An Open Letter to Jeff Bezos – Please Stop The Kindle Spam!

by Paul Wolfe on May 16, 2011

An Open Letter To Jeff Bezos – CEO Of Amazon.com

Dear Jeff

Even though I don’t own a Kindle device, I love everything about the Kindle.  I love the way you can download a sample of a book, decide to buy it and be reading the full book within a few minutes

How cool is that?

And Amazon could have taken the ‘Apple’ route of ‘protecting’ the Kindle, and made Kindle books only available on Kindle. Instead you had Apps developed that allowed people who don’t own a Kindle (like me ) to access Kindle books on other devices.  For me, I read my Kindle books on either my Macbook or my iPad.  But if I had an iPhone (ummm….never) I could read them there.  Or if I had a PC (ummmm…also never) I could download the Kindle for PC app.

So for that you have my utmost respect and admiration.

And if that wasn’t enough, you’ve then made the Kindle Publishing Platform available for just about anyone with a word processor program and in Internet connection to publish on.

Now that is seriously cool.  Please publish the name of the person who came up with that idea, because it is genius.  And whoever that person is, we should all know so that we can thank him personally via tweets, emails and Wikipaedia pages.

However – there’s something wrong in paradise.

Because just about anybody is now free to publish on the Kindle, just about anybody does.  And I’ve seen courses and eBooks advertised on how to create books for Kindle.

The teaching method that these course take is to advise creating books for Kindle by using PLR content – either written or rewritten – and uploading that.  And these courses are responsible for a surge of Kindle Spam.

Another ‘method’ I’ve seen advised is that when someone gets a few sales for a Kindle book created in this manner, that they should change the title, change the cover and repurpose it for a slightly different audience.

For example, if you created a Kindle cookbook called Meals For Students in 15 Minutes, and that book sold a few copies, then you should create a “new’ Kindle book with the same content but perhaps aimed at busy housewives.  (Meals for Busy Housewives in 15 Minutes.)

Or create a version for busy divorced husbands – Meals For Busy Divorced Husbands in 15 Minutes.  And so on.

The ability to publish to the Kindle platform is an awesome step forward in the history of publishing – but its effectiveness is being diminished by the proliferation of Kindle Spam.  Some of these course suggest that you should be creating a new Kindle book every single day.

I’m a full supporter of freedom of speech and non-censorship – but I’m writing to you to register my concerns about the rise in Kindle Spam.

In my opinion there’s a simple way to stamp out the vast majority of this Kindle Spam – ban PLR content from being used in books uploaded to Kindle.  And anyone found guilty of using PLR content would suffer a lifetime ban from the Kindle Store.

Now that might sound severe – but I don’t believe this is censorship.  Because the ‘authors’ of such books are not actually writing anything new, or expressing new thoughts.

They are simply trying to game the Kindle system for a quick buck.  If they want to use PLR content to help create their books, then insist that they rewrite it.

Another way of filtering out some of the Kindle spammers from more genuine authors might be to insist on the use of an ISBN number, which I believe iBooks does.  And although the iBooks platform is inferior IMO to Kindle (and I’m a diehard MacHard, so that’s saying something!), the one advantage it holds is that there is no iBook spam.  And no courses on how to create a book a day for iBooks.

It would be a black day in the history of publishing if the proliferation of this Kindle spam adversely affected the ability of genuine authors to publish on the platform.  Amazon is a company I highly respect – with your resources I’m sure you can find ways to diminish the amount of Kindle Spam that’s out there and ensure that the Kindle publishing platform will always be available for authors who want to share their information.

Thank you in advance.
Paul Wolfe

www.onespoonatatime.com

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{ 40 comments }

Brankica from How to blog May 16, 2011 at 3:07 pm

Hey Paul, this is just great. Love it! You are completely right about these PLR repurposed books! I also want to say that it is really weird that you can publish a blog without confirming it is yours!!! Yes, I could go find a really great blog and publish it on my Kindle account and make money of it! Shouldn’t there be a verification option to prove it is YOUR blog you are publishing!?
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Paul Wolfe May 16, 2011 at 4:55 pm

Hey Bran

I didn’t know you can do that – and that makes no sense.

