Amazon Is Turning Kindle Readers Into New-Author Talent Scouts

TechCrunch reports that the new Kindle Scout program lets Amazon customers vote on unpublished books. After a series of voting rounds, the most popular titles will be selected for publishing by Amazon.

Here's the exciting thing: The readers who prove to be the most skilled book scouts, spotting the most titles that go on to be published, will be rewarded with free book credits, as well as e-book versions of the titles they previewed and voted for.

This isn't a long and drawn-out process, like publishing a hardback book. Instead, Amazon says the entire path from submission, to voting, to publishing, takes no more than 45 days.

So why would an author want to publish their book with Amazon? The tech giant has a generous set of benefits for authors, including a $1,500 advance, 50% royalties, and in-built marketing support.