Warriors and other "Internet Marketers" Clogging Kindle With All Their SPAM...

The product that they are talking didn't teach people to spam Amazon - They are just idiots.

As long as they keep the price reasonable I see no reason why they shouldn't ask for a few bucks to publish a book. It'll keep the spammers out and still keep it profitable for those publishing useful information.

Lol! You better bump that WSO of yours while its still viable

I agree with you 100%!

I hate going in and seeing 50 listings of the same thing that shows the original ebook cover from the MRR product. I mean for crying out loud at least change the cover folks!

It would be great if they could compare the books to see if there was the exact same thing on there already and then prohibit listing it. With Public Domain, I think you have to add some value to it in order to list on there now and it should be the same for PLR and MRR.

Lee

Yes I was Expecting this.

I have 3 of my own books on the Kindle system - they are not PLR.
I resisted the temptation to follow the WSO that says put up many plr books a day.
I think that accounts that spam the system will be frozen .

There is however a further issue.

Ignorance of copyright. Many people seem to have no idea and no respect for copyright. They just use other people's work for their own ends. This will end in tears somewhere. I just hope the correct people are caught and not the original writers.

Kenj

I think Amazon has to take some lumps for this too. I read last week they have fewer than a million titles at this point and are hungry for inventory. So I'd say there's a bit of greed involved here too.

The upside is they'll eventually have enough decent stuff to sell and will restrict or eliminate the Spam. I'd imagine they're getting at least some complaints about all the cheesy stuff posted at this point. Maybe more complaints would help.

What did you think was going to happen? If there's a new innovation on the web that IM'ers can flood with crap in their never ending search for EASY CASH PROFITS ON AUTOPILOT!!! then they will do it.

If Amazon was smart they would make you pay $1.00 to list a title on Kindle. I think that would keep 99% of the bottom feeders out of the pool.

Interesting article...thanks for posting.

Isn't it a bit of a stretch to call this SPAM?

I own a kindle, and unlike my email account, I've never seen any unsolicited titles just popping up as ebooks to read.

Seems like the definition of SPAM is sliding just a bit.

What's also interesting is how this piece talks quite a bit about PLR content being used, regardless of the quality, but no mention is made about Public Domain works.

Just did a quick check and it appears there are 331 versions of Huckleberry Finn available in the Kindle Store, many of which appear to have nothing unique beyond the cover page.

Is that considered SPAM then too?

(Kidding, of course)

Interesting how our definition of "spam" is sliding.

If someone writes a book and doesn't want to go thru the hassle of publishing it anywhere - they have the right to sell complete rights to the book to anyone. And the person buying the book gets "private label rights" and can pretty much do whatever they want with it.

Even John Grishom could do that. In fact, past presidents have hired "ghostwriters" then paid the ghostwriter for complete rights to the book. In essence - PLR.

A broad stroke claim that all PLR is "spam" ignores both the definition of spam and the definition of PLR.

Also - the article you linked to says "boxed set of DVDs"? LMAO - really? Where can I buy them?

Spam is the reason why it costs so much to post a WSO and why there are so many rules on Squidoo and other such sites. It pretty much ruins it for the decent people. Unfortunately many marketers out there teach people how to spam, catering tot he 'get rich quick' crowd, lazy idiots who want to make money without doing any work. You wouldn't believe the keywords bringing search traffic to my IM blog. 90% of the keywords are looking for ways to make money quick and without lifting a finger. The same crowd buys the products who teach them nasty spamming practices.

Unfortunately this trend is evergreen and keeps producing hordes of locusts which ruin one pasture and hop on to the next. There is simply no end to it.

I figured they would eventually need to do this. It is bad for business to have a customer buy a book, look around and buy another book in the same niche, and realize they just bought two copies of the same book. It makes Amazon look bad. I understand that PLR is a great way to make a quick book, but even with a few quick changes, adding a chapter, rewriting parts, a PLR book can take on new life rather than being the same exact book on the marketplace multiple times.

hehe just got another WSO email in my inbox about how to publish on amazon using PLR.

Whoever made the comparison about the president hiring a ghost writer and then buying the rights to internet PLR - thats about the least thought out comment I've heard on here... do you read what you type?

PLR in this sense is NOTHING but SPAM - who can blame Amazon in the least.

The way I solved this problem was to just never learn to read. Seems to be working so far. Schools is for fools =)

Woohoo! Now that sword & sorcery fantasy romance novel I wrote a few months ago will finally be seen through all the ridiculous MMR & PLR products!