Michael Martine sent out a link to a guy who curates content that he thinks is great and publishes it via Kindle. Which I think is wrong unless the guy has permission to re-publish that content.

So I’m hoping that at some stage Amazon will get their act together and just tighten things up a fraction.

Thanks for stopping by.

Paul

Bell May 16, 2011 at 5:22 pm

The suggestion that each Kindle book be assigned an ISBN is doable, sensible and would very likely prove effective in the long run.

Another thing: I’m not familiar with the Kindle system myself — I prefer my books on paperback, to be honest — maybe users should be given the option to flag books as spam. That, and an ISBN, would go a long way in stamping out repurposed e-books.
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Paul Wolfe May 16, 2011 at 5:26 pm

The one thing I don’t understand is why you don’t need an ISBN number for Kindle books.

If you use Amazon’s Create Space print on demand service, part of the cost is for getting an ISBN number for the resulting book. So I don’t know why they didn’t extend that for Kindle. You can’t upload to iBooks for example without an ISBN.

The problem that I see with giving users the option to Flag books is that you can get organized and malicious flagging. (I’ve heard of it happening on YouTube).

But something needs to be done IMO. I’m glad other people agree.
Thanks for stopping by.

Paul

Bell May 16, 2011 at 7:26 pm

Yes, malicious flagging is indeed a risk — though in a way you already have that, under a different guise — paid, negative book reviews by sock puppets.

Maybe something structured along the lines of copyright claims would work. Reporting, rather than flagging. To keep the mob at bay.
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Michael Martine, Blog Alchemist May 16, 2011 at 5:38 pm

Seeing as how you find what you want by search and by recommendations on Amazon, I don’t view this at all as spam. An explosion of niche choices in a marketplace isn’t spam. If the stuff doesn’t sell people will stop doing it.

I recall reading about an attorney who created divorce guides and he made one for each state. Divorce laws differ from state to state so having 50 guides is not just some SEO trick because people search for books.

If the busy divorced husband can now cook his meals in 15 minutes and he’s thrilled, who are we to say anything against that? He’s happy and whoever sold the book is happy.

Maybe those two books will get recommended together! :)

I understand and respect what you’re saying and why. I just don’t see it the same way. Thanks for raising such an interesting subject.
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Paul Wolfe May 16, 2011 at 6:17 pm

Michael

That’s cool that you don’t see it the same way….we may have to agree to disagree on this one.

I hear what you’re saying about the search and recommendations tabs – but with certain topics what’s happening is that you can find what’s essentially the same book being published by different authors. I searched for a marketing topic – i think it was Video Marketing, or Facebook marketing – and got three books by different authors that were the same. They even had the same graphic on the cover. Now personally I consider that pretty spammy.

Also the courses that I see that teach this stuff – they seem to recommend creating at least one kindle book a day. And sourcing the content from PLR. And not even bothering to edit it. That’s just lazy. And not promoting any kind of originality and quality…in fact the sales letters I’ve seen deride the very notion of originality.

So that’s why I have the view I have – I appreciate your viewpoint though. What’s cool is that you made me think about it at greater depth – and maybe it’s not potentially as serious as I think because of the way people search on Amazon. The chances of these books ‘beating out’ the quality books in Amazon searches in the way that Google searches sometimes return pages that are of low content quality that have been SEO engineered are low.

I still think insisting on an ISBN number and banning PLR content would be a positive move though!

Have a great day.

Paul

Steve from Internet Lifestyle May 16, 2011 at 8:52 pm

Paul,

Ah ha! A debate post. (it’s a blog off!) I think I can come down ( a little) on the other side of this. Here is my, errrrr Amazon’s reply.

Dear Valued Amazon customer,

Thank you so much for the kind words you have about Kindle and Amazon services. You are absolutely right, we really do rock! Go Kindle!

While we might agree in concept that the Amazon spam is an issue there is little way for us to enforce a policy.

