Theatre of the Absur

[captainsblog]

Somewhere in recent travels to banks and doctors' offices, which all have those endless-loopy telescreens playing real and semi-real news stories on them, I heard about a new problem in the publishing world. No, not the Big Six Being Dix and conspiring against Amazon (although I'll eventually get to that), but bookspam:

Until recently, if you had typed "Steve Jobs Isaac" into the online retailer's search box, the first choice that popped up wasn't the best selling book by Walter Isaacson, but instead one with the same name and a similarly sounding author, Isaac Worthington. The book appears to be selling, even though Amazon's one reviewer gives the book a single star and calls it a "poorly produced pamphlet." Presumably, Worthington's book is based on exclusive interviews with Jeve Stobs.

Fortune goes on to report that Amazon is not the victim here; if anything, they are a co-conspirator in it:

Amazon not only sells the books, it's also helping their authors create them. All of the apparent copycat books that Fortune found on Amazon were made through CreateSpace, which is a division of Amazon. Authors can use CreateSpace's system to design and self-publish their own books. The books then go on sale on Amazon and other sites. Amazon splits the proceeds with authors. It's a different relationship than most publishers have with their authors, but there is no way for consumers to know that. On Amazon and other sites, CreateSpace is listed as the publisher of the books.

"It's the book equivalent of spam," says lawyer Eric Rayman, a former attorney for Simon & Schuster. "Amazon should be taking steps to stop this. It's bad for consumers and it's bad for the book business."

After Fortune contacted Amazon late last week about the apparent fakes, the company removed the pages for the Worthington and Daniels books from its site. A spokeswoman says Amazon is no longer selling the books. Both books, though, are still for sale on other sites with Amazon's CreateSpace listed as the publisher. An Amazon spokeswoman says the firm has a process in place to detect and remove books that don't "improve the customer experience."

After renewing my obsession with Cabin Pressure in recent days, I also want to make you aware of a new problem in the online ordering world: knockoffs which remove the last letter of a book title.  Some recent bestsellers include

Suzanne Collins, Catching Fir (I presume it was Douglas who came up with this one)
E.L. James, Fifty Shades Free (while supplies last!)
Clint Hill, Mrs. Kennedy and M (I KNEW 007 was involved in the assassination!)
Stephen King, 11/22/6 (sensing a theme here)
Adam Mansbach, Go the Fuck to Slee (this one only makes sense if you've been at UB)

Also: wasn't it absurd when Martin, of all people, suggested renaming a Sherlock piece Hound of the Baskerville?

----

If you have no idea what this Cabin Pressure bit is about, someone recently archived the entire series to date in links found in this entry. The link to the "folder" didn't work for me, but the three direct ones did, and each took mere moments to fill my phone with MJN goodness:)

Comments

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

Yellow car!

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

We're not playing Yellow Car!

[thanatos-kalos.livejournal.com]

You're *always* playing yellow car.

[thanatos-kalos.livejournal.com]

Have you heard 3.2, yet? 'Paris'? If not, you'll adore it for the massive intertextual goodness.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Until yesterday, my collection ended at Fitton. I've remedied that. (BTW, the entry I mentioned with the full series linkage is locked, but the comm is open-membership and everyone should just be a member anyway. Hell, everyone should be a captain!)

[thanatos-kalos.livejournal.com]

::g:: I'm a comm member already. :)