More seriously with this kind of press Amazon is going to crackdown and crackdown hard. They are in a battle of digital content supremacy with Apple. Amazon's worst nightmare is having their device being known for SPAM.

If that article gets picked up by news outlets across the world you better believe the crackdown is going to happen sooner, rather than later.

For me, it's interesting that the article talks about 'spam' as PLR books, but then, it gives an example of someone having published an author's fiction novel under another name, without their consent. But anyway, that's a whole different issue of stealing someone copyright....

My guess is that Amazon are going to take a similar position to Smashwords with regards to content, banning PLR outright and threating to close down your account if you don't comply. Now, while I appreciate Ed's point that there's PLR and there's PLR, as a customer, how can you really judge the value that someone's adding to a generic ebook with an extra chapter or a little bit more content. There's also an issue that many PLR ebooks on Kindle are badly formatted and I think it'd help everyone if some stricter guidelines were introduced when publishers upload to KDP.

Sorry if this is unpopular...but hey, that may well be what happens!

I'm on the fence. I want every serious author to have access to being published, and -- in today's economic climate -- I don't want financial barriers imposed. (Yes, the operative phrase is "serious author.")

On the other hand, I don't want customers to become so disgusted by junk sold in Kindle format, they quit buying... or lose patience when they have to weed through masses of PLR.

At the moment, I'm inclined to agree with Ed that Amazon should require a financial commitment with each title. However, instead of requiring it up-front, creating a financial barrier, perhaps Amazon could keep the first $X of income from each Kindle title, as a listing fee or a kind of Pro Plan for Kindle.

I'd be fine with investing in a $39 Pro Plan for each of my digital titles, on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Bookstores feature new books briefly. If the books don't sell, they're taken off the prime shelf space and relegated to the remaindered areas. Maybe Amazon could base something on that model?

Meanwhile, The Atlantic has picked up the Reuters article and added their own views. With The Atlantic adding fuel to the fire, it greatly increases the likelihood of Amazon doing something about this.

Spam 'Books' Flooding Kindle Store - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

I think the PLR glut at Kindle is probably short-term. When people realize junky PLR books don't really provide them with that magic push-button income, many people will move on to the next "get rich quick" trend. I hope so, anyway.

If PLR -- intact or spun -- continues to flood Kindle, etc., I don't see any easy answers to this problem. However, both Amazon and CreateSpace are working with digital files, and I think screening for duplicate content will solve much of the problem.

*

That´s the problem with those WSOs and "products" that teach newbies how to upload PLR ebay crap and be rich by tomorrow...

Even if you take the time to rework and combine those, its still crap anyways.

As with anything, the better the content the better the service you are offering, the better the outcome.


And with PD is the same thing (although there´s a big difference between PD and PLR crap, of course). PD is way ahead of PLR, there´s no comparison, simply because of who originally wrote the content in the first place, but there´s no point in uploading/publishing the same copy of Huckleberry Finn if there are other 1000s of the exact same already.

So you still have to rework, combine, illustrate, or make your own version and offer high quality.

Spammers don´t want that, because that requires work, and creativity.

BUT:

Let the spammers continue with its game (uploading same PLR crap over and over), and Amazon and the world will take care of them properly, the faster the better, and this will indeed benefit the rest of us (good content publishers).

Amazon and Apple will treat us as gold (they are starting to do so)... thanks to them.


: )

This just in...

The promotions are starting to hit my inbox. Piggybacking on the controversy around this report, SOME marketers are actively trying to sell the "cheap" strategy to people who might be reading the article and saying "I wish I knew how to make money from spamming Amazon."

The products they're promoting aren't bad. Those products do, in fact, tell you how to publish a quality product on Kindle. But they're being PROMOTED as ways you can publish crap with little or no work, which of course they can be used to do as well.

This is why people think marketers are scum.

I have two ebooks that I wrote on Amazon.

I had to under price my book because of Amazon's royalty system. That royalty system is a major factor behind the spam.

If I sell my eBook on Amazon for $27, Amazon keeps 65% of the sales. If I sell the same eBook for $9.99 they usually get only 30% or maybe 35%, I forget the exact number. I have to sell three more than twice the number of books if I raise my price above $9.99 and if i raise the price, I'm going to sell fewer books. My only option was to sell for less and not provide the same level of one on one help after the purchase for those that buy my product for Kindle. Which is really a shame, it is so much easier to read a book on a Kindle or Kindle for PC than it is to read PDF which is a real pain in the butt.