1. The main reason is that we at Amazon are not content providers. We do not make judgements on quality. That is a slippery slope. Today we ping someone for having slipshod PLR content, tomorrow we are pressured into deleting the unedited version of “Huckleberry Finn” where the “N” word is used.

BTW, you will be happy to note both edited and unedited version of Huck’s take are available on amazon. Even in 100% free version.

How is that for service world!

The point is we distribute content, we do not create or edit it. Some nasty people take advantage of this, but once we cross the Rubicon on this topic things could get hairy.

2. Not all PLR content is bad. Some of our (Amazons) best friends are PLR writers. (Peggy Baron and Murray Lunn) If someone buys their packages and puts the content out on.
Just because the content has been used elsewhere does not make it “bad” If it is “fresh” to the reader and helps them on out for an issue, isn’t that the point.

3. Of course PLR some is bad. No arguing that. Is changing the same article differnt from optimizing for 5-6 different keyphrases. Perhaps it is. Perhaps it isn’t. We at Amazon will admit we do not like this practice. But this is part of the slippery slope. How can WE judge good from bad. Plus there are ways to fight this.

4. Sample chapters. We have checked your download history (like Google we have eyes everywhere) and we see that you have downloads a few sample chapters. This should give you an idea if the topic is something you have seen before or not.

5. Even though we will admit that changing the titles to match similar search phrases is dubious at best. There are some people who may be helped by this for making it easier to find”what they are looking for” as long as the content still matches.

We at Amazon even have a recommendation system to help fight this…

We here at Amazon like to save our big guns for last.

5. Star system. We our quite proud of our amazon rating system. We highlight both good and bad reviews. A ebook with 2-3 glowing reviews is likely not to be trusted. Check out ebooks that have a bit of community screening. If you come across books that are cheap copies please leave negative reviews.

We are not into judging content, we leave that to YOU. IF content is horrid PLR, please rank it down. If it doesn’t deliver please get your refund and rank it down. If the sample chapter is horrible, please rank it down. 1 out of 5 star reviews will warn others to stay away.

What we, at Amazon, should perhaps work on:

A Google-like search structure that pulls up related topics and places the highest ranked/amount of rankings first. 2 – 5 star reviews can be faked.

At Amazon we do see the problems with the situation you are talking about. We are working on ways (I hope) to make our recommnedation system even more vibrant. But we need YOUR help.

Please rate up the quality content that deserves appreciation and put a stake in the heart of time-sucking vampire spam.

Your continued use of Amazon products is appreciated.

Go Kindle!

-Steve Scott
Newly appointed (by himself) Amazon customer relations representative for Internet section 157-4D.
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Stan Faryna May 17, 2011 at 6:17 am

Steve, you rock the repartee.
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Paul Wolfe May 16, 2011 at 10:14 pm

Steve

Awesome comment – ha ha – oopss, I nearly dropped an F-bomb there, just come back from the pub where I’ve been talking about Kindles of all things!

If I was Jeff Bezos I’d hire you tomorror (or today, depending on timezone).

BTW, if Peggy or Murry is reading I’m not dissing PLR content at all – I’ve got no problem with the concept of PLR concept. It’s lazy marketers using it badly, and worse, being taught badly, that gets me annoyed.

This practice is at its worst with PLR Books. I searched for something last week…..and found four titles that were totally the same. Same title. Same cover. Same page counts. Same books. But different authors – and different prices.

How dumb is that?

Anyway, if Jeff ever gets in touch, I’ll send him your way!

Paul

Steve from Internet Lifestyle May 16, 2011 at 10:34 pm

Paul,

As a customer, I certainly agree with the frustration of finding the same content everywhere. People that take advantage of the system really ruin it for people that are trying to make it work and get their stuff found.

I do think that the rating system can handle it (somewhat) -I hope you at least took the time to give a 1 star and short nasty quip.

On the other hand, as was pointed out in your Comments I can also see where (as long as the topic still “works” it can help good content (assuming it IS that) find the reader.

