Tag Archives: amazon

The Only Rule Amazon Truly Cares About

Posted on August 12, 2017 by David Gaughran

On Monday, I found out that some bug hit a German e-book site causing the reactivation of long-dead listings, including one of mine, putting myself and some other authors in breach of KDP Select’s exclusivity rule. Amazon pounced into action … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged amazon, countdown, customer service, exclusivity, kdp, kdp select, kindle, promo, scammers | 74 Comments

When Reader Targeting Goes Wrong

Posted on July 19, 2017 by David Gaughran

Taking a non-scammy tangent from Saturday’s post, I’d like to talk about what happens when you target the wrong readers, because being too scattergun with promo can really hurt your book. I’ve been thinking a lot about this over the last … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged also boughts, amazon, book marketing, buyers journey, funnels, marketing, marketing strategy, reader targeting, readers journey, the readers journey | 38 Comments

Scammers Break The Kindle Store

Posted on July 15, 2017 by David Gaughran

On Friday, a book jumped to the #1 spot on Amazon, out of nowhere; it quickly became obvious that the author had used a clickfarm to gatecrash the charts. The Kindle Store is officially broken. This is not the first … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged amazon, cheating, click farms, clickfarms, kdp, kindle unlimited, ku, scam, scammers, scamming | 302 Comments

Amazon Has A Fake Book Problem

Posted on June 3, 2017 by David Gaughran

Fake books – powered by clickfarms – are gatecrashing Amazon’s charts. And despite being aware of the issue for well over a year, Amazon has failed to resolve it. If you look at the Kindle Store Best Seller charts right now, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged amazon, clickfarms, diemens land, digital 3, kdp, kindle unlimited, liberty boy, readers journey, scammers, strangers to superfans | 127 Comments

Please Don’t Buy My Book

Posted on May 4, 2017 by David Gaughran

I’m just back from The Smarter Artist Summit in Austin, Texas. I won’t try and capture the magic of the event – Kobo Mark does an excellent job – but I would like to talk about the big takeaway: the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged also boughts, amazon, book launch, let's get digital, let's get visible, marketing, recommendation engine, smarter artist, strategy, targeting | 39 Comments

KU Scammers Attack Amazon’s Free Ebook Charts

Posted on April 15, 2016 by David Gaughran

Last month, Amazon was caught up in a crisis at least partly of its own making when bungled attempts to deal with a growing Kindle Unlimited scammer problem resulted in the sanctioning of innocent authors. Amazon has since apologized, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged amazon, author scam, click farms, fixed pot, internet marketers, kindle unlimited, KU scam, phoenix sullivan, scamming, steel magnolia | 108 Comments

Amazon Takes Aim At Scammers But Hits Authors

Posted on March 11, 2016 by David Gaughran

NOTE: There are numerous updates at the bottom of this article, including responses from Amazon – the latest update being from March 31 as this story continues to develop. The short version is that Amazon has apologized for incorrect enforcement … Continue reading →