I don't know, but that seems to encourage me to want to take a PLR product that I didn't spend 100s of hours working on.

For that reason, Amazon does deserve some of the blame. Actually, a lot of it.

Adding a fee on top of this royalty scheme would have prevented me from adding my book. The niche for my product is pretty small though. If I had a wider market I might but with my current products, it is a small market and I sell far more on my website.

I already think I should just pull the product from Amazon and I very well might as it is.

I don't think selling PLR is spam but I'm more old school on my thinking of spam. Someone created a course on selling PLR on Kindle? I thought of that one myself. Didn't do it, don't have time. I found one PLR though that I think is worth of it. Just don't have time, probably a thousand of them already up anyway.

Nothing can "stop" spam... I'm sure adding a price has cut down on the number of spam/scams in the WSO section.

I seriously don't think you'd want to see what the WSO section would look like if it was free.

The people claiming they're making a lot of money with Kindle are also selling "Make Money with Kindle" books.

Think about that. If you had something that really worked, would you sell all your secrets for $25?

A $.99 Kindle book, which is what the price for any of this PLR stuff is going for, will make you $.35 in royalties. That's 75 sales to equal every $25 "Kindle Secrets" book you sell on Warrior Forum.

Which is easier?

Don't believe the hype. Much like the iPhone App Store, there was a time when you could get in on Kindle and make a few bucks, but that day is over. The buyers are getting smarter and they're wanting higher quality content, which they're finally getting now that major publishers are coming around.

On iPhone, programs like Angry Birds dominate; not iFart.

Same thing is has happened with Kindle. People don't want something written by a low-budget ghostwriter.

THE BIG LESSON - Just because you may FEEL like you're working or that you have a real business doesn't mean that either is happening.

Move along, people. Nothing to see here.

When they say "clogged", what exactly do they mean? You can get previews of them, so I don't understand what the problem actually is. I'm very paranoid these days when the mainstream media thinks there's a problem.

The mainstream media HATES free and open markets and so they dig for stories like this. I've got my new Kindle right in front of me. I can honestly say it's not CLOGGED with anything.

I wrote some screenplays that I tried to get on Kindle Marketplace. I got it on there but the format is completely horrible. I'm going to be removing them. I sold maybe 5? They got a LONG preview though so I don't understand how Amazon Kindle's Marketplace is about to knock the Earth off it's Axis.

Preview books, read reviews to stay away from the trash. We want a free market and the free sharing of ideas. We don't want "gatekeepers" anymore.. that's the old way. The new way is of freedom, and yes, dangers. Oh my, dangers everywhere. It's almost exciting. I'm scared my Kindle's going to explode due to all that clogging.

Oh, and adding a price would be fine. It'd sill be FREE MARKET. I just don't want thought controllers at Amazon reading and silencing. That's REALLY what the media and gov't will want. The WSO section is a great example and balance of open free market cooperation.

Yes, I believe the market will correct itself, given enough time. (The latter is the key phrase.)

I'm just entering the Kindle market now, and I'm grateful for the WSOs that teach fast, reliable and clever ways to format my books so they'll look good to my readers. (Currently, my issue is including necessary, detailed illustrations without having to link to them at my website.)

However, my books won't be based on PLR, though that was the get-rich-quick headline on several WSOs I bought and/or reviewed.

The material in Kindle books doesn't have to be original, just unique and provide a quality experience for the reader. I want my readers to return and buy every other book I've written or compiled. Marketing for a one-time sale doesn't interest me; I work with the "1000 True Fans" model. [LINK: The Technium: 1,000 True Fans ]

I think Kneb made a good point, earlier in this thread. He works with public domain materials, and his approach is fresh and original-looking, albeit based on "old" materials. In some cases, he's definitely playing to the retro market, and it's very cool.

It's not necessarily the PLR ingredient (though that's been sadly promoted by the get-rich-quick faction) that matters, but the quality and uniqueness of the finished book.

(I bought Kneb's product when it first came out, and have since published a surprisingly successful printed book based on PD. I don't pretend that the material is original; what's unique is how I've focused on specific themes and assembled the information from about 40 obscure PD sources. The book is footnoted and has an extensive bibliography.)

My current concern is the impact of the Reuters and The Atlantic articles, and more that will follow. I expect Amazon to respond, and I don't know how severe that will be, and how it will impact the publishing community, in general.

