Amazon’s pop-up library stocks nothing but self-published books

Amazon’s Kindle Storyteller Award opened a pop-up library in Victoria Park, stocking its shelves entirely with self-published titles to mark ten years of the prize.

The free open-air library let visitors browse and borrow a book for an afternoon, part of a wider push to put independent authors in front of readers who might not otherwise find them.

Shelves paired novels from past winners with self-published breakout hits from Colleen Hoover and Frieda McFadden, both of whom built their readerships before any traditional publisher signed them.

The campaign promotes self-publishing through Kindle Direct Publishing is open to any author regardless of background, and some of fiction’s biggest names started exactly where this weekend’s shelf-browsers did.

The pop-up taps into the same appetite driving the mass reading party trend, treating reading as a social occasion rather than a solitary one, and continues a run of experiential marketing making use of London’s parks as event stages.

Entries for the tenth Kindle Storyteller Award, worth £20,000, remain open until 31st August via Kindle Direct Publishing.