[Zelah Meyer]

I don't have any erotica published either - but I wanted to share my sympathies with all those caught up in this. This sucks, and is very concerning.

I really hope that things improve for people soon.

I also view this as part of a general creeping decline of sexual freedom in the western world and it worries me. I always used to be something of a prude, so why do I suddenly find myself on the radical fringe of sexual liberty?

This. I'm in a similar boat. I read and write sweet romance - but this culture change worries me on so many levels. I can see the risk of hard won freedoms slipping away.

 

[Terrence OBrien]

"I also view this as part of a general creeping decline of sexual freedom in the western world and it worries me. I always used to be something of a prude, so why do I suddenly find myself on the radical fringe of sexual liberty?"

I'm not sure about the rest of the West, but in the US we had the US Supreme Court 2003 Lawrence decision, the June13 decision striking down DOMA, and June13 refusal to take the California Prop 8 case. And there are now 14 states with gay marriage.

Where's the decline?

 

[ebjones]

I've been following this thread fairly closely. The Amazon content department set two of my stories back to 'draft' recently, and I just resubmitted one of them with an 'I've been censored -- Support free speech' badge on the cover. They let it through.

http://www.ebwrites.com/2013/10/14/amazon-and-the-morally-outraged-corporate-nanny-state/

It would be interesting to see if we could harness more public support by making it clear to our readers that the work they are reading has been censored to fit ever-changing corporate norms of decency. And for those of us who tweet / Facebook, social media is a good way to spread the word as well.

If anyone wants to put an 'I've been censored -- Support free speech' badge on a title that got banned, feel free to use the high-res jpg or original PSD file. No need for any attribution. Just spread the word about what's going on. I link to both from my blog post.

All the best,
EB

 

[sethdaniels]

@emilycantore, I actually did that to one of my covers for Portuguese.  I honestly wish they would just ban all erotica on amazon so that the readers, and there are a lot of them, would complain for a change.

 

[Gone To Croatan]

I'm not sure about the rest of the West, but in the US we had the US Supreme Court 2003 Lawrence decision, the June13 decision striking down DOMA, and June13 refusal to take the California Prop 8 case. And there are now 14 states with gay marriage.

How does that relate to book censorship?

I don't buy erotica and don't write it, but it's always been the justification to get a foot in the door for censorship. I don't know whether it's actually happened, but, for example, recently the UK government wanted to put compulsory porn filters on all ISP connections, because porn is icky and stuff. Once the filter is in place, everyone but the most naive knows that, pretty soon, they'll be extending it to censor anything else they dislike.

That's why we have to support the people who do sell erotica, even if we don't like it much.

 

[Terrence OBrien]

How does that relate to book censorship?

I don't buy erotica and don't write it, but it's always been the justification to get a foot in the door for censorship. I don't know whether it's actually happened, but, for example, recently the UK government wanted to put compulsory porn filters on all ISP connections, because porn is icky and stuff. Once the filter is in place, everyone but the most naive knows that, pretty soon, they'll be extending it to censor anything else they dislike.

That's why we have to support the people who do sell erotica, even if we don't like it much.

I dont know how it relates to book censorship. What do you think?

I was responding to Coras statement that I quoted: I also view this as part of a general creeping decline of sexual freedom in the western world and it worries me. I always used to be something of a prude, so why do I suddenly find myself on the radical fringe of sexual liberty?

You might ask her.

I don't buy erotica and don't write it, but it's always been the justification to get a foot in the door for censorship.

Where has it been a foot in the door. What happened next?

 

[WillemThomas]

Looks like it's finally my turn: my one biggest seller has been moved to draft status with an email stating the cover is inappropriate - a couple, fully dressed, embracing each other.

This story has been on sale for almost 3 years and has sold over 15,000 copies - 80% of that at the 'Zon. I suspect the word 'Babysitter' in the title is the real flag, here.

Surprised they haven't hit the rest of my catalog, which is sizable - yet. 

Maybe it's time I make my planned move to non-erotic fiction sooner....

 

[PalomaEroti]

My first post here too. Hi! I've been following this discussion with interest. i have large numbers of erotica titles on sale at Amazon - correction: HAD - and over the past few days have seen email after email come in, removing almost all of them from sale in waves of 5 - 15 titles at a time. I doubt whether my last few on sale will last this week, frankly, as they are NOT simply going after PI titles as I figured at first. No, they are going after ANYTHING that looks even remotely obscene.

