Comments on: Are AI-generated Books Already Ruining Kindle Unlimited?

By: Greg Mongrain

Greg Mongrain — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 16:15:39 +0000

Thanks, Ginger, now I can sleep better. Amazon do the right thing? I wouldn’t be surprised if Bezos’ solution to policing AI-generated material is to stop offering books on the site.

By: Kay

Kay — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 23:59:20 +0000

I don’t think there is any escape from AI. It is here to stay. However, there needs to be something in place to protect authors. That we are in this situation now is our fault. We have allowed Amazon to become more powerful than the gatekeepers most of us complained about. At the end of the day Amazon doesn’t care about us, they care about the consumer and until they complain about the content, it’s doubtful anything will be done about the situation. I’m a hybrid author and have started selling off my website. My goal is to sell there, even though it may take years to build.

By: Bob Faszczewski

Bob Faszczewski — Sat, 22 Jul 2023 11:51:18 +0000

As both a KDP-published author and a short story writer who often submits short stories to magazines for publication, I am particularly feeling the poison that AI is injecting into the publishing field. I hope large organizations like Amazon and the magazine publishers will double their efforts to stop the inate abuses of the AI world. AI’s influence is ruining the legitimate writing world and making it even more difficult for real writers like myself by taking away the meager amount we earn from a hobby where it is nearly impossible to gain any monetary reward for our efforts.

By: Kent

Kent — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 17:31:36 +0000

I think it was about three years ago that Amazon got draconian with click farms. They banned the accounts used by the click farms and the books they were targeting. Then the click farms dreamed up a new way to protect themselves from banning; they started throwing some top 100 books into their rotation to look more like legit readers. The result? Many of the top 100 authors suddenly lost their accounts and careers forever.

Amazon has demonstrated that they have the ability to identify the click farms, but their use of automation to handle every aspect of the process is scary. I just went through a process where I was automatically identified as abusing the return and refund policy. I could not find a single return or refund to my account in over five years. However, the bots that run the process kept insisting I had. It was not until I emailed Jeff Bezos directly that I got some traction on resolution.

I don’t trust Amazon to execute this correctly; it will become a nightmare before it gets better.

By: Karen Smith

Karen Smith — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 13:21:49 +0000

This is sobering, but I can’t say I’m surprised. As an author, I pride myself on the originality and quality of my work. Unfortunately, the deluge of AI-produced content will degrade the already-low reputation self-published authors already have.