47North

RE: Bandwidth by Eliot Peper

Q. It has 37 reviews (as of 4/2/18) 5 star rating, #1 best seller, and it won't be published until May 1???? How did/does he do this?

A. 47North is an Amazon publishing company for fiction titles in the fantasy, science fiction, and horror genres. Bandwidth was released in print on April 1, which is why reviews show up on the presale for Kindle. It is also a featured First Read which means Amazon prime members can download it for free.

There isn't one path to getting picked up by one of Amazon's eighteen publishing imprints, but KindleScout is one route to consider. Otherwise, what I've heard (but haven't confirmed) is that when Amazon sees an unsigned author taking off, they'll often approach them to sign on with them as their publisher (which provides ample marketing opportunities on Amazon).

What this may reveal is that Amazon gives the titles published under it's own imprints an unfair advantage over other non-Amazon published titles. This is one of the main reasons traditional publishers have never been a fan of Amazon.

My $.02 - This brings to light the drawback of doing a kindle pre-sale BEFORE you've released the book in print. While a kindle pre-sale does give you an Amazon URL & ASIN #, it doesn't give your advance readers the ability to post a review unless the book is already released in print.