Anti-Culture by Algorithm

As we’ve mentioned elsewhere, rule by algorithm can be just as stringent as any rule by a dictator, perhaps even more so as it is vague, faceless, and hard to define. And human actors will always adopt perverse incentives to game the algorithm. This article explains how Amazon Kindle algorithms can produce perverse incentives that determine market outcomes for books and the products we get to see and consume.
Let’s just say, it ain’t literature! 

BAD ROMANCE

To cash in on Kindle Unlimited, a cabal of authors gamed Amazon’s algorithm

A genre that mostly features shiny, shirtless men on its covers and sells ebooks for 99 cents a pop might seem unserious. But at stake are revenues sometimes amounting to a million dollars a year, with some authors easily netting six figures a month. The top authors can drop $50,000 on a single ad campaign that will keep them in the charts — and see a worthwhile return on that investment.

In other words, self-published romance is no joke.

Book stuffing is a term that encompasses a wide range of methods for taking advantage of the Kindle Unlimited revenue structure. In Kindle Unlimited, readers pay $9.99 a month to read as many books as they want that are available through the KU program. This includes both popular mainstream titles like the Harry Potter series and self-published romances put out by authors like Crescent and Hopkins. Authors are paid according to pages read, creating incentives to produce massively inflated and strangely structured books. The more pages Amazon thinks have been read, the more money an author receives.

“But if they’re only relying on algorithms, they’re going to find — like YouTube and like Facebook have been finding — they need human curators as well.”

Exactly.

Read more…

 

505 thoughts on “Anti-Culture by Algorithm

  1. Pingback: buy cialis jelly
  2. Pingback: cheap viagra
  3. Pingback: generic viagra
  4. Pingback: www.jueriy.com
  5. Pingback: cialis tadalafil
  6. Pingback: sildenafil online
  7. Pingback: sildenafil 100
  8. Pingback: natural viagra
  9. Pingback: cialis 5 mg
  10. Pingback: cialis 5 mg
  11. Pingback: cialis 20
  12. Pingback: new cialis
  13. Pingback: LuckyCreek
  14. Pingback: live craps online
  15. Pingback: play casino online
  16. Pingback: viagra pills
  17. Pingback: cash loan
  18. Pingback: personal loan
  19. Pingback: loans online
  20. Pingback: viagra prices
  21. Pingback: levitra coupon
  22. Pingback: vardenafil
  23. Pingback: cialis online
  24. Pingback: canada pharmacy
  25. Pingback: ed pills gnc
  26. Pingback: viagra generic
  27. Pingback: viagra 50mg
  28. Pingback: viagra 100mg
  29. Pingback: cialis 20
  30. Pingback: canadian cialis
  31. Pingback: cialis canada
  32. Pingback: Canadain viagra
  33. Pingback: Discount viagra
  34. Pingback: cialis price
  35. Pingback: viagra cialis

Comments are closed.