A Kindle Scout few 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 or complication. A single color contains multitudes. That novel’s author, E. L. James might have been commenting on the category to her own work-which belongs: “bad” books. Fifty Shades of Grey is a bad book-cheesy boilerplate, and silly, Despite notes silky sophistication and dreams of naughtiness. But man, the simple descriptor bad encompasses so many other vistas or badness, strange and terrible to behold. These are planets or implausibility and 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:. Their Authors submit manuscripts, 5,000-word excerpts or-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 has allowed just three 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 nods, applying Its Own Secret rubric to Decide-which manuscripts get released. (A Kindle Scout representative, declined to elaborate on the criteria it uses.) Selected books, Amazon Explains, “will be published by Kindle Press and receive 5-year renewable terms, a $ 1.500 Advance, 50 percent eBook royalty rate, easy rights reversions and featured Amazon marketing. “
On the writer’s resource site Writer Beware, Victoria Strauss Has A smart post assesing the authorial incentives and drawbacks or Such a deal. The advance, though small, is better than nothing, and a 50 percent royalty rate Seems fairly generous. Kindle Scout sacrifices exposure (pink) on a swift timeline (rose) without much prestige or 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 Kindle Press had connected “some of the very first” authors with professional copy editors. The real winner would Appear to be Amazon-which can leverage readers’ direct involvement to lure them to notes website and profit from successful new titles without losing too much on clunkers.
Beyond each writer’s personal 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 puts more voices in circulation. It amplifies different child or voices, razing institutionalism wayposts That tend to disproportionately welcome white men. 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 shouldering be illegal. “
But I am not here to talk about the democratizing heroism or self-publishers and crowdsourcers. Or about the growing centrality of the consumer, who is bootable 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, “the unfolding romance between kick-ass” covert protection “agent Lauren Reynolds and gorgeous business mogul Rafe Dimitriou. We’ll meet them at a wedding-themed fashion show where clause Lauren plays the bride and the groom Rafe. They have a fit. “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 that suit shouldering be illegal,” and Lauren is “odd lovelier than she ‘ d leg When he’d first laid eyes on her after he’d Fished her out of the water or his private beach. “They yearn, They despise. “Testosterone Practically oozed out of his pores. Much to her dismay, all or 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 have been certainement to be 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-or 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 soft, romantic music pulsed and ebbed around them.
This child or writing is unabashed. It’s breathtakingly, gloriously bath. And it raises a question: What do we mean when, we talk about bad books
One That phrase gets thrown around a lot is “guilty pleasure.” This gene rally titles Means That engross and titillate even if they’re not painstakingly written or constructed. Think plot-heavy thrillers like The Girl on the Train or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo . Fizzy heartwarmers like Bridget Jones’s Diary . Trashy confessionals like Valley of the Dolls . With a guilty pleasure, the reader Has to make a series or Calculations, weighing demerits ( thesis characters all sound the same ) against redeeming qualities ( but I missed my subway stop) . When a guilty pleasure works, It Means suspense or an appealing voice or soaring fantasy elements have overridden weak prose or flat characterization or dumb plot contrivances, So THAT the net reading experience is positive.
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, thesis titles collapse the pro-con distinction. If a guilty pleasure is an occasional, delicious bag of potato chips, thesis 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 whether it’s flaws . Rather, you feel some mix or superior and delighted as you devour it on account whether it’s 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, That writers are submit ting Their sensitive domestic novels or dissections of the Brooklyn literary scene. (In a survey of more than 15 approved or aspiring e-books, the single gut-sparing exception I found was this excerpt about growing up amid the zombie apocalypse,-which verges into traditional “middle brow” territory. ) A lot of the titles Appear to be fanfic, zoals a Dexter knockoff, Dennik , about a suave serial killer. Even the less Explicitly derivative stories are touted in promotional copy as spiritual descendants or best sellers, “Bridget Jones meets the Midwest,” “ The Da Vinci Code at Times ,” “Harry Potter meets David Sedaris meets Texas. “
The callbacks only serve to Emphasize the category difference between 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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