How a rejection by Amazon Publishing opened a new door for me

We will not publish your books, but …

A few weeks ago, I wrote a mail to Amazon Publishing. I asked if they were interested in including my successful thriller series in their publishing program.

I sent them the previous selling figures for the first 13 books in the series, defined my target audience, and explained why I wanted to join Amazon Publishing.

Why I wanted to move from self-publishing to a publisher

Any successful self-publisher would probably ask this question because with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, you can really earn very well as an independent author and at the same time do everything the way you want.

That’s why I never intended to become a published author. But the first volume of my Simon Stark series is already four years old. I was sure that none of the books had already exhausted its readership, but I also didn’t know how I could reasonably reach all those readers who hadn’t been reached by my advertising efforts before.

Amazon Publishing, on the other hand, has much better opportunities to reach precisely the right readers. So I said to myself: “Why shouldn’t I sell my old series to the publisher and take another decent amount of money for it?

The publisher’s first call

After we had arranged an appointment for a phone call by e-mail, the Senior Editor contacted me on time. He had read the first volume of the series and was very impressed.

Some colleagues he had introduced the series to also gave him very positive feedback. We talked about my goals as an author, my motivation to join Amazon Publishing, and my way of writing.

At the end of the conversation, the senior editor explained that he would next introduce my series to the marketing team. Together they would look at the potential of the series again and then make a final decision.

After more than forty minutes, this first phone call was over. I felt valued and well informed.

The rejection

Almost two weeks later, the senior editor called me again.

He was sorry to have to tell me that the publisher couldn’t take over the series after all.

The marketing department had given three reasons.

1. In their opinion, the series is aimed primarily at male readers. But Amazon Publishing had a preferably female audience.

2. to include a series of thirteen books in the program is not logistically feasible at the moment. Cover designers, editors, and marketing departments would have considerable problems freeing up the necessary resources on time.

3. My books are too cheap. Since Amazon Publishing generally charges 3.99€ or 4.99€ for their books, they were worried that these prices would scare off my regular readers.

One door closes, another opens

For me, the rejection was absolutely okay, even though I could not understand two of the reasons for the refusal. Firstly, my readership is predominantly female, which I know from evaluations of my advertising campaigns.

Secondly, my regular readers would not have bought my books a second time anyway, only because they would be reissued with a new cover. I saw the job of Amazon Publishing as precisely opening up new readership.

Nevertheless, I understood the publisher’s position. They probably know the overall market much better than I do.

But the senior editor made a suggestion: If I plan a new project, I should contact him again and offer it.

He gave me some hints as to what the publisher was looking for so that I could take this into account in future projects.

He also promised to contact me if he had a project that would suit me.

Conclusion

The rejection by the publishing house was not the end of the world — quite the opposite. A new world has opened up for me.

If I hadn’t decided one day to apply to the publisher by e-mail, I wouldn’t have a personal contact person there today.

Now I can specifically develop projects that fit the profile of the publishing house and send them directly to a contact person who has already read something I wrote and who likes my books.

Whenever you offer your work, you can be rejected, but sometimes there comes an additional alternative opportunity.

But if you avoid any risk of rejection, nothing will happen either in the positive or in the negative.

Rejection is part of the business if you are professional. Who cannot deal with it, misses under circumstances chances, which would never have existed without the courage to the risk.

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