bORROW RINGS
We received an anonymous tip-off alerting us to some questionable behaviour going on in some corners of the indie publishing community.
This particular investigation will be on the subject of "Borrow Rings"
To those unaware, this is the much frowned upon scheme where groups of authors get together and borrow each-others books enmasse in an effort to artificially inflate and bolster their book's rank on Amazon and elsewhere, resulting in it flying up the charts.
It is nothing more than rank manipulation, plain and simple.
It appears this is mostly focused on the Amazon store and the Kindle Unlimited programme specifically, (though we welcome anyone who can provide information about it going on elsewhere, this investigation will be focused on Borrow Rings in relation to the Amazon Kindle Unlimited programme.
We have received many tip-offs recently and asked our informant to send us any proof or evidence of where this was going on specifically.
We were saddened with what they came back with.
We'll leave our readers to make their own minds up about it though.
Direct quote from our anonymous tipster who provided the screenshots:
"Look at the pics you'l see what im talkin about.
In the thread topic named 'Kindle unlimited - borrow this book",
lots of forum members would post a link to their KU books
& then someone would reply back saying "Borrowed it! Here's mine!"
Then they'd put up a link to there book & that first person would go borrow it too.
Lots of people were doin this, they deleted most of the forum now,
but i was able to get these grabs from a cache.
You can see the thread name, it was a 3-page topic.
Mods saw it, lots of ppl were doin it, some of them are even respected in the community,
some are even acting outraged over whats gone on lately with rank manipulation which is funny---when they were doin basically the same. Manipulating rank.
It was a big borrow ring which i never felt good about so didnt participate,
but many in that group sure did."
Borrow Rings are reportedly in direct contention with Amazon's Terms of Service,
and IF Borrow Ring's were indeed being operated out of the above writers forum then we sincerely hope that is no longer the case.
As this site operates to shed light on questionable behaviour occuring in the indie author community,
(and is NOT operating from any bias, personal grievances, or due to having an axe to grind),
We will try to give those involved in this the benefit of the doubt and instead ask our readers to scour their own minds and answer:
Are organised Borrow Rings acceptable in the indie community?
Is conflating and manipulating rank due to running a borrow ring something that should be accepted?
If a particular person is very popular, but engages, purposely ignores (but still knows about) or oversees such questionable behaviour such as a Borrow Ring, should they be held to the same standard as someone not as popular?
Are those same people making a stand about the questionable behaviour of certain individuals also going to do the same after seeing the flouting of rules, terms and conditions?
Or does it only count when it's done by those we don't particularly care for?
Is rank manipulation only bad when done on a humhongous scale, or is it all wrong?
These are questions everyone has to ponder.
As ever, we'll leave it up to our readers to make up their own minds.
and IF Borrow Ring's were indeed being operated out of the above writers forum then we sincerely hope that is no longer the case.
As this site operates to shed light on questionable behaviour occuring in the indie author community,
(and is NOT operating from any bias, personal grievances, or due to having an axe to grind),
We will try to give those involved in this the benefit of the doubt and instead ask our readers to scour their own minds and answer:
Are organised Borrow Rings acceptable in the indie community?
Is conflating and manipulating rank due to running a borrow ring something that should be accepted?
If a particular person is very popular, but engages, purposely ignores (but still knows about) or oversees such questionable behaviour such as a Borrow Ring, should they be held to the same standard as someone not as popular?
Are those same people making a stand about the questionable behaviour of certain individuals also going to do the same after seeing the flouting of rules, terms and conditions?
Or does it only count when it's done by those we don't particularly care for?
Is rank manipulation only bad when done on a humhongous scale, or is it all wrong?
These are questions everyone has to ponder.
As ever, we'll leave it up to our readers to make up their own minds.