Amazon Kindle Buyer's Guide?

A few months ago, I wrote a post about how Amazon Kindle would level the playing field and allow more people to get their work published and reach a wider set of audience. At the same time, I concluded that we need to take the good with the bad. After all, if you allow everyone to bring their work to the Kindle platform, you are going to get a few very good books, lots of mediocre ones, and a few terrible ones. But shouldn’t Amazon at least check to see what’s being sold for the Kindle?

Take a look at the above book. The purpose of the book is to show you why you should buy a Kindle (instead of a Sony Reader). But here is the thing. Why would you want to buy such a book when you need a Kindle to read it? I am all for books that provide some value, but the above book should be a post on a blog and not a book in the Kindle store. It’s exciting to see Amazon allow everyone to get their work out in front of the community of Kindle owners. But Amazon has a responsibility to protect the interest of its customers. I am sure most Kindle owners are smart enough to ignore these books, but it’s very discouraging to see folks abuse the system and try to make quick bucks by selling junk for the Kindle platform (and if you think this is bad, wait till you see the support website for this book).

There is a good chance that Amazon will continue to allow folks to publish junk for the Kindle. And I am sure most Kindle owners will see through these works and won’t fall for them. But wouldn’t it be nice if Amazon took some time to clean up its Kindle store?

Your take: should Amazon take action and ban junk books and their authors?