If there any kind of liability for Amazon, they’d be able to stop this practice in a heartbeat
Is there not a liability of people getting sick or trawling through nonsense and bad quality products?
Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made
51–60 of 152 posts
Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made
#52from 6 years ago... it's simple... the booksstore has always been used as a money laundering operation.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/27/fake-books-sol...
Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made
#53Sadly the technology for these scams is also very useful for legitimate new self-published authors. How much gatekeeping do we really want? I would think the review system would weed out the junk.
So here is a recent example of modern publishing:
I've been reading things on r/hfy.. which I don't think anyone would argue is high quality literature, but the stories are fun and the premiss of the entire genre works as background structure. One of the better stories is "Nature of Predators" by SpacePaladin15.
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/u19xpa/the_nature_of_p...
Ok, so the author wants to publish on Amazon, no big deal these days, here it is:
https://www.amazon.com/Nature-Predators-Book-One/dp/B0CQ5QNW...
(I would argue that the reddit experience is actually better, because there are reader comments after each chapter. Where did the cover art come from? I don't know..)
What about the passive income? Well he's making $6K a month on Patreon. Maybe not passive since he's working on the sequel..
Well, how about an audiobook? Well patreon.com/Adastra650 has made it into an excellent audiobook on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm8OjwhOz-FZG_M_A1u9d...
Some of the voices are AI generated, but they are not bad.. it has me curious what software is used. The thumbnails are also AI.
All significant books require a page on TV Tropes: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheNatureO...
Naturally the story has grown out of HFY, has its own subreddit for fans and fanfiction:
https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureofPredators/
Naturally there is a NSFW version:
https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureOfPredatorsNSFW/
The Silo series (or Wool Omnibus) had similar beginnings:
Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made
#54The focus of the article is on charlatans selling courses, but I think Amazon deserves more scrutiny. They enable this entire ecosystem of fake books and fake products. I have to imagine that with the amount of data Amazon collects, they could do a lot more to counter the epidemic of fakes.
How about this account for a "polymath" who manages to churn out a "book" almost every week on topics from AI to installing cabinets and a whole bunch of pseudo science woo woo: https://www.amazon.ca/stores/D.R.-T-Stephens/author/B0CC62LX... They buy a lot of ads so I guess Amazon likes them.
I wouldn’t wish a forced-read of that guy’s bio on my worst enemy. (But I did just send it to all my close friends.)
Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made
#55Sadly the technology for these scams is also very useful for legitimate new self-published authors. How much gatekeeping do we really want? I would think the review system would weed out the junk. So here is a recent example of modern publishing: I've been reading things on r/hfy.. which I don't think anyone would argue is high quality literature, but the stories are fun and the premiss of the entire genre works as b…
I took a glance at that “Nature of Predators” book, but couldn’t get past the first sentence. Did the author really mean “sapience,” or “sentience?”
Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made
#56Sadly the technology for these scams is also very useful for legitimate new self-published authors. How much gatekeeping do we really want? I would think the review system would weed out the junk. So here is a recent example of modern publishing: I've been reading things on r/hfy.. which I don't think anyone would argue is high quality literature, but the stories are fun and the premiss of the entire genre works as b…
I took a glance at that “Nature of Predators” book, but couldn’t get past the first sentence. Did the author really mean “sapience,” or “sentience?”
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Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made
#57Not just e-books, garbage print too! Link below. The kid likes brain teasers, so I'll grab a book here and there. The last one I ordered was seemingly AI generated. The wording was off, the answers were either completely incorrect, or theoretically correct but not matching the question or parameters asked. I can't quite remember the last time I became as infuriated at a...book. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0CQQPPQ…
This seems like the more lucrative route. As an avid reader I do a bit of research before deciding on a book. I suppose someone had to read it first but a lot of good books seem to bubble up to the top. I would never dig 5 pages deep into Amazon and buy a book with zero reviews based on...what? After raising small kids however, the classics are fun but buying some easy time-filling books or activity books doesn't require as much thought. I do hope that AI can also be used to combat books like the one you linked. Straight garbage looking for a sucker.
Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made
#58Sadly the technology for these scams is also very useful for legitimate new self-published authors. How much gatekeeping do we really want? I would think the review system would weed out the junk. So here is a recent example of modern publishing: I've been reading things on r/hfy.. which I don't think anyone would argue is high quality literature, but the stories are fun and the premiss of the entire genre works as b…
I took a glance at that “Nature of Predators” book, but couldn’t get past the first sentence. Did the author really mean “sapience,” or “sentience?”
Hah, you should make this comment on reddit, because I'm curious about the response you'll get.
https://www.reddit.com/r/litrpg/comments/tw44yu/sentient_vs_...
Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made
#59Not just e-books, garbage print too! Link below. The kid likes brain teasers, so I'll grab a book here and there. The last one I ordered was seemingly AI generated. The wording was off, the answers were either completely incorrect, or theoretically correct but not matching the question or parameters asked. I can't quite remember the last time I became as infuriated at a...book. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0CQQPPQ…
One of the reviews says to look at the sample, but it looks like the sample isn't available any more. Might just be a regional thing that the sample isn't available but maybe they removed it intentionally lol
Re: Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made
#60Stick to checking out books from your library / Libby. You'll save money and might end up making discoveries you otherwise wouldn't.
In principle yes, but it is often far less than ideal. Popular books often have only 2 copies, physical or digital, so you need to wait in the queue for a while before you can get to read it. And that's only if your library carries the book, physical or digital -- there is often a long delay before you can find book in a bookstore and you can find it on the shelve. For various reasons the library might not want to pu…
If a book is popular, then you don't really have a problem with it being a fake or garbage right?
The problem with amazon books is all the garbage books, but if you know you want "the wheel of time" then it's pretty easy to track that down on amazon or elsewhere.
The only problem popularity presents is if it's somewhat underground. Then you might not stumble on it. Otherwise, just perusing the library should give you a lot of books which are reputable.