Publishers Singling Out Erotica & Deleting Self-Pubbed Authors

[britnidanielle]

So it seems some major retailers, names WH Smith in the UK, Kobo, and Amazon are deleting self-published erotica. A lot of people on KB Board are going ape sh*t over it.

Not only do we have the question of censorship, but now some retailers like Kobo and I believe WH Smith have deleted ALL self-published books, whether they're erotica or not. ALL.

Read about it here: http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2013/10/13/amazon-bn-whsmith-now/#.Ulze7ChCd95

Has this affected you guys? How are you dealing with it?

 

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[TopChef]

Hey Britnidanielle. There has been some discussion about this on another thread.

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/showthread.php/48251-Amazon-cracking-down-on-erotica-ebooks

 

[britnidanielle]

Hey Britnidanielle. There has been some discussion about this on another thread.

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/show...erotica-ebooks

Thanks. There seems to be a lot happening in the last week tho.

 

[COSenior]

Has this affected you guys? How are you dealing with it?

I'm going to try to contact a friend who sells more of her erotica at B&N and Kobo than on Amazon. I know that she experienced a problem with her book being rejected a week or so ago, and the issue was evidently a combination of cover image and title. She re-titled it and was able to get it accepted.

How has it affected me? As far as I know, I've never sold anything on Kobo, and from what I've read in their direct-publish policies, I don't care if they even carry my books. I'm tracking my books with a tool associated with http://www.salesrankexpress.com/, and I know that I have one that is adult flagged, I think because the cover image is of a clearly nude model, although her backside is tastefully (almost) hidden by the banner that contains the title and author name. Or perhaps the mention of an 18-year-old in combination with 'virgin seduction'. I'm leaving it alone until I get to this one in my new covers project, and then will clean up the description a little.

But as for having anything removed, not yet. Crossing my fingers and writing stuff that has less to object to for the future.

 

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[santa]

I saw some posts about it on kindleboards, and how authors used a combo of diff covers, titles, blurbs and even changed content in the book to get reapproved. You can understand the furore, but if amazon etc had clear guidelines and sections it would make it a bit easier....vs clouded in mystery. Same with the others too

 

[COSenior]

You can understand the furore, but if amazon etc had clear guidelines and sections it would make it a bit easier....vs clouded in mystery.

That's for sure! The way it is seems like, "Guess what the rules are? Nope, you guessed wrong, off with your head!"