AI-Generated Nonsense Books Flood Amazon Best Seller List

Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited young adult romance bestseller list has been inundated with an influx of AI-generated books filled with nonsensical content this week. Those behind the scheme publish a book and then use click farms comprised of different IP addresses to increase its popularity, pushing it up the bestseller list. 

The incident sheds light on the growing trend of individuals spamming the platform with AI-generated books and finding ways to profit from it. Among the peculiar titles that appeared on the bestseller list were “Department of Vinh Du Stands in Front of His Parents’ Tomb,” “Apricot Bar Code Architecture,” and “Ma La Er Snorted Scornfully.” 

Independent author Caitlyn Lynch took to Twitter to call out the absurd publications. “This will absolutely be the death knell for KU if Amazon cannot kill this off. The KENP payout will halve and writers will pull their books in droves,” she posted in a Tweet thread.

Lynch posted a screenshot of one of the books, “Wait You Love Me,” which had reached 90th in the Top 100 Bestseller list in the Teen Contemporary Romance category; yet the book has garnered two one-star reviews. 

Kindle writers stand to suffer financially due to this spamming tactic as human-written books are pushed down the bestseller list, calling into question the integrity of the Kindle Unlimited platform. As of press time, Amazon has not publicly addressed the issue.