A retailer's first imprint drew on its own review data first

Amazon's 2009 and 2010 press releases document AmazonEncore's shift from rediscovery to a Kindle acquisition channel.

Historical event

May 13, 2009

First source published

May 13, 2009

Site publication

September 18, 2026

The record

On 13 May 2009 Amazon.com announced a new publishing program, AmazonEncore, in its own press release. The release states that AmazonEncore would use signals such as customer reviews on Amazon's websites to identify exceptional, overlooked books and authors, then partner with those authors to re-issue their books with marketing support and distribution into print, the Kindle Store, Audible.com, and bookstores through third-party wholesalers. Its first title was 'Legacy,' a self-published novel by then-16-year-old author Cayla Kluver, quoted alongside Jeff Belle, Amazon's vice president of books, describing the program's purpose. A year later, Amazon's follow-up announcement of ten new fall 2010 titles states the list included books originally published on Kindle's Digital Text Platform alongside original manuscripts.

What the documents show

The two releases together document a shift in the imprint's acquisition sources over its first year: the 2009 launch is framed around unearthing an already-published but overlooked book, while the 2010 announcement explicitly names self-published Kindle titles as a second acquisition channel. Neither release states sales figures for 'Legacy' or any other title, and neither describes AmazonEncore's advance or royalty terms; the model each document establishes is editorial selection and distribution support, not the specific financial arrangement offered to a given author. Amazon's own archived press materials from this period do not extend further back than May 2009, which is consistent with, though it does not by itself prove beyond doubt, a founding at that date.

Why it stays interesting

This is an editorial note: the program marks a documented instance of a retailer becoming a publisher by starting from its own sales and review data rather than from an acquisitions editor's slush pile, a sourcing method the 2009 release states explicitly. For a self-published author today, the record is a documented precedent for how one platform, at least in this instance, moved from selling a book to publishing it, though the two releases examined here do not state how many authors were offered similar deals or on what terms compared with a conventional publisher.

What to read next

A reader could next check Amazon's 2011 launch of additional genre-specific imprints such as 47North, which shows the publishing program expanding beyond its original single imprint, or the Authors Guild's later positions on self-publishing platform contracts, for a comparison of terms across models.

• What specific criteria did an acquisition announcement state for selecting a title, and did those criteria change between 2009 and later years?
• Do any Amazon Publishing materials disclose advance or royalty terms for a specific title, or only editorial and marketing support?
• How did the imprint's list grow from its first title to the ten-book list announced in 2010?

Amazon's own two earliest publishing announcements document a program that began with one rediscovered manuscript and had, within a year, formalized a second acquisition channel from its own Kindle self-publishing platform, without disclosing the commercial terms offered to either kind of author.

Sources & reading trail

Amazon's own announcement of AmazonEncore's launch, acquisition model, and first title.

Source published: 13 May 2009 · Retrieved: 16 September 2026

Shows the imprint's list a year later and states Kindle self-published titles as a second acquisition source.

Source published: 8 June 2010 · Retrieved: 16 September 2026

Reports, filings, records and studies establish the entry; the reading of why it stays interesting is Chapter Ledger editorial analysis. This retrospective draft does not imply the site published on the event date.

Continue reading

• A reading device launched at $399 and sold out within days
• A self-publishing tool launched alongside the Kindle itself
• A platform launched in 2008 paid authors most of each sale
• Browse the complete the ledger archive

Published September 18, 2026, not on the date of the event described.