Like said in your comment section above by by Michael

“If the busy divorced husband can now cook his meals in 15 minutes and he’s thrilled, who are we to say anything against that? He’s happy and whoever sold the book is happy.”

I would personally -blister- I found anyone doing it in results. I think it is “generally” a bad practice, but I can see where someone could find it useful. (as per Michaels example)
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Michael A. Robson May 16, 2011 at 11:42 pm

Actually iPad/iPhone/iPod uses ePub, an open format. Amazon used their own format.
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Paul Wolfe May 18, 2011 at 6:44 am

Hi Michael

Yep I know Amazon use their own format – what I was referring to though is that they created Apps so that you can use the Kindle system on non-Kindle devices.

That is seriously cool.

Paul

Marina Brito from Defeat The Cousin May 16, 2011 at 11:42 pm

@Paul,

I can see how identical PLR -Kindle ebooks can be perceived as spammy. To the user it’s the same experience as searching on Google and having the top results be crappy keyword-generated websites with no useful content other than a bunch of ads (couldn’t Google see their “bounce rates” and adjust their ranking accordingly?).

I find those sites incredibly irritating. I can see the same happening while looking for a Kindle ebook and finding clones of the same useless stuff.

However, I agree with @Steve that Amazon shouldn’t regulate content. I am a big free market advocate and I’d rather have the users vote with their dollars and their rankings.

What I would ask Amazon to do is to have a solid search/recommendation engine that truly delivers results based on the users’ point of view, and to keep tweaking it to thwart spam artists as best it can.
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Paul Wolfe May 18, 2011 at 6:48 am

Marina

I hear what you’re saying….and agree with you up to a point.

However any search/recommendation engine would have to be driven by an algorithym (sp?) and as with Google there will always be people looking to work out how to tweak the algo for their own benefits.

When people who’ve tweaked the algo appear high in the search recommendations, often they get a degree of implied authority from that. Because the average Joe doesn’t understand how an algorhythm system works.

Thanks for stopping by.

Paulxx

Jk Allen May 17, 2011 at 3:02 am

Hey Paul – This is one topic I haven’t spent too much time thinking about but, but I’m still highly interested in it.

I don’t own a Kindle and probably never will – unless I win one (because I wouldn’t purchase one). HOWEVER – I do have the Kindle App on my Android Powered phone. And, that, I simply love. Like you said, it’s pretty cool having the option to download a sample…they even offer some good free books like The Art of War.

Now the issue – the spam PLR junk. Yeah, not a fan of recycled content. It’s one thing for the originating author to re-purpose their own work…but PLR spam is another thing.

So, it looks like what happens in our beloved blogging space (people taking advantage/juicing the system) is happening on the Kindle. In fact, no matter where you go, we’ll find these types trying to capitalize off of taking advantage of people.

I say thanks for the awareness and taking the stance. It’s my hope that the integrity of this device maintained. Only time will tell.

I hope your letter is taken seriously by the Amazon folks.

I RT’d this bad boy and make sure to add @amazon
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Paul Wolfe May 18, 2011 at 6:52 am

Hey JK

Thanks for hustling over here and retweeting the post. Appreciate it.
There will always be people who believe they can get a competitive advantage by taking a different approach – and there will always be people devizing these approaches and selling them as ‘get rich quick’ information.

I hope Amazon introduces some filters that protect the Kindle’s ‘integrity’ WITHOUT devolving into censorship. (And yep, I know that’s a narrow tightrope to walk).

Paul

Marianne Worley May 17, 2011 at 5:03 am

I am a Kindle owner, some might say devotee… I’m not ashamed to admit that I carry my beloved Kindle with me everywhere, like some would carry and iPad. I frequently search for books both through my Kindle and on Amazon.com. You are absolutely right that searches often return quite a bit of questionable content. I always review potential purchases very carefully to weed out the junk before I throw away even $3. As a customer, it would be helpful if Amazon would enable me to filter my results by whether the publication has an ISBN or not. This would alleviate the problem of forcing the customer to do extra work to find the good products in a list of results.
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Paul Wolfe May 18, 2011 at 6:55 am

Hey Marianne

Thanks for dropping by.

