Writing Wheat and Chaff

books stacked beside wooden candlesticks, titled Mystery, Romance, Biography

This came to my email last weekend. My initial reaction was disgust. Who is this guy and what gives him the right? But I investigated.

Invitation from Michael Wall, student at ICS Canada reads, I woul dlike you to join How Women Can Be Sexier on LinkedIn Groups. Michael Wall

The book description is worse than I thought.

“This book includes: Exercises to get rid of wings. How Women can tone their arms. How Women can reduce their Stomach Size. How Women can get their legs into shape. Exercises that Women can use to make their legs longer: How Women can get Bigger Hips: There is more than that though; such as some articles also deal on how to get rid of Cellulite on women’s legs, and perhaps other parts of their bodies: I know there is mention on how to get rid of Cellulite: There is also a lot on Diet and Nutrition in here for Women to Improve their bodies.”

As you can see, the writing is juvenile and the author has zero credibility. He has also published books about psychiatry, bullying, one titled “A Lotta Fun Stuff” and two more in the women being sexier series. There’s just one review on Amazon.

One star review by Emily M reads "Utter nonsense and garbage".

So, why even point this out? Why give this guy any attention? To prove a point. There are too many books on the market. Now that anyone can publish anything with a few mouse clicks, readers must wade through junk like this to find something worth reading.

In the audiobook world, there’s a scam that’s mixed in well with legit work so it’s hard to see. The author of a (generally) short, non-fiction book will hire a voice actor for a royalty share. You split the profits when the audiobook sells, rather than getting paid up front. This can be a legitimate way to do business. But in the scam version, the author is just pounding out dreck.

Audible (Amazon’s audiobook division) gives the author credits for doing the project. They turn around and sell those credits. One such author may have scooped me into a similar scheme. When I saw the finished audiobook’s misleading description on Amazon, it occurred to me that it might not be as advertised – literally.

Had the above author been doing audiobooks, I would have smelled his ruse a mile away. But he just seems to be writing, poorly, without hiring an editor (total amateur mistake) and hoping someone will click “purchase”. So far, it doesn’t appear to be working.

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