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Spam Ebooks Clogging Amazon?
Is there a dark side to Amazon’s foray into self publishing? The Globe and Mail describes how spammers are clogging the environment:
Thousands of digital books, called ebooks, are being published through Amazon’s self-publishing system each month. Many are not written in the traditional sense.
Instead, they are built using something known as Private Label Rights, or PLR content, which is information that can be bought very cheaply online then reformatted into a digital book.
These ebooks are listed for sale – often at 99 cents – alongside more traditional books on Amazon’s website, forcing readers to plow through many more titles to find what they want.
Aspiring spammers can even buy a DVD box set called Autopilot Kindle Cash that claims to teach people how to publish 10 to 20 new Kindle books a day without writing a word.
This new phenomenon represents the dark side of an online revolution that’s turning the traditional publishing industry on its head by giving authors new ways to access readers directly.
Are sites like Createspace.com which allow writers to publish their own book on Amazon for free having an impact on your reading habits yet?
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Angela Shupe on June 21st, 2011 9:52 am
Not really. I think the good outweighs the bad. While there may be more spam, people who cannot publish in a traditional way can still find an audience for their work and make money.
Daniel M. Clark on June 22nd, 2011 12:20 pm
Traditional publishing may not be perfect, but it does accomplish something sorely needed in the electronic counterpart: spam control. Publishers and editors play a very important role in keeping pure crap out of the marketplace. Maybe the old model is a little too restrictive, but there exists nowhere on earth a viable product called “Autopilot Printed Books Cash”… so to speak.
Naomi on June 24th, 2011 5:19 am
Ugggghhh… I’ve never heard of Amazon spam before! It seems that it is everywhere we look. Hopefully, there will be some way that they can figure out how to keep the “garbage” away – I would hate to see Amazon decide to halt or change (i.e. start charging for, etc..) it’s direct publishing.
Cindy Hawkins on June 24th, 2011 7:47 am
Well, here’s a thought: since the Internet/Google, etc grew and burgeoned so amazingly fast, nobody really took charge, being sure to watchdog/monitor users. Thus as a result, we have very little of what I call ‘e.tiquette.’ I go on webpages and routinely, for example see obscenity, rude comments, along with bad spelling and dreadful grammar, homophobic cursing, etc. These are not simply off topic, but OFF putting! So, is it any wonder that along with this tidal wave of e.drek, we get along with the spam, worthless writing that could not in any sense, ever be called literature. I’m not really surprised. And although as Angela rightly points out, it does allow for people who need a venue to access a means to publish, that carries along with it a potential for misuse, something the time-wasters and swindlers don’t seem to think is wrong at all.
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