Amazon is filled with garbage e-books, this is how they get made
Amazon’s Kindle store is increasingly flooded with low-quality, often AI-generated or scammy self-published books, enabled by course-selling “gurus” and a marketplace that rewards volume over quality. Commenters argue that Amazon has little incentive to clean this up as long as it profits from sales and ads, so readers are turning to libraries, reputable publishers, human curators, and alternative retailers to find trustworthy titles. More broadly, the thread links this to a wider internet trend where automated content and weak moderation erode signal-to-noise, increasing the need for effective gatekeeping and curation.
Related content and context
- Several commenters recommend a linked YouTube documentary exposing scammy “passive income” ebook courses, praising its research and humor.
- Other long-form videos on flat earth, crypto, meme stocks, and dead malls are cited as useful background on scams and financial delusions.
Amazon’s incentives and marketplace issues
- Many argue Amazon is structurally incentivized to tolerate fakes and junk (ebooks and physical goods) because it profits from sales and ads.
- Short-term executive incentives and massive customer base reduce pressure to improve quality until users churn at scale.
- Sponsored results and weak faceted search are seen as core problems; Amazon seems optimized to push paying advertisers, not the best products.
- Some describe counterfeits (e.g., vitamins) and low-quality or swapped returns, making the marketplace unreliable.
Garbage ebooks and scam mechanics
- Thread highlights AI- or template-generated ebooks: implausibly prolific “polymath” authors, poor translation classics, nonsense activity and puzzle books.
- A key point: most money is in selling “how to make passive-income ebooks” courses, not in the ebooks themselves.
- Amazon’s cap of three self-published books per day is widely mocked as meaningless; scammers can use multiple accounts.
- Tactics include gaming obscure categories for “bestseller” tags and flooding search with slight variations of the same book.
Gatekeeping, curation, and alternatives
- Many see the core issue as loss of effective gatekeeping and curation at scale.
- Libraries, traditional publishers, and reputable imprints are suggested as partial filters, though publishers also release junk.
- People increasingly rely on human curators: reviewers, influencers, niche communities, and fanfiction sites.
- Libraries (and apps like Libby) are praised for quality control and extra perks (tools, online courses, pro resources).
AI’s role and future content flood
- Commenters compare AI content to earlier content farms: same dynamic, vastly more scalable.
- Some argue AI only differs in scale; others say scale itself changes the problem (like a tsunami vs a ripple).
- One novelist describes using AI as a brainstorming/editorial partner, not a ghostwriter, and finds it makes writing more enjoyable.
User strategies and differing experiences
- Suggested defenses: always read samples, check publishers, avoid obscure zero-review titles, use refunds aggressively.
- Some have largely abandoned Amazon or Prime in favor of local stores, manufacturer sites, or other marketplaces.
- A minority reports that with careful sampling, Kindle remains mostly usable and the “garbage ebook” problem is rarely encountered.