how to publish 10 to 20 new Kindle books a day without writing a word.

jimbro · Jun 18, 2011

This article is from Reuters:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/16/us-amazon-kindle-spam-idUSTRE75F68620110616

Something called Autopilot Kindle Cash. (this is actually a "training" course).

But in addition, there is now software to automatically generate books for publishing to Kindle. Some of these are simple plagiarized rip-offs of other author's books, but some are "original" (garbage) content. These books are not merely ungrammatical, but seem to be genuine nonsense word collections. I'm curious, but won't buy a sample because I don't want to support this.

Sounds positively evil to me, but I suppose something like it was inevitable.

Apologies if this is a duplicate post, I did a search but didn't find anything.

Guardian · Jun 18, 2011

kaitie · Jun 18, 2011

A) Amazon is going to have to do something about this.

B) Whoever made those DVDs is probably making a fortune.

MartinD · Jun 18, 2011

There was an article in yesterday's LA Times about the spamming of Kindle, mentioning how several thieves are stealing books, slapping on a new cover and description, and selling the electronic novels (usually as 99-centers).

Amazon offers a vague "We're looking into it" in response.

One thing they could do -- and it would stop the book thieves cold -- is to require people to purchase or provide their own ISBN for every self-published novel. Even if Amazon provided the ISBN at $10 a pop, it would kill the spam market.

kaitie · Jun 18, 2011

Does Amazon require a contract? Or can anyone just upload anything without signing a paper? Because I'd think if you have to sign a contract, it would be more difficult for people to do these things. Or is it just an automated process without real people following up?

BenPanced · Jun 18, 2011

https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A3BZH3BNSKZ0UX

You can publish content that is in the public domain. We may request additional documentation to confirm that it is not under copyright.

And other information I've been able to find makes it sound like it's entirely up to the authors to be on the honor system they own the rights, and it's up to customers to report potential violations. Completely manual process.

hoyateach · Jun 18, 2011

BenPanced said:
https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help?topicId=A3BZH3BNSKZ0UX

And other information I've been able to find makes it sound like it's entirely up to the authors to be on the honor system they own the rights, and it's up to customers to report potential violations. Completely manual process.

That's correct. I uploaded mine to Kindle a couple of days ago and all I had to do was hit a couple of button "certifying" that I held the rights to my work (or that it was public domain). That's all there was to it.

shadowwalker · Jun 18, 2011

Hey Amazon - nothing like loading the gun in preparation for shooting one's own foot...

I can see readers starting to look more and more closely at who they're buying before handing over the moola... and very possibly going elsewhere to buy.

movieman · Jun 18, 2011

I do have to wonder how many people are actually making money out of this; I believe Amazon allow returns for ebooks so presumably most people will be returning them if they're dumb enough to buy in the first place.

Seems to me that the only people likely to be making much money are the ones selling the 'training course'.

mscelina · Jun 18, 2011

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I did a blog post about spammer and content farmers yesterday--with an interesting little tidbit about Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass; a Collection of Lewis Carroll--written by Lewis Carroll and TheWrightAngles.com, and also edited by TheWrightAngles.com--which, most unfortunately, didn't actually INCLUDE Through The Looking Glass at all. http://blogcritics.org/books/article/spammers-content-farming-and-kindle-one1/

I discovered some interesting things following up on the Reuters article on Yahoo, plus a couple more from The Bookseller.com and Publishing Trends.

James D. Macdonald · Jun 18, 2011

mscelina said:
Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I did a blog post about spammer and content farmers yesterday...

Hah! Got you beat. I did a blog post on it a month and a half ago (and I wasn't the first).

Nice that the LA Times and Reuters is catching up on what the rest of us have known for a while....

rugcat · Jun 18, 2011

James D. Macdonald said:
Hah! Got you beat. I did a blog post on it a month and a half ago (and I wasn't the first).

Nice that the LA Times and Reuters is catching up on what the rest of us have known for a while....

Yeah, but those are respectable sources. You, on the other hand, are just a writer.

