If reading consumers had to name the single biggest drawback to finding quality content to stock their e-reader devices with, high on the list may be the abundance of spam and PLR content in the catalogs of titles from some of the platforms. GoodEReader.com has covered the fight against useless content extensively, but there may be hope for reading consumers.
The first thing to understand about ebook spam, pirated content, and PLR content (PLR books are titles that were written by one author with the intention of selling that title to other would-be authors who wish to put their names on it and sell it as their own original work, resulting in multiple copies of the same worthless book flooding the catalog) is that the various retailers and distributors who make ebooks available to the general public are all doing their utmost to protect the integrity of their catalogs. While there are a variety of approaches to controlling the content, each company handles it in the way that it sees fit.
For example, Smashwords employs an entire staff of people whose only job is to review content that is uploaded by self-published authors to ensure that pirated and PLR books do not reach the catalog. Amazon.com is far less stringent in their vetting of ebooks, but they inadvertently let fraudulent titles slip through simply because they do not wish to hinder authors through the upload process by making them wait for their content to be reviewed; Amazon encourages all of its customers to read the free sample chapter before purchasing an ebook in order to ensure it is an actual original book.
But now Amazon is putting protocols in place to run a tighter ship in terms of removing content from its Kindle store that it feels is pirated or PLR. Creators of PLR content have even come forward and spoken publicly about their dubious works and their attempts to use digital publishing as a get-rich-quick scheme at the expense of the e-reading consumers. The plan of action actually includes a way to track whether identical ebooks or digital books with only minor differences are making their way into the Kindle store. Amazon’s lofty goal is to straighten up some of the mess in the retailer’s online catalog in order to make a more streamlined search capability for the consumer and to prevent wasted reader dollars.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.