I can see why you’re a Kindle devotee – if I hadn’t got an iPad I probably would have got a Kindle. The whole process is is seriously good. (And addictive).

I think that requiring ISBN numbers WOULD help filter some of this out because certainly in North America and the UK you have to apply – and pay for – ISBN numbers. So it’s another level of difficulty – and that would deter some people who are looking to ‘get rich quick.’

However the point must be made that having an ISBN number won’t guarantee quality! How many books have you read from publishing houses that were not good?

It might deter some of the Kindle spam though….

Paul

Stan Faryna May 17, 2011 at 6:20 am

What’s wrong with spam? [grin]

I have only this to add:

Monty Python on Spam: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE
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Paul Wolfe May 18, 2011 at 7:01 am

I often wonder on how the word ‘spam’ became associated with what we now call spam.

It would be genius if it was something to do with Monty Python!

Daniel M. Wood May 17, 2011 at 7:39 am

Hey Paul,

I agree that it is great that you can publish your content quickly and easily through the kindle publishing service, but like you said spam ruins it for all.

It was great, but when so many spam it that your books don’t get found and that quality content gets hidden, it has lost its value.
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Paul Wolfe May 18, 2011 at 7:11 am

Daniel

It’s not a serious problem – yet. But it’s possible that it could grow to be a serious problem. Hopefully Amazon will realize there’s a problem and address it – sooner rather than later.

Paul

mandy from learntoblog May 17, 2011 at 2:25 pm

Hi Paul,

I just wrote a post about the darker side of PLR…I haven’t published it yet so am going to link back to here because you make some very valid points about what I consider to be misuse of material. It isn’t necessarily those that take PLR and turn it into something else with editing and additions, thought and an amount of hard work, but those who do nothing with it other than a new title or a new graphic and then you find it is the same as the other dozen you have, if you are interested to read up on a particular topic.

On the other hand there have been many cases in court to do with books and copyright, even music, so how can someone get away with taking something that was not written by them and publishing it on Kindle? (I’m not talking about PLR here, just the general state of IM where articles and even blog posts are stolen but nothing seems to be able to be done about it).

Enjoy the journey.

Mandy
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Paul Wolfe May 18, 2011 at 7:41 am

Hi Mandy

Thanks for stopping by.

I’ve got nothing against PLR at all – and one of my twitter Tribe, and a regular commenter here, is Peggy Barron who produces PLR packs. But as you say there are people who use PLR is a very lazy fashion – and this results in the proliferation of the same information around the internet. Which is not the intent of the PLR publishers at all (I’m guessing).

The point you make about the taking of content and republishing it is something else that is really annoying. There are steps you can take (issue DMCA notices, contact the hosts etc), but that takes time and energy that could be better spent creating content or other activities for your business.

mandy from learntoblog May 18, 2011 at 8:30 am

I’m one of Peggy’s customers. I love what she does and I use her PLR as a basis for new products, I never put put something ‘straight out there’ without alteration. I agree that the principle of PLR is good, as stated above in my comment about the misuse of material.

Enjoy the journey.

Mandy
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Robert from Belief and Action May 17, 2011 at 4:06 pm

Hey Paul,

Wow this post has taught me lots of stuff. I don’t know much about the whole Kindle market, apart from that it’s pretty cool! It’s such a shame to hear that it is being overtaken by scummy spammers who are ruining it for all the decent users.

It surprises me that a company such as Amazon has not already integrated some BS filters to it’s system. I don’t think any of the things that you suggested are too harsh, I hope they get implemented soon, because I want to start using Kindle!

Thanks for this post.

P.S. You never told me what you thought of Frank’s book.

Paul Wolfe May 18, 2011 at 7:42 am

Hey Robert

I haven’t read Frank’s book – I was interested to see what YOU thought. I’m not a great fan of his to be honest, long story, won’t go into it here.

And a big thumbs up to Amazon introducing some kind of filtering system.

