[Lexissommer]

Hmmm.
Would a biography of Woody Allen be banned because he messed around with his step-daughter?

Depends on if it turns you on or not.

 

[swolf]

Another example of the inconsistency from Amazon we're facing:

Got the email last Friday that included these:

Having Fun with My Sister-in-Law (ASIN: B0085RPTAQ) - Title, Description
Mean Father-in-Law (ASIN: B00BRVHUKY) - Description, Description
Sexy Mother-in-Law (ASIN: B00BRVHW0W) - Description, Description
Teenage Sister-in-Law (ASIN: B00BRVNGDY) - Title, Description

So I changed the titles to:

Having Fun with My In-Law
Mean In-Law
Sexy In-Law
Teenage In-Law

Also changed the blurbs. They all republished without a problem.

Then I got this this morning:

We have re-reviewed your books found that the following book(s) is in violation of our content guidelines (see list below for details):

Teenage Sister-in-Law (ASIN: B00BRVNGDY) - Description, Title, Cover Image
Sexy Mother-in-Law (ASIN: B00BRVHW0W) - Description, Title, Cover Image
Mean Father-in-Law (ASIN: B00BRVHUKY) - Description
Having Fun with My Sister-in-Law (ASIN: B0085RPTAQ) - Description, Title, Cover Image

If anyone can figure that out, let me know.

 

[DL Pearl]

I can understand making a general sweep to cover you back from a legal perspective. I just don't understand why it doesn't seem consistent. The dino porn is still top selling on Amazon, I guess bestiality doesn't apply to animals that are extinct? 

 

[CrystalVeeyant]

So when Kobo approved all these books with 'Stepdaughter' and 'Stepdaddy' in their titles, were they not aware of their own content rules?

I think it's the old Casablanca denial in full effect:

Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?

Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
Captain Renault: [aloud] Everybody out at once!

 

[CrystalVeeyant]

They all republished without a problem.

Then I got this this morning:
Quote
We have re-reviewed your books found that the following book(s) is in violation of our content guidelines (see list below for details):

If anyone can figure that out, let me know.

I had the same exact thing happen: my two best PI books got nailed by Carlos on Saturday, I spent the afternoon censoring title, cover, blurb, and republished with new titles, etc. Both went back to being Live by Sunday night. Then late this afternoon I got an email saying they were back in Draft status and refered to them by their former titles even though they are listed on my KDP bookshelf by their new, wimpier title.

As to the Why, the best I can guess is they have multiple databases where our titles are all listed. There's one dBase that holds the information in the KDP bookshelves. There's another associated with our author pages and a larger one that the store runs off of. There is probably some kind of process that is supposed to keep them all in sync, and it is less than foolproof.

I have replied to the email stating that my KDP bookshelf lists the cleaned up titles and descriptions, and I attached the two emails from Suday showing they approved them. I am hoping that will be enough.

 

[CrystalVeeyant]

P.S. If you haven't signed the petition to Amazon et. al. to end this witch hunt, take a moment:

[URL=http://www.change]http://www.change.org/petitions/amazon-barnes-and-noble-kobo-drop-the-clause-of-removing-erotica-and-self-published-indie-authors[/url]

Also post it on your Facebook timeline, blog, Twitter, etc. and encourage all your fans and friends to sign.

 

[Lana Amore]

I can understand making a general sweep to cover you back from a legal perspective. I just don't understand why it doesn't seem consistent. The dino porn is still top selling on Amazon, I guess bestiality doesn't apply to animals that are extinct?

Okay, thank you for my laugh of the day.

 

[SunHi Mistwalker]

I had the same exact thing happen: my two best PI books got nailed by Carlos on Saturday, I spent the afternoon censoring title, cover, blurb, and republished with new titles, etc. Both went back to being Live by Sunday night. Then late this afternoon I got an email saying they were back in Draft status and refered to them by their former titles even though they are listed on my KDP bookshelf by their new, wimpier title.

