Amazon Launch Kindle Indie Bookstore

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Amazon today announced the launch of the Kindle Indie Bookstore which will be dedicated ‘high quality’ and bestselling books from authors and independent publishers. On face value, this doesn’t look a bad move by Amazon if it does help to promote worthy self-published books. In addition, Amazon has also announced some other new features including improved ‘look inside’.

From the Amazon Kindle Newsletter:

We are excited to announce the launch of the Kindle Indie Bookstore (www.amazon.com/kindleindiebooks) on Amazon.com. This page will provide readers a convenient way to explore and browse some of the indie selection available on Kindle from KDP authors and publishers. We hope the Kindle Indie Bookstore will showcase top selling, popular and high quality books from independent authors and publishers. “We are excited to highlight our growing selection of indie books to Kindle readers through the launch of the Kindle Indie Bookstore and provide this new avenue of exposure to KDP authors and publishers,” said Atif Rafiq, General Manager, Kindle Direct Publishing. Please read the Kindle Indie Bookstore FAQ for answers to commonly asked questions.

Dig a little further into this news and authors will quickly discover that the new Kindle Indie Bookstore is not a free-for-all. Submissions by authors to have their books featured will not be accepted.

From the FAQ’s:

How can I become a featured author?

Our editorial team selects authors to highlight in this area based on criteria that we believe will best serve the interests of Kindle readers. At this time, we do not accept submissions for this placement.

How can I have my books featured in the Kindle Indie Bookstore? We use a combination of automated techniques and editorial activities to select books based on criteria that we believe will best serve the interest of Kindle readers. At this time, we do not support any specific requests for placement. The likelihood of appearing within the Kindle Indie Bookstore is higher for highly rated, popular and top selling books.

The cynical however may look upon this move by Amazon as the first step towards cleaning up the house in light of the vast number of self-published books flooding their retail database. For Amazon to remain the most successful online book retailer it must make it as easy as possible for readers to find the books they are looking for as well as allowing Amazon to fully harness their marketing and recommendation engines.
It will be interesting to see how this develops over the coming months.
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