Do you think money-making is the new morality? Or am I naïve to think that this is something new, that in fact, it has always been this way? Are humans, by our very nature, good or bad intrinsically? Do we need to fight our urges constantly? I have no idea the answers to these questions. I like to think I’m good, not perfect, far from, but ‘good.’ That my conscience tells me right from wrong. But I ask again: Is that simply naïve? Is there no such thing but only what we’ve learned from birth onward? Our environment and upbringing shaping us? Or is it a combo of genes and environment? I’m an indie author by choice, but lately, I’ve been rethinking this. Lately, I’m disgusted. And lately, I think I’ve had enough. Let me tell you something. If you think supporting cheaters and liars and piss-poor writers is a good thing, I neither need or want your friendship. But perhaps you don’t know what you’re doing, so I give you the benefit of the doubt and, at this point, feel it a duty to tell you. If you haven’t heard, there are several authors (okay MORE than several) who have been cheating the Amazon system. I’ve been hearing about this for weeks. I try to keep my nose clean. Stay out of things that don’t affect me, e.g. MIND MY OWN BUSINESS, do what makes my heart sing and my soul soar! Fuck what everyone else is doing. I’ve got books to write. Poems to bleed. Friends to support. But I can no longer remain silent. Part of being that “good” person I spoke of above is doing the right thing. And the right thing is saying something about this. I will not be a passive supporter of this crap anymore. I kept silent because I knew not of the truth or fabrication of accusations. I’m not a torch blazing witch hunter. I need facts. I do research. I’m not a bandwagoner. If you know me at all, you know this already. But now I know. Some (I’m sure not all) of this BS is 100% true. What am I speaking of? It’s complicated to those who may not understand the system. Here it is simplistically: An indie author who chooses to enroll their books into an Amazon program called Kindle Unlimited gets paid not only from book sales but from page reads. This means, a writer who has readers enrolled in this program get paid for every page a reader swipes across with eager fingers to get to that much-anticipated ending (I am a reader as well as a writer and pay for this myself to read thousands of books a year). Following so far? More simple: For every page a reader swipes past, we writers get paid. Seems pretty great, right? I used to think so. Sadly, some authors are abusing this system. They are “stuffing” the beginning of their books so that readers have to swipe furiously to get to the “new” material. We’re talking CHAPTERS upon CHAPTERS of material before they even get to what they are trying to read. But it gets even worse. Some authors even put GIVEWAWAYS or FREE things but only by SWIPING to the end to get there. And so, as you’ve deduced, the more swipes, the more the author gets paid. Again…seems pretty great for everyone, right? Wrong! And here’s why. This affects me. This affects you. For every swipe and read, Amazon calculates our “rank” and our selling “status.” The higher our rank, the more visibility you, the reader, will see of authors at a higher rank when you shop or turn on your kindle. What does this mean?
And with shitty writing comes a shitty perception of what it means to be an indie author. It equates over and over and over that indie writers are not “good” writers. And I’m here to tell you: The only thing it shows is that some people have class and morals and standards and some are just greedy manipulators who will do anything to make a buck. I equate it with my students who cheat. I can’t change it. They have lost their moral fiber and compass, maybe never having one at all. No one wins. We just get dumber. And EVERYONE—you, me, society-- pays in the long run.
Please stop supporting this as a reader. If you open a book to find this nefarious practice, don’t be a part of it. Don’t do it. Shame on you if you do it knowingly. But as a wise man once said: Ignorance is no excuse. And now, you can’t even claim that.
7 Comments
Mystk Knight
6/21/2018 10:47:15
Brava RB! Where there is a “system”, there will be unscrupulous people looking to bilk it. It’s no different in the indie community and on Amazon. Unfortunately, you and I and many others have personal knowledge of just such a person. And lucky for him/her, we have too much integrity to name and shame...
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6/21/2018 11:37:29
Alas, the rise of self-publishing has permitted the scammers and cheaters to enter the fray, and Amazon has done nothing to patrol them, instead focusing on less important issues. When dealing with a page stuffer, I not only give the writer a very bad review, making it clear what they have done, I also shoot a message off to Amazon. I have also begun to check the RWA membership rolls to see if any of them are members, since that organization has a code of ethics. There are, of course, more public ways to out them, such as on social media, but then you bump up against defamation laws, and even though truth is an absolute defense, you would still have to pay for an attorney to defend you.
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6/21/2018 14:05:19
Wow. I'm so far out of the loop, I didn't know about this. Thank you for shedding light on it. Unfortunately, this is just the latest in a series of ways to 'game' the Amazon system. Goodreads has been doing it for years with their 'no need to read but feel free to rank' nonsense. In a perfect world, writers (and we all the one of whom you speak) would be judged on their talent instead of their ability to scam the system. Great blog as usual, RB.
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Ardent Rose
6/21/2018 15:05:14
I have been dupped by this as well only several different books either to be published or already published to entice me to purchase yet another book but if I was using KU it would be the same...
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Joe Peponis
6/21/2018 17:33:55
This is the “right thing” to expose the practice of cheating the system.
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Dab Ten
6/21/2018 19:02:32
It gets even worse as they don't even need to swipe the pageas as amazon only counts from the beginning to the furthest page read so some put a link to there "giveaway" at the beginning of the book that takes them to the last page one click and ku sees the entire book read
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I LOVE to write and read. I particularly enjoy reading erotic romance that has tons of emotion in it. I hope you will ask me questions and share your favorite authors and novels. I welcome all feedback.
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