Because Amazon won’t police its offerings, you’re getting shafted (and so am I)

Friends,

I keep hearing from people who say they’ve bought my book through Amazon but received something with empty pages or with what appears to be filled with AI crap.

I don’t want you to be defrauded.

Here’s my REAL BOOK, which you can get by ordering it at bookshop.org, which supports local bookstores.

Here are two FAKE BOOKS marketed by Amazon:

Here’s the REAL MOVIE, directed by Elliot Kirschner and produced by Heather Lofthouse, about my last class at Berkeley, which you can find at a theater near you by clicking here.

I’ve repeatedly alerted Amazon to these frauds, but they’ve done nothing.

I phoned Amazon’s customer service line and spoke with a nice man who said that Amazon would stop marketing the fake books if I could show that they infringed my copyright. “Do you have proof that they’re counterfeit?” he asked.

“Yes. My name is Robert Reich, and the cover of one of the fake books is exactly the same as is being used to market a popular movie about my last class at Berkeley. The title of the other is the same as my book Coming Up Short. In fact, Amazon is telling customers that my book and the fakes are ‘frequently bought together.’”

“I’ll pass this information along,” he said.

I then asked how Amazon ensures that all the books it offers for sale are legitimate. He explained that Amazon requests all authors to “validate” their identities before it posts about them.

“But the supposed authors of these counterfeit books don’t exist. I googled them and nothing is known about either.”

“That’s not my department,” said the nice man.

By the way, Amazon still hasn’t taken down these fake books.

Bottom line: Buy books at your local bookstore, or order through bookshop.org, which supports local bookstores.

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