#GetLoud against Cheaters
Okay, I don't usually swear on here and I'm trying my best to keep my cool, but for the love of all that is sacred and true in the Indie World, what did I scroll up on? I know I've been away from keyboard for a little while now and I knew there'd be a little chaos upon my return, but walking in to the seventh level of Hell, was not what I expected. Clearly, the #CockyGate, among others, continue to rage on and I had to do a little exploring to get the goods on...
What am I babbling on about? #BookStuffing #BookStuffers #CategoryScammers #CheatingAuthors and how to #GetLoud and get noticed. Your voice counts! Not only are these #CheatingAuthors screwing over the system, they're screwing over their readers and that is just downright low. Like, pond scum low. Those are your fans, the heart strings that keep your books afloat, and you're scamming them? Now, having shabby internet means I have to do this quickly, so I've taken a lot of screenshots of other blogs and images from Twitter and Facebook to help me out. This one below does a pretty good job of explaining what #BookStuffing is and how it happening on Amazon's Kindle Unlimited right now...
This is cheating and you're about to see why..... <<<<<<<<<
THE SCAM: Uh, do you see what I see? All I really have to do is buy book A, but when said Author who published #BookStuffed A, re-publishes it as Book B, same content, different cover.... You just got SCAMMED. And again when you buy Books C, D and E!
Sure, as an Author myself, I have added what I call, A Look Ahead. It's maybe two pages, if that, and is pulled directly from the next book in the series.
So, if my story is 300 pages long, 294 of them are actual story (Don't forget Title Page, Copyright, Dedication, Etc...) The last 2 pages are usually my Look Ahead and always relate to the story at hand. Some Authors, go all out, stuffing their books to the max, it's abso-bloody-lutely (Insert your own profanities here) These Authors are not only scamming the system though, they're scamming their readers, as I said above. This is utter craziness. And people call me the Mistress of Insanity, well hell, I should move on over and hand the title to these Authors. We have a whole League of #BookStuffers out there causing insanity to rain down on us all. I may have to change my tagline :O :O :O Now, whoever created that table above is a bloody genius, and I think I have a screenshot of her too....
Anteria Hawbaker, you are a bloody genius. I thank you for helping my brain sort of this onslaught of selfish behavior. There are two side to every battle and I'm glad you're on our side. But there are so many who aren't on our side and It's kind of sad. We're supposed to be working together to make the Indie Community shine, not try to trademark and weasel our way through the system for every $$$ we can steal. Those people are what's wrong with this world, and there are lots of them. People have made lists, no joke. They have gone through Amazon and pulled names of suspicious #Bookstuffing activity. HOW?
This is one of the culprits on the list I found, and I'll share that list with you at the end, but for now, take a look at this...
You're looking at the page count and file size, way bigger than the usual 300 page novel, right?
Again, this is cheating because the story, Marrying His Brother, is NOT 2665 pages long. So, how many BONUS stories did she add to what she has now dubbed a Romance Compilation? To, you know, scam Amazon and her fans further.
Just look at the table of contents in the gallery here for Author Tia Siren.
She isn't the only one either, here's Cassandra Dee. Thanks to David Gaughran for all his hard work. Seriously, I was so lost when I first returned to the online world...
Did you see the inducement in that last image? NEW CONTENT generally has the reader swiping to the back to view it, while at the same time, sort of outing her for filling her books with repeating content. I said generally above, because I am not one of those readers. I don't swipe, I flip, as in pages in real books. They smell better, and let's face it, I wouldn't buy a book that was 3000 pages. My poor hands, could you imagine holding that thing??? Anyhow, not only do they stuff their books, but their formatting.... Editor's nightmare, unless of course you were doing it on purpose to, you know, scam the system.
Here, it's almost as if the Author wants me to edit it for them. All that dead space just screams for me to edit it; but it is not my circus and those sure as hell are not my monkeys. Mine are far better behaved and I call them Petals. It's a .99 book, double spaced and in my opinion horribly written. My Version... She had pulled a chair in front of the mirror and was now sitting there, combing her thick, dark hair with her fingers. It were as if she hadn't realized she was naked and all I could think about was steering her with that hair as I'd fucked her the night before... Okay, I'm gonna stop there, or I'll end up editing the whole damn thing for you and really, I've got better things to do; like finish this blog. People have to know what's happening. #Bookstuffing and #DeadSpacing are real, look at the proof above, and then look at the #CategoryStealing going on below, by the same Authors. As if it wasn't bad enough that they fill their books with repetitive content and expect us to buy it, they're now mislabeling their books, on purpose.
Now, what the mother of all hells is Touch Me Doctor doing in Classic Literature? Oh, I got it, the Doctor reads, Classic Literature? This is clearly how the Author was thinking when they went and tagged their book as Classic Literature.
I have a healer in my book. Better tag it Medical. I have an astronaut in my book. Better tag it Intergalactic and Space Travel and don't forget to tag Astrology too, cause you know, there are stars in the book too! My character made cookies, I better tag Baking and Manuals, because she told you how many chocolate chips to add and when. Are you frakking kidding me? So, since there is a massive war going on in my adult-fantasy books, I should tag #WarZone #Battlefield #Swordplay #Medical #Famine and #HistoricalDocuments? I mean, we do have ancient scrolls... Or maybe we could focus on the fact that throughout it all, the Paranormals are trying to figure out which line of insanity the Human's sprouted from? Do I get to tag #Psychology Literature? What about #MentalHealth because one of my characters is a Seer? Say I do tag my stories with insane categories and my books sell, more than the others in my new category, oh look, top ratings in a category that has nothing to do with my books! #CHEATING It's a nasty world out there, but there are some of us trying to make it better. Well I just got here, but I'm more than ready to #GetLoud; but I must warn you, it may come at a cost, for others have spoken up against this outrage and....
Suzan Tisdale is one of our #IndieHeroes, using her voice to ensure we were all aware of what was going on... and Facebook silenced her. They tossed her into Facebook Jail over the complaints from haters across the world. All she did was inform the public of a scandal...
Well, she wants to #GetLoud and she isn't backing down, and neither are her fans! Hit up youtube and check out her video
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People are not happy. Readers, are not happy and they finally understand why they get so much junk in some books. I knew there was something up, I just didn't think it was this big. Why has Amazon not done anything about it yet? If they know it's going on, why not investigate. Save their own system before people begin to think it's a joke? None the less, I can't stand by and let it continue and I for one will not be buying any books stuffed with insane amounts of Extra Content. #BookStuffing it's against Amazon's Terms of Service.
So report it. Do your part to keep the Indie Community clean and clear of chaos like this. No one wins when people like this are allowed to continue to scam the system, not the readers and fans or the Indie Community.
All you have to do is click feedback, and let them know the book violates the Amazon Kindle Terms of Service. The sooner this stops, the better.
Until then, have a look at what else I found in the gallery below and the list I found. You should do some homework of your own, cause I know I've missed stuff. I didn't even get to #TiffanyGate..... but it's getting late and I could go on forever. So just, keep your eyes open. Do your homework before you buy. Don't fall for the scams.
