Life as I see it: Authors, et. al. Why nominate my book for publication through kindlescout?

Current iteration of the "full cover" for when the book becomes "Patterns on Pages."

Nearly two years ago, I learned about the kindlescout program. It was just what I was looking for.

If you don’t know about this Amazon program, this is from https://kindlescout.amazon.com/agreement. The highlights are mine.

You give:

· An opportunity to consider your book for publication during a 45-day exclusivity period, starting as soon as you submit to Kindle Scout. You also give us the right to display an excerpt of your manuscript, your name and photo, and other materials you submit to us on the Kindle Scout site and distribute your work in order to solicit feedback.

· If your book is selected for publication by Kindle Press, we'll have the exclusive worldwide right to publish it in eBook and audio formats, in all languages, for a term beginning on the selection date and auto-renewing every five years. If you do not earn at least $25,000 during any 5-year term, you'll have six months after the end of that 5-year period in which you can choose to stop publishing with us and request your rights back.

You get:

· An opportunity to get paid for your writing. We're looking for never-before-published books of about 50,000 words or more. If we select your book for publication, you will be entitled to a $1,500 advance and royalties on net revenues at a rate of 50% for eBooks, 25% for audio editions and 20% for translations.

· If your book is selected for publication by Kindle Press and you later want to stop publishing with us, you'll be able to get your rights back in a variety of circumstances.

Unfortunately, I did not have a book ready for publication at that time.

Today, I have a book ready for publication. It's not just "another" book.

Patterns on Pages – Secrets of the Sequenced Symbols – Traveler’s HOT L – Volume 4 is a story about disaster, aliens, curious young people, great teachers, more aliens, and books. BTW, Thomas Jefferson makes a cameo appearance.

The book is well-written. Solid plot, novel approach, edited appropriately, and proofed by many eyes.
The story is compelling. Disaster strikes Earth. Humanity teeters on extinction. Aliens recruit two illiterates from the far future and two teachers from the present day. Together, future humans, teachers, and aliens . . . You really didn't think I was going to give away the ending, did you?
The characters are relatable and consistent.
Readers from middle schoolers to seniors in life will enjoy it. If it was a movie, it would be "Rated G." Well, by the time Hollywood finished, it would probably be PG-13 for the way they'd computer enhance the disaster scenes.
It's a quality story that doesn't include profanity, suggestive dialog or situations, or inappropriate gratuitous violence.
It's a book worthy of publication.

Until September 10, 2017, Patterns on Pages is in the 45-day exclusive period mentioned above. That time period ends on September 9th.

Part of the selection process is garnering “nominations” of your book. No one but the author (and Amazon) knows how many page views a book gets. Even the author doesn't know the actual number of nominations.

I’d hoped for 50-100 nominations per day. For days 1-3, Patterns garnered a total of 127 page views.

Below expectations.

If you were a student or colleague of mine—and possibly if we’ve been friends for any length of time--you know I like controlled situations. I’m not a control freak. Some of you are rolling your eyes at that sentence, but it’s true. I like to be in control, but I can survive—for awhile—in situations that afford me less than my optimum control level.

If you were a student of mine, you remember times when what I said, or what we did seemed unrelated to any science at all. That may have seemed out of control.

It wasn’t.

When I first started teaching, there were many half-hour long TV shows. After the opening credits, there was a commercial break, 12-14 minutes of the show, a commercial break, 12-14 minutes of the show, and closing credits.

It was soon clear that the attention spans of my students were 12-14 minutes long. I might be able to push to twenty minutes on occasion, but students performed better when breaks more closely aligned with TV schedules.

I might tell a story or joke. I might do some “voice” to emphasize a point. There were other tricks, but those were my top two. After the “commercial,” “the show” resumed. Just like on TV.

I know for a fact that I had students who paid attention to the science I taught because they didn’t want to miss a witticism. They learned science while waiting for stories and jokes.

Oh, yeah, and I got to do what I love in a way that helped students learn and enjoy every year.

What’s that got to do with kindlescout?

I’m glad you asked.

I have no control over whether this book is chosen by Amazon.
I had all the control over the book: Title. Cover. Manuscript.

Once I submitted the book, control passed to Amazon . . .

AND YOU!

Ultimately, you—the reader/nominator—have at least as much control as the author in this process.

My book hasn’t got a prayer of earning one of Amazon’s publication slots unless people nominate it.

Bottom line:

I need your help.

Writing that sentence was one of the most difficult writing I've ever done.

I haven't given control away often.
I give control to you.

I’ve authored or co-authored 11 published books. I’ve invested thousands of dollars in those books. My royalties are not thousands of dollars. This is an opportunity to balance the ledger.

More importantly, it's an opportunity for you to have a say in the kind of books that are published.

Since Patterns is Volume 4 in the Traveler’s HOT L series, there is potential for readers to read the predecessors to see what they missed. Since the original Traveler’s HOT L was

I’m hoping they do check out my other books.

If you’ve already nominated Patterns, bless you. If you’re going to nominate Pattens, bless you. If you haven’t decided, please nominate Patterns.

It’s easy to nominate.

You must have an Amazon account to nominate.

Follow the steps below after logging in at https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/3QPD53W23JLRT