I'll be honest. I don't know who really reads this blog. I write here to document my journey to publish a novel (and eventually a whole catalogue of books). But, I think, occasionally I come across a topic that should interest other authors and potential readers, and this is one of those times.
Over the last couple of weeks I have made a point of trying to learn more about the business side of self-publishing. I haven't committed to this route of getting my books in front of readers, but I haven't eliminated it either. I just want to know what I'm walking into either way.
All that to say I have read more about Kindle Unlimited, going wide, author pages, editors, covers, marketing, mailing lists, etc. than I thought was possible. The good news, I feel like I have enough knowledge to start drafting a very surface level business plan, so self-publishing could be a very real possibility.
Sadly, self-publishing has its pitfalls and the newest scam involving Kindle Unlimited is one of those.
I'm not going to re-type the excellent discussion that I've read already, but rather, amplify their reach.
See this article by David Gaughran and Pheonix Sullivan detailing the Easter Amazon Free List takeover.
See this article about the affect on authors by Ann Christy. This one is scary because she references her own comment on the original article - suggesting that the fastest way to shut this all down is to stop allowing new author accounts to be created on Amazon. And as much as it pains me to say it, it seems logical and would drastically affect me personally. I plan to come back to this in a future post.
But, it occurred to me that this affects readers too, and I wanted to also suggest that readers can be part of the solution. It takes only a minute or two to report scam books to Amazon. You can do it by clicking on the appropriate link at the bottom of the books page.
All that to say I have read more about Kindle Unlimited, going wide, author pages, editors, covers, marketing, mailing lists, etc. than I thought was possible. The good news, I feel like I have enough knowledge to start drafting a very surface level business plan, so self-publishing could be a very real possibility.
Sadly, self-publishing has its pitfalls and the newest scam involving Kindle Unlimited is one of those.
I'm not going to re-type the excellent discussion that I've read already, but rather, amplify their reach.
See this article by David Gaughran and Pheonix Sullivan detailing the Easter Amazon Free List takeover.
See this article about the affect on authors by Ann Christy. This one is scary because she references her own comment on the original article - suggesting that the fastest way to shut this all down is to stop allowing new author accounts to be created on Amazon. And as much as it pains me to say it, it seems logical and would drastically affect me personally. I plan to come back to this in a future post.
But, it occurred to me that this affects readers too, and I wanted to also suggest that readers can be part of the solution. It takes only a minute or two to report scam books to Amazon. You can do it by clicking on the appropriate link at the bottom of the books page.
Report these scam books for poor quality. It's really simple. You can explain in a comment field that opens up. So many of these scams use false text and gibberish to fill pages and game the system, because the fact is they don't want real readers to look at their books. They just want the KU page reads payout.
And this hurts readers because it clogs up lists that they might use to find more books with scammy, gibberish filled books and pushes real, quality books in the genre to the bottom. Not to mention, you might actually borrow one of these scammy books and try to read it.
But it also hurts readers because over time more and more authors will choose to not participate in Kindle Unlimited. They shouldn't be expected to share the limited pot of money available with people that are scamming their way to upwards of $70,000 a MONTH in falsely earned cash. They'd rather put their books in more stores than stay exclusive and be punished. Your $10 per month subscription gets less valuable the more scam books are allowed to proliferate in the Kindle Unlimited store.
I haven't decided what I will eventually do with my book. But you can bet I will be watching closely to see if/how Amazon chooses to address this, and as a reader I will be reporting every book I come across that's guilty of taking money out of legitimate authors pockets.
And this hurts readers because it clogs up lists that they might use to find more books with scammy, gibberish filled books and pushes real, quality books in the genre to the bottom. Not to mention, you might actually borrow one of these scammy books and try to read it.
But it also hurts readers because over time more and more authors will choose to not participate in Kindle Unlimited. They shouldn't be expected to share the limited pot of money available with people that are scamming their way to upwards of $70,000 a MONTH in falsely earned cash. They'd rather put their books in more stores than stay exclusive and be punished. Your $10 per month subscription gets less valuable the more scam books are allowed to proliferate in the Kindle Unlimited store.
I haven't decided what I will eventually do with my book. But you can bet I will be watching closely to see if/how Amazon chooses to address this, and as a reader I will be reporting every book I come across that's guilty of taking money out of legitimate authors pockets.