Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie discussion

Apparently, there are "authors" out there doing nefarious things, and IngramSpark isn't going to take it anymore. They send out a general notification today saying in part:

As of April 27, 2020, the below criteria describes the types of content that may not be accepted going forward:

1. Summaries, workbooks, abbreviations, insights, or similar type content without permission from the original author.

2. Books containing blank pages exceeding ten percent, notepads, scratchpads, journals, or similar type content.

3. Books or content that mirror/mimic popular titles, including without limiting, similar covers, cover design, title, author names, or similar type content.

4. Books that are misleading or likely to cause confusion by the buyer, including without limiting, inaccurate descriptions and cover art.

5. Books listed at prices not reflective of the book's market value.

6. Books scanned from original versions where all or parts contain illegible content to the detriment of the buyer.

7. Books created using artificial intelligence or automated processes.

We reserve the right to remove content that fits the above criteria without prior notice to the publisher. Any fees paid on behalf of publishers for titles removed due to the above criteria will not be refunded. This change of service is effective April 27, 2020 and is reflected in our IngramSpark User Guide V4.

Here's the link for additional information. They provide examples.

http://marketing.ingramcontent.com/MR...

Yep. I really liked their example for item 5: Books listed at prices not reflective of the book’s market value. For example: a blank journal
listed at $99.99.

Somebody really does that?

Well . . . I guess somebody would try, but who would buy it?

I downloaded a book from Amazon the other day which cost me 99p. I told my husband about it and he said it sounded like something someone had copied from Wikipedia. It took me about five minutes to read. I'm not at all surprised blank notebooks exist!

While I agree with most of these changes, I'm confused about the sketchbooks/notepad one. It seems crazy to turn off an entire segment of creators just because IngramSpark is bad at policing outliers (like the $99 blank journal).

D.J. wrote: "I downloaded a book from Amazon the other day which cost me 99p. I told my husband about it and he said it sounded like something someone had copied from Wikipedia. It took me about five minutes to..."

The one that surprised me was books created by AI. I don't know why that should be surprising. Not much is anymore. But, well, I guess I wasn't expecting it.

Paul wrote: "While I agree with most of these changes, I'm confused about the sketchbooks/notepad one. It seems crazy to turn off an entire segment of creators just because IngramSpark is bad at policing outlie..."

I think they just don't want to be in the business of producing what are basically blank books. There is a market for such books, but maybe they don't belong in the same marketing category as books containing content?