Amazon is well-known to have a problem in the Kindle Store due to their failure to invest in QA processes to keep out the spammers, the cheats, the book stuffers, and the outright criminals.
Kobo does not have that problem, mostly because (as I pointed out a couple years ago) Kobo has a content approval team. The scammers aren't getting in to the Kobo Store, but they are still making their presence felt.
On Thursday Kobo CEO Michael Tamblyn took to Twitter to express Kobo's collective frustration at the scammers.
2/ We are rejecting over 50% of the ebooks submitted dealing with #COVID19 and #Coronavirus. They are filled with near-criminal snake-oil quackery, conspiracy theories, and raw disinformation. ??
— Michael Tamblyn (@mtamblyn) April 23, 2020
4/ In case you weren't sure, trying to sell this stuff during a pandemic puts you in the category of people who knowingly sell fake antibiotics and faulty lifejackets, who peddle bogus cancer cures or shout fire in a packed theatre. You are choosing to be *that* person. ??
— Michael Tamblyn (@mtamblyn) April 23, 2020
6/ And, ever the bookseller, if you want an antidote to the unhelpful and unscientific, I recommend this book by my favourite public health hero Dr. Bonnie Henry of @CDCofBC - "Soap and Water and Common Sense". https://t.co/bp02d7jT52
— Michael Tamblyn (@mtamblyn) April 24, 2020
In related news, Amazon has (belatedly) cracked down on the Coronavirus scammers. There are many reports on FB and in the KDP support forums that it is suddenly much harder to publish a book that even mentions COVID-19, much less one that offers quack cures.
That's nice, but do you know what would be even better?
It would be great if Amazon could match the standards set by their competitors, and proactively filter out the content. It would make the Kindle Store better for both readers and authors.
image by A Girl With Tea via Flickr
You just finished reading Kobo’s Michael Tamblyn To Coronavirus Spammers “Just. &%$*@. Stop.” which was published on The Digital Reader.