"Amazon is crowdsourcing their slush pile"

That's the judgment of Jim Hines (himself a traditional and e-book published author) in looking at the Amazon Kindle Scout program.

Hines compares the contract terms Amazon is offering and finds them lacking compared to traditional contracts, as well as containing a "rights grab" and giving authors a lower royalty rate than that earned by traditional e-book publishers on Amazon's infrastructure. Considering that Amazon is trying to convince all and sundry that it has a better idea of how to split royalties this is kind of interesting.

Also interesting is what Amazon doesn't have to do, which includes promote, edit, provide cover art, or pretty much do anything a publisher would be expected to do. Hines concludes by saying:

That makes me very uncomfortable. The whole thing feels a bit like a chimera of traditional and vanity publishing, combined with a manuscript display service.

Yes, boys and girls, Amazon is still not operating in anyone's best interests except Amazon's. If this surprises you, then you have not been paying attention.