Yes, the worthless books need to go away. (That's not just PLR. I've been sent some perfectly dreadful "inspirational" books to review, as well.) I think a duplicate content filter would push much of the worst PLR to the end of the list. All Amazon needs are two or three identical books positioned near each other on the list, and customers may realize that something's not right with those books.

Even an originality grade -- straight percentages, not editorial critique -- might help. I don't know if that's practical.

If someone wants to embark on the folly of publishing copycat PLR books, that's okay with me. I'm not thrilled with it, but... well, it's the evolution (or temporary devolution) of the marketplace, whether it's Amazon or WSOs or CraigsList or whatever.

However, though I'd love it if customers actually read the "look inside" pages... it seems that they don't. So, I'm interested in a solution that favors unique and quality content.

Content may be more important with Kindle books than printed books. With a printed book, some fans buy them "just to own them." They display them on the coffee table or on a prominent bookshelf. They take delight in owning every book by ____, or every book about _____.

Kindle, by contrast, is for people who read, or at least skim. Unless they're flashing their "look at all the books I own" on their digital readers, there's no status in simply owning the book. It has to provide value to the reader.

I don't have a simple solution to this set of issues, but I like the responses I'm seeing at this thread. I may not agree with all of them, but I think the discussion is important and I hope Amazon and other digital booksellers are paying attention.

very dissapointing... thanks for informative comments

Eibhlin,

Now a WSO that would help me speed up formatting my book for Kindle, that would be helpful, any specific ones that you're willing to tell us/me about?

One of the time consuming things for me was removing all the pictures or most of them for my kindle edition.

Someone said they didn't understand an eBook reader. Get the Kindle for PC and get some free Kindle books or an ebook that is formatted for Kindle. It might be hard if you don't have a Kindle though as they are generally delivered bu wireless.

There is so much GREAT free stuff for the Kindle. I bought one because I am living in a developing nation and power failures happen to often. It gives me something to do when I can't computer. I've never bought a kindle book that wasn't free.

Right now, I'm reading about Forex and I'm also reading War and Peace, hundreds of books on my Kindle, at lot of classics that I never read. It is even better than reading a book if you're eyes are getting old, like mine.

I have been tempted to do that believe me. But I want to set myself apart from the crowd so I'm learning how to create graphics to change the eCover and I also change the PLR and make it my own.

It's not that hard folks!

But on the other hand, PLR and MRR products were made for people to profit from them. Why get mad at the people who are trying to make money?

Are we mad at their level of professionalism or at the fact that they're trying to earn a living?

Hey Ed thanks for the thread. I almost became a victim to the Kindle problem. I purchased three separate Kindle programs. Two of them state to just get PLR and pump it out and you don't have to change anything. The other one states if you use PLR make it unique and high quality, researching keywords and Yahoo answers that people are interested to add to your books.

While doing some research on Kindle on what was hot and selling I found a individual that put out tons of PLR I recognized from a PLR purchase I made a while back of over 800 PLR books. This person didn't change a thing in the content and even used the same ecover that came with the PLR.

Needless to say I saw a problem and am brand new to Kindle. I think it is quite obvious you should change the ebooks so there is not mad customers. I made a comment to my wife that they are going to get everyone using PLR kicked out of Kindle. I then found your thred and loved reading more about it from individuals that have been in Kindle for a longer period than I.

I wrote an ebook myself on a topic I know about and feel it will help people needing to save money. I based the book on a popular selling published book not PLR but didn't copy the book. I took ideas from the book and made it my own original book.

I would like to ask your opinion of the subject. Do you feel rewriting PLR to a unique form is good for an ebook or is it better to pay the higher price for a ghost writer to write the ebooks for us. Way slower process but may be the best option for longevity with Kindle.

Thanks again for the thred. It came in just a nick of time before we fell into the put up as many ebooks as you can before the next guy beats you to it.

Best Regards,

JC

Personally I can see why Amazon would turn a blind eye to all of this, if they are getting in some cases 65% of the revenue, they may just let it continue for a while yet

Secrets and spam - lol, what a joke.

Spam clogging Amazon's Kindle self-publishing | Reuters

Observations:

(1) everyone here knows that 99.4% of PLR has ZERO value to the end customer;

(2) all but the guilty agree that copy and paste PLR has no place in a paid marketplace like Kindle;

(3) the right to do it is not an excuse for lazy people messing it up for legitimate authors;

Also,

Interesting that PLR actually got mentioned in Reuters News Service?