Paul

Adrienne May 17, 2011 at 11:02 pm

Wow Paul, I had no idea they were doing this. Like you, I don’t own a Kindle but I did upload my first Kindle book to my PC. Thought that was really cool.

I first learned a few months ago that you could publish eBooks to Kindle through but have not taken that route. This kind of disturbs me too with what Brankica said about people publishing blogs on there that may not necessarily belong to them. That’s just not right.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention and hopefully the sources that be will see the light as well and make a few minor adjustments. It’s for the good of everyone in the end. Especially Kindle and Amazon.

Adrienne
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Paul Wolfe May 18, 2011 at 7:45 am

Hey Adrienne

Yep the Kindle platform is great. Honestly I believe it’s a major step forward in the self publishing business. The barriers of entry for content creators have never been so low – maybe the price you have to pay for those low barriers is the admittance of some ‘low quality’ and spammy material.

But hopefully Amazon can deal with it in some way without diluting the effectiveness of the platform before it becomes something that overwhelms the system.

We’ll see.

Take it easy.

Paul

Stuart May 19, 2011 at 8:29 am

Paul, don’t you think it’s amazing how easy it is for just about anyone to get published now?

In the good old days, you could only get published via a book, either by paperback or hardback. Then, along came magazines, journals, letters in newspapers, etc. Then came the internet, and websites, e-books, blogs, and now Kindle. And now Kindle has spread like a wildfire, and using Kindle, just about anyone can get something published. In effect, at some point in the future, becoming published in some form is going to be as common as learning to drive.

I’ve had a letter published in my local newspaper, and I have my blog. I, therefore, have been published. A few years ago, this was a strong goal of mine, the kind I’d dream about as a kid. But now it’s ‘technically’ happened, I don’t feel fulfilled. I don’t feel like I can start a new dream. I feel this way because the dream of being published is no longer a dream. It’s become a commonplace reality.

Don’t get me wrong, I would love to own a Kindle one day. But the downside of it’s ‘genius’ thinking is that once a genius paves the way, the ‘normal’ water comes in and floods the gap. Before you know it, the market is saturated :-/
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Paul Wolfe May 19, 2011 at 8:46 am

Hey Stuart

Interesting comment.

Personally I think it’s great that people who want to get their material don’t have to go via the ‘gatekeepers.’ Especially the gatekeepers of multi national conglomerates that are less interested in publishing quality material and more interested in publishing profitable material.

And if you’re topic is something that’s very ‘niche’ specific there’s a chance that a major publishing house won’t touch you because of the economics of publishing a book that may only appeal to a few thousand readers.

And as an author publishing in such a niche – let’s say you sell 5000 copies (which is a lot for a first time author by the way), the chances are you’ll make a dollar per copy at most. (Obv. it depends on pricing models and the deal you can strike).

AND most first time authors have to do all the marketing for their books anyway – there is only marketing budget for the ‘big’ guys. The Stephen Kings and James Pattersons and John Grishams of the writing world.

So, those facts being taken into account – from an economic point of view if you’ve got to build your audience yourself anyway, why not self publish and get a bigger chunk of the royalties.

For example: same example above. 5000 copies sold. If you sell that as a Kindle ebook for 9.99 that will net just shy of $50,000. On Amazon’s current royalty model you’ll get around $35,000. Same book. Same price. 7 Fold increase in revenue. Same amount of work. If yo’ve got 5000 ‘fans’ that you’ve build up via your blog or website and can sell the eBook version (PDF) from your website for let’s say $27, well do the math on that.

For authors, that’s why self publishing is so important.

The challenge isn’t to get published – it’s to get published and sell enough copies of your book to generate an income and spread your ideas/thoughts.

If you Google Amanda Hocking you’ll see she’s the queen of Kindle (she’s an author of vampire/romance/Twilight kind of books for teens). And without Kindle her voice may not have been heard. Personally I’ve never read her stuff – and probably won’t ever – but she’s built an audience, and why should that audience be deprived because the major publishing houses wouldn’t publish her?

