Quote:
Originally Posted by CommonReader
I didn't say that they shall offer any book there is, they just should not artificially restrict their offers by removing books that were already on offer. So Amazon acts as quasi-publisher? Then they should at least take a haphazard look at content, instead of arbitrarily removing some books because of some keywords in the title.
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As a self-publishing service, Amazon might be considered in a different vein than a regular publisher as self-publishing services, vanity presses, etc. aren't expected to read the books -- especially if they are offered without editing. Still, there is a gray area here.
Several years ago, AuthorHouse, a large vanity press, was sued for libel when a best-selling author's ex-husband published a "tell all" book that contained lots of "facts" that smeared his ex-wife:
http://mayareynoldswriter.blogspot.c...ibel-suit.html
In that case, however, I think what hurt AuthorHouse was that the ex-husband told them there might be problems with the manuscript, but they still published it. I have heard of other vanity presses pulling a manuscript from publication because it was found to be plagiarized or because a family sued over allegations in a memoir, but I'm not sure a lawsuit in those cases would be any point.
On the other hand, it's a good thing Alexander Pope didn't self-publish his famous book-length "mock epic" poem
The Rape of the Lock with Amazon. (By the way, there are no rapes in this poem. The title refers to a man cutting a lock of hair from a woman.) It's a classic satirical work, and calling it The Cutting of the Lock of Hair would kind of miss the satirical point of the title.