Autopilot Kindle Cash too?

Are all digital self-publishers now spammers?

Amazon boogie man coming to get ya?

The real opportunity is for someone to step up and educate in the space.

Sounds like a game of cat and mouse.

Amazon wants as much inventory as possible to keep it/make it the market leader and to do so needs user generated content. If they make the process too difficult then they don't get the numbers; but if they make it too easy then it just turns customers off.

They used a similar approach with their affiliate program, even offering high commissions at the start to make it really attractive. They start tightening the screws after everything is in momentum and I'll take a guess that's what they'll do with the Kindle.

They aren't really taking care of all of the spam being generated by the affiliate network either, and do they even care? They got their desired result in the end.

I think Apple did a great job with there Apps Store, while I hear Android is having problems because they lack the control and QA of their apps so they are causing all sorts of issues with peoples phones. Too much freedom and the buyer suffers.

I wrote a blog post about this the other day. When the story broke, it pissed me off. I think it was completely taken out of context and is an insult to internet marketers and to authors who write books they consider "spam". The whole story disgusts me.

This is a timely post for me. I am working on formatting my first Kindle book. It is 100% original and new, but I have thought about offering it to others with PLR.

After reading this thread, I'm thinking I may go the more traditional route. Maybe just selling it as a book is good enough.

Hmm...now there's a thought that could catch on!

Either way, I believe there is a difference in mindset between those who label themselves as "PLR creators" and those who lable themselves as "authors".

All the best,
Michael

It is sad but inevitable. Create something with no entry barriers and thousands of mindless sheep will abuse it to scrap.

But I don't believe Amazon is being stupid here. They are just waiting for Kindle to reach critical mass and then they will eliminate the duplicates and post a new policy with the publishing rates necessary to avoid SPAM.

I believe $39 would be a goo entry barrier. Not too costly and not too cheap.

Amazon could get rid of probably 75% of the rehashed PLR content on the Kindle publishing system if the just screened ebook covers. Most spammers don't take the time to change the image so you know it's unoriginal without even clicking on the listing.

I blame Amazon. Build a better ecosystem, have better screening policies--whatever. The onus is on them. With that said, I'm not interested in trying this Kindle tactic either, though personally I'm not affected as I don't use the Kindle store.

Independent Author John Locke joins ranks of James Patterson with 1M Sales of his Novels on Kindle

Hell Yeah!

Amazon/Kindle sent me this in the June 2011 Newsletter (today).

It's all a numbers game, clean up the mess later.

One of the biggest problems I see as a newbie is that all of the promos, WSO's get rich quick items all sound good. Even when you know it is likely to be to good to be true you get sucked in. I personally spent a fair amount of money on crap before I started to find people I trust. Having this forum to hash this out is great as well.

If hubpages can detect duplicate content I am not sure why it would be a problem for Amazon. I developed a legit website and wrote all of the content on a subject, took my knowledge and wrote an article, and Hubpages would not allow it. They referred back to the website that I also was the author.

Is Amazon beginning to hit back?

I saw a book that had great sales but obviously had paid reviews. The paid reviews are all gone now. But the book is still there and its still crappy. No refunds on Kindle books. Buyer beware.

Any organizers should monitor what products the seller is offering,
and if the product can't deliver as it stated,
it should be ban from advertising or selling it.
These will work well in 2 ways.
The organizations will have a good reputation,
and the sellers will be very serious on what type
of products to sell.

And people actually think that Kindle and other e-readers will take over the printed paperback market? hmmm Well, you can't spam any of the novels on my bookshelf! And I only have to pay no more than $7.99 for a brand new paperback - no spam included.

I don't think that paid reviews are a good idea for any book. It's obvious they weren't very convincing. You should always give your book out for free to a few dozen people and have them review it. Then you post their reviews when promoting your book.

Of course this isn't about novels. This is about the alleged "spam authors" which is completely different and I don't think "spam authors" is even accurate. Just because they didn't actually write the book doesn't mean they didn't have every right to list it on Amazon. I'm not saying the books were good, I'm just saying that there was no violation of Amazon's listing terms and that this whole story is B.S!

As far as Amazon cracking down on the "spammers" I agree that if the product does not contain a review of the book, or at least some new content whether it be pictures, or as another poster stated at least a new cover

Absolutely! I think they should try to make it unique to themselves in some way.