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Scammers Break The Kindle Store

How clickfarming broke the Kindle Store (if it wasn’t already broken…): 

https://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/scammers-break-the-kindle-store/

David Gaughran

On Friday, a book jumped to the #1 spot on Amazon, out of nowhere; it quickly became obvious that the author had used a clickfarm to gatecrash the charts.

The Kindle Store is officially broken.

This is not the first time this has happened and Amazon’s continued inaction is increasingly baffling. Last Sunday, a clickfarmed title also hit #1 in the Kindle Store. And Amazon took no action.

Over the last six weeks, one particularly brazen author has put four separate titles in the Top 10, and Amazon did nothing whatsoever. There are many such examples.

I wrote at the start of June about how scammers were taking over Amazon’s free charts. That post led to a phone conversation with KDP’s Executive Customer Relations.

Repeated assurances were given that the entire leadership team at Amazon was taking the scammer problem very seriously indeed. But it was also stressed that the…

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Excerpt from Adam’s Stepsons

A new excerpt from Adam’s Stepsons is now available.

Thanks are due to Cindy Harris, who kindly allowed me to post information about the book on her blog, Cindy’s Notebook.

(The back cover blurb appears back to back for some reason, but that shouldn’t detract from the excerpt itself!)

Check it out!

https://blacklilackitty.wordpress.com/2017/06/21/adams-stepsons/

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Extensive Reading: Getting Kids to Read

A joint Nara Chapter-ER SIG Event DATE: Sunday, June 18th VENUE: Yamato Conference Hall TIME: 10.00 a.m. — 4.30 p.m. Speakers: (1) Ann Mayeda Integrating ER into the Curriculum (2) Paul Goldberg The benefits of doing extensive reading online with Xreading (3) Mark Brierley How to persuade them to read (4) Ann Flanagan ER: Building […]

via All You Ever Wanted to Know About ER — Nara JALT

I’m an educator. And also a reader. And of course a writer.

“I cannot live without books.” (Thomas Jefferson)

We cannot educate without books. If you’re in Japan, stop by Nara on June 18th and find out how we can help our students enjoy reading.

 

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Marquez, the general, and his labyrinth

labyrinth

When I first started writing the kernel of what ultimately became Adam’s Stepsons, the multiple/mixed genre story The General in His Labyrinth had just been published, by Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

I’d been searching for character names, desperate not to have them all sounding like the people I knew at the time (i.e., white guys in my rural hometown).

So “Marquez” sounded like a great name. I had a general in the story. General Marquez fit. Why not. Continue reading →

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Adam’s Stepsons

 

Reviewed by the Hungry Monster!

Three stars…because he wanted more!

“Adam’s Stepsons is a fun addition to the long canon of science fiction that dares to ask the “what if” of the future. It also seeks to ask the “should we, if we can” question that not enough science fiction is retrospective enough to ask. A good read for any science fiction lover, especially of the Heinlein or Asimov variety.”

Source: Adam’s Stepsons