI needed to do something different. My book sales had stalled and I was searching for ways to connect with readers – new readers. So, at the beginning of September I submitted my latest, unpublished manuscript – The Dead List – to Amazon’s Kindle Scout program.

Here’s how it works: Continue reading “My Kindle Scout Adventure, Part 1”