The emails tell me this book does not fit our guidelines in the following respects: then usually it says 'cover, title, description' or one or 2-3 of these. Not noticed any content issues yet. But perhaps they wait until you reload before removing it again for THAT.

I will not be doing what others are and making generic smut covers with generic titles and descriptions. First because it's a waste of my time, and second because it's an act of submission to those who want to crush our souls and take away our freedom as individuals, simply because we don't think like the Borg. And you know what will happen. In a few weeks or months, people will complain about the generic titles too, and down they will come again.

And sales were already aybsmal. Punters not knowing what's in each book or how to identify their favourite fetish is going to destroy the few sales we had left after they made erotica like this 'invisible'.

I shall wait to see if any of my other titles under other names, that are less fringe but still erotic, get slamdunked. But I can see us all going back to the brown paper bag hard copy sales, advertised online, paid for via Paypal, and sent discreetly to home addresses. And the financial pain from this will be intense. Incomes for families already suffering in the recession are going to disappear overnight.

Do they give a d*mn if our livelihoods are suffering? No, you can bet they don't. Because we are not worth their sympathy. We are vile little creatures trying to scratch a living writing erotica. How disgusting of us! In their minds we deserve to be crushed and for our kids to go hungry. Yet this will be the equivalent of a large car manufacturer suddenly going belly-up and lettings thousands of workers go without warning.

It's back to the 1950s, folks. It's Pleasantville out there. Lock up your porn stash!

 

[ssanchez911]

They banned two of mine and blocked one before it was even published.  The two they banned had been on for several months.  It said I could change them and resubmit, but I was leery about doing that, for fear that I would be blocked completely.  Ironically all three of them had to do with stepdad/stepdaughter relations.  So, I am thinking that they are now considering it to be illegal behavior.  Oh well, moving on.

 

[WillemThomas]

Anyone with good selling Werewolf or Billionaire titles getting hit, too? Was thinking of trying my hand at these before this all happened.

 

[a_g]

I'm still doing okay on mine. No emails, no draft/pulled status so far. *knocks on wood*

But a question to those of you who have been and had to rework your cover/blurb.

When you issue a new cover, are you updating all other distribution channels (provided you don't go through smashwords for the big ones)?

I use Smash to distribute to all except eRomance, Kobo, Kindle and B&N which I hand upload and now I'm preparing for the worst and eventually getting hit by Amazon. If I revamp a cover, I'm wondering about reuploading covers for the other channels. Which means I need to recompile the .mobi and the .epub and the pdfs and reupload the entire book.

...what a pain.

 

[71089]

Anyone with good selling Werewolf or Billionaire titles getting hit, too? Was thinking of trying my hand at these before this all happened.

as if the word 'billionaire' has anything to do with taboo erotica.

Come on, people, please use your brains

 

[a_g]

I've been thinking of doing something like this to all my titles:

...so...tempting. SO...tempting....

 

[mrv01d]

Anyone with good selling Werewolf or Billionaire titles getting hit, too? Was thinking of trying my hand at these before this all happened.

There was at least one that I know of but I think they were using some no-no words in the title, so it wasn't so much the wolfy goodness, but the title wording.

My concern is the illiterate gnats determining what is and isn't okay for people to read have said that werewolf books are bestiality so any shapeshifter books may be a potential issue.

Especially now that we've seen that Kobo and Amazon are the media's b*tches. They'll react to anything the media says, whether it's true or not.

 

[Lana Amore]

Especially now that we've seen that Kobo and Amazon are the media's b*tches. They'll react to anything the media says, whether it's true or not.

I'm now having this fantasy that Smashwords becomes the most popular ebook site in the world after all this. Somehow I think they'd shrug the media off and roll around happily in the money.

 

[DanaDrake]

I received an email from our friend Carlos F. last night. I replied using the title-submission address with a respectful message asking for it to be unlocked for editing. Imagine my surprise when I found the title was still for sale... Interesting.

Dana

 

[WillemThomas]

Come on, people, please use your brains

What?

 

[MindyWilde]

Already a separate thread but for those of us following this one I just got an email from D2D that Kobo has kicked them out completely including all genres! 

 

[mrv01d]

This is a very long thread which I haven't read entirely yet, so maybe it's been mentioned. Readers are stating that the titles are being deleted from their Kindles, so it's not just banning books from sale.

No this is new. What are people saying?

 

[Nathalie Hamidi]

WOW.