The very sad truth.
Now, on a serious note.
I happened upon a writer on Twitter and Facebook:
Dakota Willink
Her Twitter introduction: “Amazon Int’l Bestselling Romance Author | Survived my 1st publishing with coffee & wine | Music Lover | Star Wars Geek Since Birth.”
She explains how non-writers are scamming the system at Amazon
and
graciously allowed me to reprint (aka copy/paste) her post.
<_><_><_>
I need to tell a story – it’s going to be a long one, so settle in if you’re interested in hearing it.
I began writing my first book in 2013. I self-published it on December 27, 2015. I was new to the business and I literally knew nothing. I made my own cover, which I’m embarrassed of now. But hey – I was brand spanking new and was learning as I went. And yes, there were typos galore in this first book. My January 2016 sales…
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lucinda E Clarke 
Wow, I read that all the way through, it’s very sad and a sad comment on the Big A. I think I will call it the little A now, it doesn’t deserve a BIG anything.
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Hmph, I wrote a long comment on her blog, but WordPress decided I didn’t have an account and refused to log me in even though I’m already logged in on yours! Anyway, I thought it was an interesting post, but I’m afraid the book industry is like everything else. Readers are just the same as every other market and everyone wants something cheap these days. When I look at the hordes of people going into the cheap stores here where all the goods come from Asia and cost peanuts, I see no difference. Most people don’t care about the people who make and produce goods; they only want to pay as little as possibe, and in our world, that goes for ebooks too. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I snap up 99c books I like the look of but don’t know the authors. I only really pay full price for authors I know and love, and I’m an author too. However, the scammers are something else. Since I’m not a reader of that type of book, I don’t know much about it, but I would think A would be able to detect that kind of plagiarised re-packaged material and do something about it. But let’s see, that probably means they’d crack down on the wrong people!
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I’m one of the most honest reviewers I know and they have locked me out! Beats me how we can send men to the moon, yet cannot control scammers through the internet! OK, I’ll go along with book sales @ 0.99 but when I read on social media people who refuse to pay anything at all, it makes me cross.
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Yes on all points, and for the last one, I agree. I never give my books away, except as personal gifts…my principle, but I know plenty of people who won’t buy ebooks. They only download what they can get fro free…just like music.
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Sad isn’t it that the arts demand less respect yet the culture is one of hero worship as it actors and singers and look what people who can kick a ball get paid.
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Yes, the irony is fairly cutting, isn’t it?
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I’m reluctant to press ‘like’ to this but wordpress does not give you a crying emoji sadly.
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Hello Lucinda I enjoy your posts very much and thank you for keeping me in the loop. I can’t say I am surprised that Amazon would use its global monopoly to crush those who produce the very product it relies on. It is the way of things. I also agree that things are getting worse. I am writing to you, as I was hoping you could give me a little advice. I know you must be up to your ears in your book launch, so I will not be offended if you cannot find time to reply. It is just that I have had no luck finding an agent for my first book. Now I am getting ready to become an Indie author. Plus as you rightly point out, results, even if they are paultry, are better than some book launch 3 years down the road when we may not even be around to enjoy the benefits. Here are my questions:
Do you offer your books on KU and in your opinion is it worth it? I have become concerned about ghostwriters in India stealing your freely available work and using the framework to produce badly written copycat rubbish.
If you use KU, does this mean that Amazon have exclusive rights? Would you trust them with that?
Do you allow people to buy your books for 0.99c? I met someone the other day that told me that if a book costs more than that, she wouldn’t buy it. I was shocked. At this stage, you can see that I must be very green. I would rather sell 0 books than give it away.
Last question. Do you promote your books on Amazon .com or .co.uk and is it possible to do both? I am at the early stages of trying to figure this stuff out.
Thank you in advance, as always appreciate your help and your friendship. Wishing you luck with your new project. I am looking forward to reading it and paying the proper price for your hard work. Whilst I think of it, I met up with Ray Wilcox the other day. He seems to be enjoying life here in the sun.
Regards,
Alastair xx
Virus-free. http://www.avg.com
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Alistair, call me and let’s set up a time over coffee or lunch and bring all those questions and I’ll give you the benefit of my advice – such as it is! Alternatively if you prefer to Facetime we can do that as well. 🙂 Only too happy to help any author.
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