William Goldman says about Hollywood: Nobody knows anything. The same is true to a degree with book publishers. Harry Potter rejected multiple times. Lord of the Rings rejected multiple times. Steven King rejected multiple times.

For the first time in history if the multi national conglomerates pass on your work, you’ve got options to publish yourself. The Kindle is a genius idea – and yes, it means that a lot of crappy and sub-standard books will be published. For authors the challenge is to build your audience to sell YOUR books, YOUR ideas and YOUR voice.

If you’ve written a book, Stu, why shouldn’t it be published? Ten years ago it was a brutal process. Nowadays it’s less brutal – but you still have to produce quality to make a difference.

That make sense? (I think this morning’s caffeine finally hit….)

Paul

Stuart May 19, 2011 at 9:43 am

Bloody hell Paul, I’m so glad to report that that comment makes sense the first time around! ;-)
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Paul Wolfe May 19, 2011 at 9:45 am

LOL!

I think that could be the basis of another post!

Stuart May 19, 2011 at 10:18 am

Yeah, as I was reading it, I thought “Paul’s working on another e-book again” ;-)
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Paul Wolfe May 19, 2011 at 10:21 am

LOL – if you saw the ‘idea file’ that I have you might spit out your coffee in shock….I’ve got a bass course to finish (’bout 3 weeks), and then a week or so finishing up the bonuses on my YouTube Build Your Tribe webinar course that I did – and then I’ll be going to that idea file.

And there’ll be a *BIG* announcement sometime in June I think….have something interesting planned ;)

Stuart May 19, 2011 at 10:56 am

Paul, I’ve finished my coffee for the morning, but have moved onto water – which I nearly spat out ;-)

You’re a busy guy, but we like busy. As long as you’re doing what you love, keep pushing yourself.

Looking forward to the BIG announcement, I’m even more excited because you put ‘big’ in capital letters ;-)
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Chrissy Jamie May 22, 2011 at 8:35 am

Kindle spam? Wow I had no idea it was that bad. I usually get tons of spam emails and facebook messages on my wall (amazing people still allow that).
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Tristan from Blogging Tips May 26, 2011 at 12:03 am

Paul, I bought my Kindle a couple weeks ago and it has changed my life. It’s seriously one of the best purchases I’ve ever made, and I freaking love the thing.

I’ve spent a lot of time browsing the Kindle store and have seen some of the PLR stuff, but it hasn’t really bothered me. Isn’t Amazon’s rating system enough to ensure that the crap stuff doesn’t get bought over and over?

But that aside, I DO think that people selling PLR stuff on Amazon in general is super lame. Your idea of Amazon not allowing PLR is a great one. PLR has its place, I guess, but Amazon definitely isn’t it.

Have you bought anything on Amazon and then realized, “Crap! This is lousy PLR!”?
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Paul Wolfe May 26, 2011 at 1:21 pm

Hey Tristan

Thanks for stopping by. Hope I didn’t drag you away from the INfographic Course ;)

I don’t have a Kindle – but I access the Kindle store via my iPad. And I can see myself getting a Kindle as well. The whole process is utterly brilliant – and THEN you can upload your own stuff to it as well? Genius.

Gary Vaynerchuk often talks about the digital age being a revolution because ALL OF US have the ability to bypass the corporate gatekeepers. And Kindle is another – and one of the best – examples of this.

I really like Amazon’s approach to stuff – if you haven’t already I suggest you go subscribe to Seth Godin’s partnership with Amazon called ‘THE DOMINO PROJECT’ – google it, you’ll find it.

There’s some game changing stuff going on.

To answer your question – I bought one eBook on Kindle about Video Marketing that I suspected might not be great, but needed to check for myself.
And it was very poor. It wasn’t PLR, it was just poor. I applaud the author’s effort in getting it published – but it wasn’t great.

You can usually tell the ‘PLR’ books by the way by the cover. As a generalization professional books have got 2D covers and ‘PLR’ books have got 3D covers like the ones you can generate with Cover Action Pro.

Thanks for stopping by.

Paul

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