Cyia · Jun 18, 2011

movieman said:
I do have to wonder how many people are actually making money out of this; I believe Amazon allow returns for ebooks so presumably most people will be returning them if they're dumb enough to buy in the first place.

Seems to me that the only people likely to be making much money are the ones selling the 'training course'.

It's done in bulk. Upload 1000 titles (same content, different cover) and get 1-2 sales/title before someone reports it. The victim doesn't bother to argue for their $0.99 back, so the spammer keeps the 1000-2000 royalty payments. That account gets shut down, so they register a new one and do it again.

mscelina · Jun 18, 2011

James D. Macdonald said:
Hah! Got you beat. I did a blog post on it a month and a half ago (and I wasn't the first).

Nice that the LA Times and Reuters is catching up on what the rest of us have known for a while....

Never claimed to be the first, just the latest. And I was accused of a personal attack (?!!?!?!) on the really outstanding 'author' (i.e. content farmer) already outted by source materials. LMAO--yep...personal attack.

Obviously, they don't know me.

James D. Macdonald · Jun 18, 2011

Yeah, that "Personal Attack" thing was probably the scammer himself, who has Google Alerts set up for his "name."

Nick Russell · Jun 19, 2011

Cyia said:
It's done in bulk. Upload 1000 titles (same content, different cover) and get 1-2 sales/title before someone reports it. The victim doesn't bother to argue for their $0.99 back, so the spammer keeps the 1000-2000 royalty payments. That account gets shut down, so they register a new one and do it again.

There's no arguing to be done to get a refund. I bought an Amazon e-book today for $14.95, realized I had already read it, and clicked the link to get a refund. They don't even ask a reason. Less than a minute later, I got an e-mail saying the book would be deleted from my Kindle and my payment credited back to my card.

shaldna · Jun 19, 2011

Isn't it in amazons t&c that you can't charge for public domain work?

edit: sorry, just checked, it's the 70% royalty you can't get for public domain works.

Capital · Jun 19, 2011

Amazon issuing instant refund is not a resolution for the scam/spam problem.

Time is money, after all.

Said it many times - if Amazon wants to retain a shred of credibility , they really need to either:
1) add gatekeepers to the kindle store
or
2) put up a huge-ass sign on the kindle store homepage, saying: "Over 900000 books for sale, and anyone can upload any shit they want, including spam/scam/stolen content, and we get money from it, although if you don't like what you bought, we'll issue you a refund. Thank you, come again."

AmsterdamAssassin · Jun 19, 2011

Just check goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/list/2049148.Manuel_Ortiz_Braschi

This guy claims to be an editor, which is how he circumvents plagiarism.

Book Graphics · Jun 20, 2011

OMG--pfffffffft!

Now that's just RUDE! And, sad.

Is it even legal? I'm assuming that the text they are using is something so old - or government published - that it's in the public domain?

I'm having visions of Shakespeare's 'Taming of the Shrew' re-published with a title like 'Vixen's Dilemma and Delight.'

Vaguely Piratical · Jun 20, 2011

Book Graphics said:
Now that's just RUDE! And, sad.

Is it even legal? I'm assuming that the text they are using is something so old - or government published - that it's in the public domain?

I'm having visions of Shakespeare's 'Taming of the Shrew' re-published with a title like 'Vixen's Dilemma and Delight.'

Most of the spam is PLR or MRR content. That is content that the spammer bought the right to resell as his own content from the rights owner. Which is not illegal, just crap content that is no good to anyone. A lot of the rest is public domain, also not against the law. Very little is actual plagarism, so most is legal. Destroys the integrity of the market, but the worse that can happen to the spammer is be banned by amazon.

James D. Macdonald · Jun 20, 2011

Vaguely Piratical said:
Destroys the integrity of the market, but the worse that can happen to the spammer is be banned by amazon.

They'll be back that same afternoon with a new account.

how to publish 10 to 20 new Kindle books a day without writing a word.

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