I knew nothing about this but seems all is not well in the world of Kindle Unlimited.
There are massive goings-on in publishing atm. As a reader, you may not think this affects you, but it does - it's turning the bestseller charts into complete nonsense.It all kicked off with #Cockygate - where one romance author called Faleena Hopkins trademarked the word 'cocky' and then started issuing cease & desist letters to any author using the word, plus contacted Amazon and others instructing them to remove the books due to trademark infringement, then attempted to get a restraining order against those protesting. Others have followed suit and tried trademarking other, common words - 'Dragon Slayer' being one.
While this went on, #Tiffanygate emerged - an author called Chance Carter offering jewellery to anyone leaving reviews for his books. This is totally against Amazon's T&Cs, and something they've been feebly trying to clamp down on. He was revealed as a 'book stuffer', and that's when things really kicked off.
The route of most of the scams is Kindle Unlimited - where the reader pays a monthly subscription to access or 'borrow' over a million books. The money went into a pot out of which Amazon paid out per book purchased. Which meant that books of 100,000 words or 100 words earned exactly the same.
Strangely, some really, really short books popped up. Single novels were chopped down to a-book-per-chapter.
In order to stop the scammers, Amazon changed their payment system to per page read.
The scammers then inserted dodgy links and gobbledegook into the 'books' to increase their payout.
Amazon did the bare minimum to stop this.
In response, the scammers starting stuffing their books with extra books, some previously published, some bought from ghostwriters, and instructed their followers to flick through all of these. Explained here, but there could be up to twenty or more in there.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DfTLKp1U0AAvZSB.jpg:large
They also paid them to leave gushing reviews, using the massive payouts they were receiving from KU and from being 'All Stars' for being so popular. B-|
How does this affect the reader - they get free books? Several ways:
- the stuffed books are usually low quality and poorly edited, if at all.
- the Top 100 charts are so full of bookstuffers, that genuine authors aren't visible (Amazon's algorithms ensure KU books have higher visibility).
- most of the scammers aren't who they say they are (e.g. Santino Hassell, supposedly a gay male from a troubled background who was actually a middle-class couple), and there's been some really awful disclosure of personal details and doxxing of those who've tried to uncover the scams. Men pretending to be women asking for details of how their followers lost their virginity. Really creepy stuff.
- for greater visibility, these books also pop up in every possible genre. They're everywhere.
- many popular authors have had enough of their payouts dropping so have withdrawn their books from KU. Bookstuffers take their places. And so on.
Therefore, the reader suffers too.
There's a summary of the above here, showing how it's been polluting the romance genre, though it's believed it's affecting others:
davidgaughran.com/2018/06/02/cockygate-faleena-hopkins-tiffanygate-chance-carter/
(btw, the transcript of the first court case is hilarious in parts)
More detail about KU and the scams here: chrisalmeida-ceciliaaubrey.com/288-getloud-and-stayloud
And what are Amazon doing? Very little. It's not affected their bottom line as they're not seeing the readers' frustration. Authors have tried complaining, but they do nothing. A few scammers have been hit, but they have masses of different names and accounts. A load of reviewers and bloggers have been hit, but none of the main offenders, and lots of innocents have been dragged in, their reviews deleted and accounts closed.
Amazon have confirmed that 10% or less should be material not part of the book. In response, the scammers are now calling their books, 'compilations'. This is still not permitted as the books are duplicated elsewhere, but muddies the waters enough.
It's a fucking mess.
Anyway, if you're reading digital books and you come across anything that doesn't look right, report it to the bookseller. Report it here. Don't just think how weird it is and ignore it - that's what I did before I understood how the scam works.
If there's a book in the wrong category, report it.
If there's suspicious reviews, report it.
Review the books you read, and try to do it truthfully - reviews are appreciated and the real ones are easy to spot.
And don't rely on the bestseller charts - if scammers haven't manipulated them, publishers or booksellers will have.
― groovypanda, Friday, 15 June 2018 07:04 (five years ago) link