If you’re like many authors, you may have submitted your manuscript to several different publishers over the course of months or years and have yet to receive a positive response. Maybe they all say they love the book and continue to sing its praises, but no one has really “taken” the opportunity to pay for your brilliance.

You’ll be happy to know that another heavyweight has officially joined the world of publishing. Amazon.com recently set up a flagship line that has big New York City publishers worried. This is because Amazon is offering writers of fiction and nonfiction works a viable way to get published, which comes with its vast resources and the large Kindle e-reader market.

Shaking Things Up
Amazon showed the world it was serious about this venture when it announced the hiring of industry giant and former CEO of Time Warner Books, Larry Kirshbaum. With more than 40 years of experience, people associate Kirshbaum with best-sellers and know of his brilliance in recognizing real talent.

Since 2009, AmazonEncore has filtered through comments and reviews on its self-published books list in order to identify those works that warrant more attention, better publicity and a bigger audience. With this move, it looks as though Amazon is signaling its intent to move beyond this business model to one that puts it in direct competition with the big name publishing houses.

Bigger Benefits
While Amazon began this venture in search of brand name stories, they are known for providing first time authors with their big breaks. For authors, this means a direct partnership with Amazon that negates the need for an agent or outside publisher. In other words, Amazon acts as the one stop shop—agent, publisher and bookseller. And, thanks to its highly coveted Nielsen BookScan sales data, it also offers authors the information they need to track sales and understand individual markets.

In addition to a simplified process, another major benefit of working with Amazon is having the additional exposure that comes from getting the book not only into print, but also into ebook form for Kindle owners. In addition to a rise in e-reader usage by 167% between 2010 and 2011, the Kindle has the largest market share when it comes to manufacturers, with almost 52% in the second quarter of 2011.[i]

Get On Board
If you’d like to submit your proposal to Amazon Encore, visit www.amazonencore.com for more information and the email where they can be sent.