Smashwords founder says PLR is "one of the worst threats to ebooks today."

If you're an author delving into the world of ebook publishing, don't miss this excellent Guardian article about spam ebook infestation that has some of the largest distributors justifiably concerned.

The ease with which you can license content and repackage it to sell as an ebook has created a growing problem for Amazon and other resellers – spam ebooks. Distributors are worried...

A key starting point of the problem is Private Label Rights content (PLR), which allows anyone to buy prewritten content in bulk that they can then make into ebooks or website content. PLR seller Ronnie Nijmeh of PLR.me describes it as "royalty-free content, which means, when you pay for a licence, you get the rights to use the content without royalty in nearly any way you please".

Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords, an ebook distributor, sees PLR as "one of the worst threats to ebooks today...idiots fall prey to the PLR schemes and pay their $24.95 a month or whatever to access vast databases of generic content, and they have the ability to mix and match this content and republish it as an ebook in their own name."

Read the rest here. It's becoming clear that legit authors - particularly those of us who are not (yet) household names - need to find ways to set ourselves apart from the spam and swamp fodder.