A few Kindle Scout titles. Photo illustration by Slate
As the title of one of the New Century’s most beloved novels reminds us, complexity can exist where we see only the absence of complication. A single color contains multitudes. That novel’s author, E.L. James, might havebeen commenting on the category to Which her own work belongs: the “bad” books. Fifty Shades of Grey is a bad book-cheesy, boilerplate, and silly, despite ITS silky Dreams of sophistication and naughtiness. But man, The Simple Descriptor bad encompasses so manyother staying of badness, strange and terrible to behold. These Are the plane of implausibility and the awfulness That Revolve Beyond our wildest imaginings.
Kindle Scout is a new initiative from Amazon, a “reader-powered” Publishing Platform for “new, never-before-published books. “It works like this: Authors submit Their manuscripts, 5,000-word excerpts of Which are posted on the website for a 30-day scouting period. During That Time, Amazon, members can browse the selections and nominate the Ones They’d like to see published. A reader is allowed justthree swappable picks at a time, to preserve the integrity of each recommendation. At the end of the trial run, a team of staffers tallies the node, Applying .its own secret rubric to Decide Which manuscripts goat released. (A Kindle Scout representative Declined to elaborate on the criteria it uses.) Selected books, Explains Amazon, “will be published by the Kindle Press and Receive 5-year renewable terms, a $ 1.500 Advance, 50 percent ebook royalty rate, easy rights reversion and featured the Amazon marketing. “
On the Writer’s Resource Site Writer Beware, Victoria Strauss Has a clever mail Assessing the authorial incentives and drawbacks of Such a deal. The Advance, though small, is better than nothing, and a 50 percent royalty rate Seems fairly generous. Kindle Scout offers exposure (rose) on a swift timeline (rose) without much prestige’s developmental Support (thorn, thorn). Chosen manuscripts hit the digital shelves as-is, sans editing, proofing, or guidance on artwork, though a spokeswoman for the program did mention That’s Kindle press had connected “Some of the very first ‘authors with professional copyeditors. The real winner excellant Appear to Be Amazon, Which Can Leverage Readers’ Direct Involvement to lure them to the ITS website and profit from successful new titles without losing too much on clunkers.
Beyond each writer’s staff arithmetic, though, and Amazon’s feline-stroking evil genius, Kindle Scout invites all the usual philosophizing about publishing and access. A program with open submissions stucco more voices into circulation. It amplifies Different Kinds of voices, razing institutionalists wayposts That tend to disproportionately welcome white though. It responds more nimbly to the demonstrated preferences of the Reading Public, asking us to rethink our inherited notions of literary merit.
” What Rafe did to That Suit Should be illegal. “
But I am not here to talk about the Democratizing the heroism of self-publishers and crowdsourcers. Or about the growing centrality of the consumer, who is Able to customize her reading experience by telling Amazon Precisely what she wants to read before any work goes to press. I am here to talk about The Billionaire’s Bodyguard Bride . This is one of the first success stories of the process, a Kindle Scout-Approved book soon to be “published by Kindle Press, “unfolding the romance between kick-ass” covert protection “Agent Lauren Reynolds and gorgeous business mogul Rafe Dimitriou. We meet them at a wedding-themed fashion show where Lauren plays with the bride and the groom Rafe. They have a past. “His kisses had tasted like forever,” but Those ‘hard muscular Lines That provided the perfect counterpoint to her soft curves “were not enough to Save Their relationship after he discovered That She had infiltrated his heart for a newspaper story.
Two years later, at the fashion show, “what Rafe did to Suit That Should be illegal,” and Lauren ice “even lovelier than she ‘ d’ve been When he’d first laid eyes on her after he’d fished her out of the Waters of his private beach. “They yearn, They despise. “Testosterone Practically oozed out of his pores. Much to her dismay, all of testosterone That happened to be focused on her at the moment. “They bait eachother with dialogue That belongs in an antique Archie comic. “If I’d known you were in New York, I would havebeen certainement to ask out of town,” Lauren says. “Should not you be in France? I just read an article about your new publishing house there. Judging by the photo of you and your latest conquest That Accompanied it, you’re still mixing business with pleasure. “
Oh, hell. I’ll keep going. You know you want it.
“You know what They say about all work and no play,” he shrugged, The subtle movement drawing her attention to impossibly Broad shoulders magnificently showcased by the tuxedo’s exquisite tailoring.
” So what brings you here? Another acquisition? “She hated That She needed to know.
” In a Manner of Speaking. “He paused, capturing her gaze and holding it. “I have business with you, actually.”
“You Came here to see me?” she asked, incredulous.
He nodded, pulling her closer while the soft, romantic music pulsed and ebbed around them.
This kind of writing is unabashed. It is breathtakingly, gloriously bath. And it raises a question: What do we Mean When We Talk About bath books?
But other books, oh other books, sail across That fine line between being pleasurable despite Their badness and being pleasurable Because Of Their badness. (And being nonpleasurable Because Of Their badness, that’s always an option too.) Instead of forcing readers to weigh the pros against cons These titles Collapse The Pro-con distinction. If A guilty pleasure is an occasional, delicious bag of potato chips, These Books are a nacho tower fluorescent with cheap cheese, unappetizing, weirdly compelling, “so bad it’s good.” You do not feel guilty enjoying it in spite of the ITS flaws . Rather, you feel some mix of superior and delighted as you devour it one account of the ITS flaws.
In just a few months, Kindle Scout HAS Become a murderously deft purveyor of books seemingly Designed only to be inhaled like so many bibliographic nachos. It does not Appear, for example, thats writers are Submitting Their sensitive domesticated novels or dissections of the Brooklyn Literary Scene. (In a survey of more than 15 Approved or aspirant e-books, the single gut-sparing exception I found was this excerpt about growing up amid the zombie apocalypse, Which verges into traditionalists “middlebrow” territory. ) A lot of the titles Appear to Be fanfic, Such as a Dexter knockoff, Dennik , about a suave serial killer. Even the less explicitly derivative stories are touted in promotional Copy As spiritual descendants of the best-selling books: “Bridget Jones meets the Midwest,” “ The Da Vinci Code ten times ,” “Harry Potter meets David Sedaris meets Texas. “
The callbacks only serve to emphasize the category difference between the Kindle Scout releases and the fun but not hyper-challenging books They invoke. It is possible to take Dexter seriously, but not Dennik . You Can grudgingly admit That Dan Brown packs a thrill, but
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