Kindle Unlimited scammers on Amazon
I don&#x27;t think the right solution is to track pages read better. That would make the scam a bit harder (because scammers would have to either manually turn pages or fake the client software), but is still pretty easily defeatable.<p>A couple of things that Amazon <i>could</i> do to fix this behavior:<p>1. Instead of putting all KU subscriptions in a big pot and then dividing the pot among all authors by page read, divide the income from each individual subscriber among the pages he&#x2F;she reads (so a read from a user who reads less would effectively be worth more). That way spammers who join collectives to read each others&#x27; giant books are just taking money from each other instead of stealing from the larger pot.<p>2. Don&#x27;t pay out revenue for pages read until 2-3 months after the fact, and if a book is determined to be spam during that time withhold all revenues. This admittedly affects legitimate authors as well, but maybe Amazon could soften the blow by contributing the spam-attributed portion of the KU revenue back to the author pot so all the legitimate authors get a nice little bonus for their patience.<p>Note that either&#x2F;both options might require renegotiating contracts with KU program authors, but if the spam problem is as bad as it sounds I can&#x27;t imagine most legitimate authors objecting.