As to the Why, the best I can guess is they have multiple databases where our titles are all listed. There's one dBase that holds the information in the KDP bookshelves. There's another associated with our author pages and a larger one that the store runs off of. There is probably some kind of process that is supposed to keep them all in sync, and it is less than foolproof.

I have replied to the email stating that my KDP bookshelf lists the cleaned up titles and descriptions, and I attached the two emails from Suday showing they approved them. I am hoping that will be enough.

As I mentioned when this debacle started, I suspect that certain topics will now become too taboo for Amazon and some other retailers. This is one of the reasons why I've decided against changing anything on my four erotic shorts that were banned by Amazon, Kobo and Barnes & Noble. I suspect the content/topic is the problem for them, not the titles and descriptions. I never thought I would say this, but I may just republish my erotica through a traditional publisher, so that I can distance myself from these hypocritical retailers. I'm pretty confident they won't block my erotica if it's published through a large house.

 

[authordread]

I write in the urban fiction genre. I've been publishing on Amazon for about a year. All books have gone live within 12 hours. Some as quick as 2 hours. However, I recently tried to upload one on Monday and here it is 2 days later and it is still in review. I sent an email and this is the response that I got:

Hello,

We’re writing to let you know we will be conducting an additional review to ensure your submitted content does not violate our guidelines. It may take up to 7 business days to review the following submission(s):

Loyalty & Respect 9 by Delgado, Drea

During this period, you are welcome to submit additional books, but publishing may be delayed until this review is complete. It is not overly sex filled, maybe three scenes tops.

What is going on with Amazon these days?

 

[LysaM]

I write in the urban fiction genre. I've been publishing on Amazon for about a year. All books have gone live within 12 hours. Some as quick as 2 hours. However, I recently tried to upload one on Monday and here it is 2 days later and it is still in review. I sent an email and this is the response that I got:

Hello,

We're writing to let you know we will be conducting an additional review to ensure your submitted content does not violate our guidelines. It may take up to 7 business days to review the following submission(s):

Loyalty & Respect 9 by Delgado, Drea

During this period, you are welcome to submit additional books, but publishing may be delayed until this review is complete. It is not overly sex filled, maybe three scenes tops.

What is going on with Amazon these days?

Strange. It must not be a blanket policy, at least not yet, because I submitted a book early Tuesday morning, and it went through within about eight hours. I resubmitted one Tuesday evening that had been taken down during Amazon's recent sweep and it went through within around the same time frame.

 

[KMatthew]

Strange. It must not be a blanket policy, at least not yet, because I submitted a book early Tuesday morning, and it went through within about eight hours. I resubmitted one Tuesday evening that had been taken down during Amazon's recent sweep and it went through within around the same time frame.

Same. For the most part, I haven't been having issues with submitting new books and re-submitting old ones since this all began. I do have one re-submitted book that's been in review for a few days, but I'm not expecting that one to pass anyway.

 

[NicWilson]

I write in the urban fiction genre. I've been publishing on Amazon for about a year. All books have gone live within 12 hours. Some as quick as 2 hours. However, I recently tried to upload one on Monday and here it is 2 days later and it is still in review. I sent an email and this is the response that I got:

Hello,

We're writing to let you know we will be conducting an additional review to ensure your submitted content does not violate our guidelines. It may take up to 7 business days to review the following submission(s):

Loyalty & Respect 9 by Delgado, Drea

During this period, you are welcome to submit additional books, but publishing may be delayed until this review is complete. It is not overly sex filled, maybe three scenes tops.

What is going on with Amazon these days?

Anyone else gotten this message? I had planned to get my next release out at the end of October, and now I'm getting anxious. It does have a little a minor amount of steam in it, not for titillation, but as a psychological tool that a character uses to manipulate other people over the course of the novel's plot. I hope I'm just being paranoid and that its release won't be affected by the pornocalypse fallout.

