What's Up With Kindle Unlimited?

Over the last several days, blogs and forums have blown up with posts from indie authors who’ve had their books delisted and accounts closed from Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited (KU) program. For those few people who don’t know, KU is a $10/month subscription service where readers can borrow any book registered in the program. Authors are paid for every page read, or at least clicked on. Sounds like a good plan, doesn’t it? More readers means more potential fans, book buyers, and exposure for authors.

Like many good plans, this one is horribly flawed. I first wrote about one of the flaws several weeks ago when it came out that scammers had created a click-and-bait-link at the front of their books which immediately took readers to the back. Amazon’s bots assumed that all pages were read, so the author was paid for every page in the book.

There's a variation of this scam, however, and Amazon’s attempts to stop the cheaters has created another big problem by shutting out some  KU authors completely. A blog from the Active Voice describes the experience of one writer whose account was closed. A letter from Amazon accused her of paying a click-farm to borrow her books and drive up her royalties. The practice is called scam plaguing, and a number of outfits apparently indulge in this behavior. This writer, however, did no such thing. You can read more about what happened HERE.

The same thing happened to author P.J. Bayliss. She insisted she was innocent and appealed to Amazon to reinstate her account, which they eventually did. The thing is, she still doesn’t know who or how these click-farm bots picked her. You can learn more HERE.

An even more most disturbing example comes from K.M. Simmell, who reports that not only was her account closed, but someone started using her ID to attempt to open a bank account. This author is currently waiting for Amazon to finish its investigation and hopefully reinstate her. You can read her story HERE.

What really struck me was the number of comments these blogs received from authors who have also had this happen to them. Given that Amazon has about 70% of the ebook market, authors could lose much needed income through no fault of their own.

As I posted in one of my comments, those scams are fraud, and fraud is illegal. Amazon shouldn’t be trying to fight the problem on their own. It’s like trying to put out a blaze in your house with a fire hose. Why not call in experts in fraud detection, and stop victimizing the innocent? Maybe they have, who knows? But one thing is clear, until this is sorted out, I won’t be joining KDP Select or KU anytime soon.

Debra

Book Scams and Other Crimes

Scams and other crimes related to the book world is nothing new. Unfortunately, scams are so common that websites such as Writer Beware and Preditors &Editors have been around  for some time. If you’re new to the writing business, you might not know about them, so I thought I’d provide a little more info.

First, however, is news from cbs/Pittsburgh, warning people about a thief who’s been stealing hundreds of bestselling novels from libraries and selling them online. It seems he knows how to bypass security systems. The police have a pretty good idea who he is, and the sooner he’s caught the better. One library alone has lost $6,000 worth of books. I imagine that insurance coverage will only go so far.

As far as scams go, I came across an interesting piece by author and designer Dave Bricker who was contacted by someone eager to hire him as an editor. After taking a look at the document, which had plenty of errors, Dave told the client that it would take a lot of work and be expensive. The client was not deterred. He wanted the edited document in thirty days and mailed a check. He then wrote to say that he’d made a mistake on the check and had written too high an amount. Could Dave please deduct his payment and mail him a check for the balance? And that, folks, is the scam, one already filled with red flags, which you can read about in Dave’s blog. This type of thing has been happening to other businesses and now the crooks are trying it out on editors. Let’s hope most of them are too smart to fall for this crap.

Now, for the resources. One of the most popular is Preditors & Editors. Founded in 1997, this Colorado-based non-profit organization is basically an information resource for writers, composers, artists, and game designers. It also contains a page of warnings about scams and unethical practices from editors, publishers, and agents. Their warnings page lists links to other resources that caution people about unethical publishers, agents, or editors.

Another good resource is Writer Beware, and I’ve added the link to their “About Us” page. As stated on their page, the site is devoted to warning writers about scams, schemes and pitfalls. It’s sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and also supported by the mystery and horror writers organizations. It provides not only warnings, but helps aspiring writers avoid the pitfalls that are out there.

Be mindful that the sites aren’t perfect. Although they try to do their due diligence before posting a warning, sometimes errors are made. If you hear something negative, remember that it’s always a good idea to dig a little deeper.

Debra