UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion
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clickfarm your book to number one Lets fix this mess!
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It's fucking wrong!Okay, we need links to contacts at Amazon to express our outrage.
And I'm moving this thread to the top of the group.
Another reason to leave KU. This is appalling.
David Gaughran has been nagging Amazon for eighteen months and got nowhere. They're in denial about it.
What got me was that Amazon has let it happen! They'll take down reviews tag lag but not actually do something which screws their system
I write as someone who doesn't need to pay anyone else to clickfarm. I had always thought of it as tantamount to buying your own book to boost its rating, which has always been possible. Amazon are hardly going to discourage this, since they make their cut whoever buys, but it isn't something I'd thought likely to benefit me, the author. However, Kindle Unlimited is promoted in the UK and for all I know elsewhere in the world by means of a Free Trial, so Amazon have created an opportunity for sock-puppets to 'buy' books without actually paying anything at all. Not smart.
These 'books' don't satisfy customers, which is the main thing Amazon says it focuses on (sorry, early morning here and the grammar critic in my head is awake enough to point out there's something wrong with this, but not awake enough to fix it).Ergo, fixing the problem of fake books in KU should be at the top of Amazon's list.
Meanwhile, people trying to follow the rules are getting little traction on those lists. Does that make me a chump? Or do the people who use clickfarms eventually get their comeuppance and I should not even think of joining them?
Thanks for the info, Jim. I had no idea such things as click farms existed.I'm glad to see people are posting 'scam alert' reviews. The more the merrier before the scammers corral people into leaving fake reviews. Perhaps some impoverished soul will be getting $0.0044 for each fake review left. Yes, that amount has been chosen for a reason.
Eventually such so-called authors get their comeuppance, Alicia! In the meantime, there'll be more of this than we realize. It will also damage Amazon, I believe, because once consumers no longer trust their supplier, sales fall off. Worse, as far as most writers are concerned I'm sure, is the fact that possibly thousands of high places are occupied by this load of impoverished characters - better stop there - I can feel a rant coming on.
This is really discouraging :( the book doesn't have a rank on its product page so maybe Amazon is looking into it...
I'm a little more relaxed about this. Sure it's an outrage but I expect Amazon will do something about it. Eventually.They have a habit of doing nothing, doing nothing, doing nothing ... then doing an awful lot in a short space of time. Usually by using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Expect the sleepy giant to wake up if enough people complain about it.
I've tried contacting Amazon about stuff, mainly to show my books were cheaper elsewhere so should be free on Amazon, and got nowhereWho do you contact in Amazon to get anything to happen?
Anna Faversham wrote: "Eventually such so-called authors get their comeuppance, Alicia!..."Hope so. I've known about these things since I first published. BP uses sophisticated versions of the same thing - fancier, more expensive, and from people who should know better. Indies will get tarred and feathered if they're shown to have done the same, and some of it is hypocritical.
I put those emails offering me such 'packages' into the spam bucket immediately - and hope I don't get associated by accident with one of those schemes.
Not holier than thou, just don't think illegitimate means are sustainable, and besides, they cost money.
Will wrote: "I'm a little more relaxed about this. Sure it's an outrage but I expect Amazon will do something about it. Eventually.They have a habit of doing nothing, doing nothing, doing nothing ... then doi..."
I just hope not to get caught in a net meant for sharks - it takes a lot of energy to sort things out.
Jim wrote: "I've tried contacting Amazon about stuff, mainly to show my books were cheaper elsewhere so should be free on Amazon, and got nowhereWho do you contact in Amazon to get anything to happen?"
On your book's page, at the bottom, or on the author central page, there should be a contact form. I've never had any trouble when they had to straighten out a few things for me. But then I'm in the States.
I think I'll go check to make sure the fixes stayed fixed.
Today's DrabbleI'm Going To Be The Next Big Thing! by Jim Webster
You will all know my name soon enough. I’ve got my marketing ready and the minute my book hits Amazon, it’s going to be big, really big. Eat my dust, Dan Brown. I’ve got a clickfarm on standby ready to do a hundred thousand fake borrows. On top of that I’ve over three hundred sock-puppets on standby, the five-star reviews of my new book already written. I’m no fool; these sock-puppets are already reviewing other things so it won’t look suspicious when they review my book.
Now all I need to do is write the book, got any ideas?
Love it! Hope you're going to send it to the BookHippo?
Patti (baconater) wrote: "Semi colon!I'm impressed!"
Partially colonated!
Gingerlily - Mistress Lantern wrote: "Patti (baconater) wrote: "Semi colon!I'm impressed!"
Partially colonated!"
Best way
And I wouldn't use a drabble submitted to book hippo until it was published ;-)
Kath wrote: "It's on today's Hippo, Anna."Ah... got it, I'm a bit late in checking everything today (been a good girl and done some writing). Out of touch, as usual.
I love the line 'Eat my dust, Dan Brown.'
Jim wrote: Best way
And I wouldn't use a drabble submitted to book hippo until it was published."
I like your style.
Careful. Some of these bots are sensitive.
sock puppets are people toVote early, vote often :-)
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Poor Amazon - another thing to look out for.
We frequently get posts like that in our group, Anna. Rosemary and I jump to delete them as quickly as we can.Can you please modify your post so they get as little advertising as possible?
Have done so, Patti. Let me know if I need to do more.What I find so amazing is that they are from seemingly respectable advertising sites that people frequently recommend as successful.
I sometimes wonder if I've misread things or misunderstood as I scan through stuff quickly. I've received these before but always ignored them obviously, but now that we have a thread showing up cheats, I thought I'd put this one out there for people to judge!
I shan't be using their service as advertised nor their ordinary email newsletters. I've read it several times and I don't think I am misunderstanding. Has the world gone mad!
Anna Faversham wrote: "Has the world gone mad! ..."Yes - and there are scammers working every possible angle.
It's hard enough doing promotion without having to fight the waves of people looking for the fast and easy way. I'd consider them if they were legitimate and worked, but I fear that's not the case.
an article which purports to show the inside of a click farmhttps://kotaku.com/inside-chinese-cli...
I think they've taken job creation too far. And that poor girl (from 2015) was sitting in an anorak and with one hand inside some sort of warming thing.
https://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2...
Go from #385,841 in the Kindle Store to #1 in a day!