 

[LysaM]

Anyone else gotten this message? I had planned to get my next release out at the end of October, and now I'm getting anxious. It does have a little a minor amount of steam in it, not for titillation, but as a psychological tool that a character uses to manipulate other people over the course of the novel's plot. I hope I'm just being paranoid and that its release won't be affected by the pornocalypse fallout.

Don't worry, you'll be fine. They're not banning sex or erotica or anything of that nature -- they're coming down hard on a few taboo subjects that they feel too prominently display their taboo nature in the title, cover and blurb.

 

[mrv01d]

FYI It's confirmed BN is deleting accounts. No resubmission, just boom gone.

If you need to clean anything up go do it now before they decide to shut you down.

 

[Kiki Wellington]

FYI It's confirmed BN is deleting accounts. No resubmission, just boom gone.

If you need to clean anything up go do it now before they decide to shut you down.

Do you know what they're going after? Just PI or other things too?

 

[CrystalVeeyant]

If the want to be consistent they should block the King James Bible. Genesis 19:30-36 talks about Lot getting drunk and have sex with his daughters. Not pseudo but the real deal. They should also block Fifty Shades (dubious consent) and every V.C. Andrews book that gets into what we're having blocked. The hypocrisy stinks worse than a decaying corpse.

 

[cinisajoy]

If the want to be consistent they should block the King James Bible. Genesis 19:30-36 talks about Lot getting drunk and have sex with his daughters. Not pseudo but the real deal. They should also block Fifty Shades (dubious consent) and every V.C. Andrews book that gets into what we're having blocked. The hypocrisy stinks worse than a decaying corpse.

Just went and looked up those bible verses. It is worse than that. The daughters get Lot drunk and made him have sex with them so they could get pregnant. (that would be r*pe and inc*st). Though the bible is not focused on let's eff our daddy. It is a small part of the book. VC is not totally focused on weird brother/sister relationships unlike the my brothers effed me books. 50 Shades should just be banned for horrible writing.

Oh and it is not just the King James version but any version of the Holy Bible .

 

[CrystalVeeyant]

One of my recent banned books has a passage where the characters are doing PI roleplay. It's not the subject of the book and it accounts for less than 5% of the narrative. Still their resident voyeur Carlos, reviewing books with his fainting couch conveniently nearby, saw "Daddy" and zapped it on that basis. There is no rhyme or reason nor proliferation of PI, just the "wrong" word in the wrong context and so I'm having to censor the entire book just in case the word "daddy" attracts negative attention. That's just plain wrong.

Please post this on your timelines and Twitter feeds:

http://www.change.org/petitions/amazon-barnes-and-noble-kobo-leave-our-self-published-and-or-indie-authors-alone

 

[mrv01d]

Do you know what they're going after? Just PI or other things too?

I don't know. All I can tell you is I've seen the screen caps of the BN email shutting down an author's account.

I don't write anything all that extreme, but that has never stopped a bookseller from targeting an author. So I am cleaning, cleaning, cleaning trying to be sure there's NOTHING they can decide I'm doing wrong.

If you write PI or anything that could be construed as rape, get if off BN ASAP as I do think those books are in the crosshairs.

I hope if someone just has one book that is an issue that BN wouldn't ban the author wholesale, but I've only seen complete account deletion responses from them to date.

ETA: It sounds like maybe MAYBE the account deletions are limited in scope. Just be careful. Go clean up your account for now so you can pass the sniff test.

 

[CrystalVeeyant]

Apparently even "stepmom" and "stepdad" is in Amazon's crosshairs. I sold hundreds of books of those titles before this witch hunt. I guess Amazon and B&N doesn't mind losing all of that revenue to Smashwords. I wonder what Amazon shareholders think of all that revenue going away? Just from my own sales I know that Taboo is a huge market. What a poor business model...

P.S. Any word on Selena Kitt's attempt at setting up an erotica imprint for grownups?