You may not have even noticed this very quiet change last month: Amazon started removing email addresses from Amazon customer profile pages, as described by author Ian Lamont. But why does that matter?
If you’re a savvy author focused on garnering Amazon customer reviews, then you might have been using services such as AMZDiscover (no longer available) to bolster your efforts. Such tools helped authors and publishers efficiently harvest the email addresses of Amazon reviewers, which could then be added to a marketing list for advance or free review copies. You can see how it once worked in this post.
When we asked Amazon about the customer profile change, they told us: “We made this change in February to better protect customers’ information. Customers are still able to display social media and website links, so if they want visitors to their profile to have access to their email, it’s still possible to do so through their website or social media platforms.” In other words, it’s still possible to learn an Amazon customer’s email address (if that person has made it available on social media), but it’s a more convoluted process—which frankly might be for the best.
And there’s yet a second quiet change at Amazon we were alerted to. Kindle Press recently sent its authors an email saying it is no longer accepting direct manuscript submissions. Instead, Kindle Press encourages authors to “consider Kindle Direct Publishing as one of your publication options.”
Never heard of Kindle Press? You’re probably not alone, as it is not particularly publicized or promoted by Amazon; nor is it listed as an Amazon Publishing imprint. It serves as the publishing arm attached to the Kindle Scout program. When an author’s work is selected for publication as the result of a successful Kindle Scout campaign (kind of like an American Idol for books), it is then released in digital form by Kindle Press. It now appears that Amazon has no interest in further publishing Kindle Scout authors beyond works that earn them a Kindle Scout win. However, we’ve asked for clarification from the company, and we expect to have that for you in our next edition.
Bottom line: We see no indication that Kindle Scout is going away, so the elimination of direct submissions to Kindle Press may indicate a few things (all speculation until we hear from Amazon): the Kindle Scout crowd-sourced selections provide more effective gatekeeping than editors working behind the scenes at Kindle Press; one Kindle Scout win doesn’t necessarily mean future titles by the same author will do as well; and Amazon Publishing works best (perhaps because of better resources/staffing) for its traditional publishing efforts.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
